Earlier today, the closing ceremony for the 2024 Summer Olympics was held inside the Stade de France at Saint-Denis, France.
This 3-hour event concluded 17 days of amazing competitions during the Paris Games...especially for the United States, which tied with China at 40 gold medals apiece and has a (current) total count of 126 medals.
Among the members of Team USA who had memorable gold medal wins was gymnast Simone Biles—who accumulated three gold medals in Paris that complemented the four gold medals that she won at the Rio de Janeiro Games of 2016. Swimmer Katie Ledecky earned two gold medals in France...increasing her total Olympic gold medal haul to nine ever since the 2012 London Games.
Ledecky is the winningest woman in Olympic history.
And of course, Team USA's men and women's basketball team won gold medals as well, with each of them defeating France in their respective championship games this weekend. The women's basketball team won six gold medals in a row since the 2004 Athens Games, while the men's basketball team won its fifth straight Olympic title since the Redeem Team emerged victorious at the 2008 Beijing Games.
There are a lot of other American athletes who deserve accolades, such as Gabby Thomas, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Sha'Carri Richardson and Noah Lyles. My heart goes out to Biles' fellow gymnast Jordan Chiles—who may have to return her bronze medal to the International Olympic Committee following a controversy involving Romania's gymnastics team (which is why I pointed out at the top of this Blog entry that Team USA's current medal count is at 126).
Looking ahead, I am so stoked that it is now Los Angeles' time to shine once again in the Olympics! Goodbye, City of Lights...and hello, City of Angels (which is only 33 miles from where I live)!
The LA28 portion of the closing ceremony was awesome...with Tom Cruise taking part in a cool Mission: Impossible-type action sequence that involved transporting the Olympic flag (after receiving it from Biles and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass at Stade de France) from Paris all the way to Southern California. Once the flag reached California (not the actual flag; this was a pre-recorded video secretly shot last March and shown at the closing ceremony), it made its way to the shores of Long Beach—where L.A. entertainers Red Hot Chili Peppers, Billie Eilish, Snoop Dogg (who I thought was still in Paris, being NBC TV's official spokesperson throughout the Games and all) and Dr. Dre introducing SoCal music to the rest of the world.
One question remains: Will the Hollywood Sign be augmented with the Olympic rings before the LA28 Games begin four years from now? I sure hope so... That's definitely something I wanna see in person and take pictures of for Twitter/X and Instagram, heh.
The Los Angeles Summer Olympics, also known as the Games of the 34th Olympiad, begin in 1,433 days! Oh, and kudos to the Philippines' Olympic delegation for winning medals (two gold, two bronze) at the Paris Games, too. Pinoy Pride!
Pinoy Pride at #Paris2024!
— Richard Par (@RichTPar) August 8, 2024
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