Paris closes out the Olympics, Los Angeles enlists Tom Cruise for its 2028 mission

SAINT-DENIS, France (AP) — Proving that outdoing Paris is not an impossible feat, Los Angeles on Sunday enlisted a skydiving Tom Cruise, Grammy winner Billie Eilish and other stars to take over Olympic duties for the French capital, which concluded the 2024 Games as they began: with joy and flair.

The lavish, star-studded closing ceremony at the French National Stadium capped off two and a half weeks of Olympic sport and emotion. The event was marked by a mix of jubilant joy and a somber call for peace from International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach.

Following in the footsteps of Paris in 2028 promises to be a challenge: for the first Games in 100 years, the cityscape was used in spectacular fashion, with the Eiffel Tower and other iconic monuments becoming Olympic stars, serving as the backdrop and venue for medal-winning performances.

But the City of Angels, like the City of Light, has shown that it too has a number of aces up its sleeve.

Cruise — in his Ethan Hunt persona — made a splash by swooping down from above the stadium to electric guitar riffs of “Mission: Impossible.” Once he was back on the ground — and after shaking hands with the handcuffed athletes — he took the Olympic flag from star gymnast Simone Biles, attached it to the back of a motorcycle and roared out of the arena.

The message was clear: Los Angeles 2028 also promises to be an eye-opener.

Yet this was largely Paris’ night — a chance for one last party. And what a party it was. Thousands of athletes danced and sang the night away — enjoying the artistic show celebrating Olympic themes and the fireworks that accompanied it.

Even Bach caught the party bug, jokingly calling the Paris Games “Seine-sational” – a nod to the River Seine which, despite concerns about water quality, played host to Olympic triathlons and marathon swimming events, as well as the wacky and wonderful opening ceremony.

At what will be his final Games after announcing his intention to step down next year, Bach also made a sombre appeal for “a culture of peace” in a war-torn world.

“We know that the Olympic Games cannot create peace, but the Olympic Games can create a culture of peace that inspires the world,” he said. “Let us live this culture of peace every day.”

Then Cruise kicked things up a gear.

After being lowered live from the dizzying heights of the rooftop on a rope, Cruise rode his bicycle past the Eiffel Tower in a pre-recorded segment, boarded a plane and then jumped over the Hollywood Hills. Three circles were added to the O’s of the famous Hollywood sign, creating five intertwined Olympic rings.

Inside the stadium, the athletes’ enthusiasm was bubbling over as a crowd stormed the stage at one point. Announcements inside the stadium urged them to retreat. Some stayed, creating an impromptu mosh pit around the Grammy-winning French pop-rock band Phoenix as they played, before security and volunteers left the stage.

Several French athletes went crowd surfing. Members of the American team jumped up and down in their Ralph Lauren jackets.

On the stadium’s giant screens, Eilish, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, rapper Snoop Dogg — who wore pants with the Olympic rings on them after being a popular fixture at the Paris Olympics — and Dr. Dre kept the party going in a pre-recorded show from a California beach.

They are all from California, including HER, who sang the American national anthem live at the Stade de France in front of over 70,000 people.

The crowd in the stadium cheered as French swimmer Léon Marchand, dressed in a suit and tie instead of the trunks he wore to win four golds, received the Olympic flame for the first time in the Tuileries Gardens in Paris.

Later, Marchand reappeared in the stadium as the crowd chanted “Léon, Léon.” He then blew out the flame. The Summer Games were over.

Their next stop: LA in 2028.

The national stadium, France’s largest, was one of the targets of Islamic State gunmen and suicide bombers who killed 130 people in and around Paris on November 13, 2015. The joy and celebration that swept Paris during the Games when Marchand and other French athletes won 64 medals, 16 of them gold, marked a turning point in the city’s recovery from that night of terror.

“Paris became a party again and France found itself again,” said Tony Estanguet, head of the Paris Games organizing committee.

The closing ceremony also saw the final medals being handed out, each with a piece of the Eiffel Tower embedded in them. In keeping with the first Olympic Games to strive for gender equality, they all went to women, the gold, silver and bronze medallists from the women’s marathon earlier on Sunday.

The women’s marathon replaced the men’s race that traditionally closed the previous Games. The change was part of efforts in Paris to focus the Olympic spotlight on women’s athletic achievements. Paris was also the site where women first made their Olympic debut, at the 1900 Games.

The American team again topped the medal table, with a total of 126 medals, 40 of which were gold.

As a delicate pink sunset gave way to night, athletes marched into the stadium waving the flags of their 205 countries and territories — a display of global unity in a world gripped by global tensions and conflict. The stadium’s screens read, “Together, United for Peace.”

A figure draped in gold fell like a spider from the sky into a dark world of smoke and swirling stars. Olympic symbols were celebrated, including the flag of Greece, the birthplace of the ancient Games, and the five intertwined Olympic rings, illuminated in white in the arena where tens of thousands of lights glittered like fireflies.

Now the lights are out. But the memories of Paris’s extraordinary summer will not fade for a while.

“We saw ourselves as a nation of incorrigible grumblers,” Estanguet said. “We woke up in a nation of wild fans who couldn’t stop singing.”