33rd Olympic Games Paris 2024 concluded with friendship and respect among participants

PARIS, Aug 12 (ACN) Despite multiple tensions in the world, you are here to make the City of Lights shine brighter than ever, said on Sunday Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), during the closing ceremony of the 33rd Olympiad, held in this European city.

Bach, in a speech that ended with the transfer of the venue to the U.S. city of Los Angeles, which will host the next multi-sport event in 2028, said that each exhibition in Paris 2024 generated emotions all over the planet and showed the greatness of what human beings are capable of.

In front of nearly 71,000 spectators at the Stade de France, the executive emphasized that these Games showed how brotherhood and respect among people can overcome any differences if a culture of peace can be created and preserved.

Thank you for making us believe in a better world for everyone, we know that sport cannot create peace but it can generate an environment and a culture that inspires the world, Bach expressed, accompanied by government authorities in France, sports executives and athletes representing the five continents, among them Cuba's Mijain Lopez.

The show, orchestrated by Thomas Jolly, artistic director in charge of the event who also directed the opening ceremony, recreated part of the Olympic history with the usual relay of the Olympic torch from Paris to Los Angeles.

More than a hundred artists, acrobats, dancers and circus performers joined the singers in performances by the bands Phoenix and Air, as well as H.E.R., Billie Eilish, Red Hot Chili Peppers and rapper Snoop Dogg, with fireworks as the icing on the cake.

Cuba as a delegation closed the 33rd Olympics with a performance below the pre-competition goals, finishing in 32nd place in the overall medal standings by countries with two gold medals, one silver and six bronze, and 23rd place overall with nine medals.

Nevertheless, the delegation of 61 athletes in the French capital wrote glorious pages for the history of the Olympics, among them the feat of Mijain Lopez, who finished the active sport with his fifth Olympic crown, thus becoming the first and only athlete to achieve it in the same individual event.