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Tom Cruise was dramatically launched into the Stade de France to close the Paris Olympics and signify the hand-over from France to the Hollywood state of California.
Los Angeles will host the 2028 Games and, after a closing ceremony celebrating the athletes and successful French hosting, the final part changed gear dramatically when it switched to the next destination for the summer Games.
Cruise, who famously starred in Mission: Impossible, was left waiting on the top of the roof in a harness while clutching a wire as the official handover section of the ceremony began.
The Olympic flag was passed between the Mayors of Paris and Los Angeles, Anne Hidalgo and Karen Bass, before a rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. The lights then turned red on the part of the stadium from which Cruise was waiting and, defying his 62 years, he abseiled down at speed with a landing that would have impressed even the watching Simone Biles.
Cruise then ran through the crowds of athletes offering high fives before mounting a motorbike with a huge Olympig flag on the back. Drawing somewhat on the idea of the iconic scene between James Bond and the Queen at the London Opening Ceremony, Cruise was then filmed riding past the Eiffel Tower before getting in an aircraft for LA.
The Olympic rings were then added to the famous Hollywood sign. The flag was then passed between legendary athletes, including the 200m and 400m Olympic champion Michael Johnson, via the Coliseum Stadium that will host the athletics events. And all this while the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Billie Eilish and Snoop Dogg (a regular in Paris in recent days) performed from Long Beach in LA and were beamed into the Stade de France.
LA organisers are planning a “no car” Games that makes the most of existing venues such as Coliseum which was used in both 1932 and 1984 and will become the first stadium to host three Olympics.
How the Tom Cruise cameo unfolded
1. The wait
Tom Cruise was pictured on the roof of the Stade de France an age before his descent into the stadium. At one point, it appeared as if Cruise was moving around as if to keep warm…
2. The not so smooth descent
Cruise finally appeared, slowly descending into the stadium. Cruise was tugging on a lever of some kind during the lower half of his arrival, but nothing happened. It is unclear what was intended at this point.
3. Running the athlete gauntlet
Cruise had to fight his way through a crowd of athletes to make it to the stage, but that was easier said than done with selfies, high-fives and even an unsolicited kiss all part of the journey.
4. Mission possible
Eventually, Cruise appeared on stage, jogging across it and collecting the Olympic flag and swiftly exiting with minimal interference. How disappointing that no bad guys emerged.
5. Motorbike out of nowhere
Having struggled to fight his way through the crowd on the way in, Cruise was armed with a motorbike to drive through it on the way out. Through he went, and the athletes were more respectful of the Hollywood star on two wheels than when he was on foot.
6. Here comes the montage
Cruise’s stadium exit swiftly transitioned into a pre-recorded video of Cruise zooming around the streets of Paris all the way to an airplane that takes him across the Atlantic.
7. Touchdown in LA
A safe – and swift – journey ended with Cruise handing the flag over to a number of current and former US athletes, including the BBC’s very own Michael Johnson, as it went through the Hollywood Hills, via the LA coliseum, before ending up on Venice Beach. The Hollywood sign cleverly transitioned into the Olympic symbol, with three circles appearing above the two o’s.
8. California loves to party
The transition ended with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Billie Eilish, Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre performing live from the beach with it being beamed into the Stade de France.
Paris 2024 comes to a dramatic end: as it happend
11:34 PM BST
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A stirring and sometimes peculiar evening, probably a fitting conclusion to an excellent Games than had some murk beneath the surface. And that’s the end of Paris 2024.
11:23 PM BST
Cruise
11:17 PM BST
We were all Andrew Cotter
for this bit.
11:10 PM BST
Fireworks
to close.
11:10 PM BST
To play us out
11:08 PM BST
Here’s the Cruise snogger
11:07 PM BST
Cruise prepares
11:00 PM BST
Differing approaches
France: “This was nice let’s do some art and some weird stuff to close the show and it’ll be nice”
America: “STAR SPANGLED BANNER. TOM CRUISE. GUITARS. MOTORBIKES. RED HOT CHILLI PEPPERS”
— TechnicallyRon (On all the platforms) (@TechnicallyRon) August 11, 2024
10:54 PM BST
Back in Long Beach
It’s the turn of Billie Eilish. A bit downbeat, for me.
But now here’s dear old Snoop Dogg doing Drop It Like It’s Hot. He’s only got one solitary saucy lady dancer with him, there must have been cutbacks.
Dr Dre now!
10:45 PM BST
We are in LA now
Michael Johnson is carrying the Olympic flag.
10:43 PM BST
Tom Cruise
descends to the stadium on a cable from the roof and he’s got what I presume is the Olympic flag or maybe the Stars and Stripes or even some smoke administration device attached to his leg. He’s tugging on it like billy-o. I hope it’s not a parachute. He’s not moving all that quick in fairness. More of a controlled descent on a suspension wire than hurtling freefall. I mean just think of the insurance premiums. It’s a mixture of dramatic, thrilling and deeply silly: Classic Cruise. Cruise has to make his way through a throng of athletes, one grabs him and gives him a full-on smooch. Crikey. Not sure how I feel about that to be honest. A bit much.
Now Cruise has got on a motorcycle and is riding that around. He’s in the city of Paris now and he’s ridden it onto a plane VIA THE MAGIC OF THE MOVIES. I think they have pre-recorded this bit.
The Red Hot Chilli Peppers music plays. He’s in LA! By the Hollywood sign. They’ve added three more OOOs by the HollywOOd bit to make the five Olympic rings. Cool.
Now we are on Long Beach LA with the Red Hot Chilli Peppers playing. Anthony Kiedis now looks like Liza Minnelli with a moustache.
Here’s how it all went down for the Mission Impossible megastar.
10:35 PM BST
Flag handover ceremony
Karen Bass, the mayor of LA, takes receipt of the flag from the Mayor of Paris. No less a personage than Simone Biles is on hand to help with the flag.
Now a performance of The Star Spangled Banner by the artist H.E.R.
10:29 PM BST
Cotter, earlier
Amazing commentary by Andrew Cotter and Hazel Irvine as everyone is forced to do karaoke.
Andrew: “You can read those lyrics on the screen can’t you Hazel.”
Hazel: “my eyes don’t seem to be working.”
Andrew: “the words are la la la la la. Or in French, the the the the.” pic.twitter.com/AZQgogRHsI
— Scott Bryan (@scottygb) August 11, 2024
I feel like Andrew has really assumed his ultimate form at the Paris ceremonies. Superb.
10:26 PM BST
Don’t worry, they’re still doing the speeches
Nothing interesting yet.
Here’s a nice picture of Team GB for the time being.
10:22 PM BST
Cruise!
No situation so self-important that it can’t get sillier with the introduction of the Cocktail and Interview With The Vampire actor.
He’s about to have a go on one of those things from a kids adventure playground.
10:16 PM BST
Speeches now
An excellent opportunity to get a cup of tea. From a cafe half an hour’s walk away.
Andrew Cotter says the line of the night:
“Well this is what everyone always comes for … the speeches.” #ClosingCeremony
— Scott Bryan (@scottygb) August 11, 2024
10:16 PM BST
Noodling
10:13 PM BST
We can see you sneaking out
What you can’t see on the screen is the number of athletes leaving. They’re streaming out…
10:00 PM BST
Music bit is good
09:59 PM BST
Ezra Koenig off out of Vampire Weekend
Joining Phoenix to do a number.
09:57 PM BST
Rings
09:56 PM BST
Athletes take to stage
A little more information on the incident that threatened to derail the closing ceremony. It seems athletes were invited to the front of the stage but instructions were seemingly misheard and they took to it – which wasn’t the plan. Several hundred did so, crowding round our musicians, before security ushered them away. Not part of the script – you should never work with children, animals or, seemingly, Olympic athletes
The athletes took over the stage and are now being asked to leave. Honestly, let them live. They’ve been swimming in river water and eating the same chocolate muffins for a month. pic.twitter.com/r5NUisA59S
— Thuc Nhi Nguyen (@thucnhi21) August 11, 2024
09:55 PM BST
Cambodian rapper now
And a bloke in a black hood and cloak giving it the full Eddie Van Halen with a guitar solo. Strong Monty Python feel to that one.
09:53 PM BST
Some Athletes
got on the stage and were asked to leave.
The sound incidentally is all over the shop.
09:51 PM BST
Kavinsky and Angele now
playing Nightcall.
Back to Phoenix with If I Ever Feel Better, a cut from their 2000 debut album.
09:51 PM BST
Ou sont les Danny Boyles de hier
09:50 PM BST
Phoenix are playing
Love a bit of Phoenix.
Playing Listzomania.
09:44 PM BST
The end result
Anyway it’s all added up to this. Looks jolly good.
09:43 PM BST
Paul not into the mystic
Paris, don’t overdo the mysticism and symbolism.
Oh, too late.— Paul Hayward (@_PaulHayward) August 11, 2024
09:40 PM BST
Heart of Glass
09:38 PM BST
Upright, as it were, piano
09:36 PM BST
This is happening
09:33 PM BST
Greek flag as mentioned
09:31 PM BST
Lad in a black suit and black cloak
is doing an opera. Strong Phantom vibes.
Someone’s got a piano they’re playing but it’s upside down. The whole thing’s a health and safety nightmare basically.
09:30 PM BST
Wheel folks
09:28 PM BST
Now people dressed all
in white are doing something with a giant hamster wheel. They’re dressed a bit like sperm in that Woody Allen film.
A view
I will never understand why every Olympic ceremony contains so much interpretative dance, when it’s been clearly established that people like it even less than poetry
— Mark Higgins (@higginsmark) August 11, 2024
09:26 PM BST
Ah yes
09:20 PM BST
A person
dressed as an electric (?) yellow insect (?) is doing some breakdancing type carry on. It’s not Raygun. Or at least I assume not. Now there’s our old friend from the opening ceremony, the hooded parkour character. With a shiny silver person. They are handing over the Greek flag.
The fact that this tweet is in Polish makes it no more or less clear.
09:14 PM BST
Theremin
getting a good workout as the orchestra plays some spooky creepy stuff over a lightshow. All very nice. Something to do with that record that was sent up into space. I’m just going to copy this bit from Wikipedia, hope that’s okay, sorry cheers.
The Voyager Golden Records are two identical phonograph records which were included aboard the two Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977. The records contain sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth, and are intended for any intelligent extraterrestrial life form who may find them. The records are a time capsule.
09:11 PM BST
The show is about to begin
The orchestra tunes up.
09:03 PM BST
Athletes enter
08:59 PM BST
Team GB
08:58 PM BST
A medal presentation
coming up. Lord Coe and Thomas Bach. Giving, not receiving. So to speak.
The medal’s being awarded for the women’s marathon.
08:55 PM BST
Michael Caine has done a tweet
08:53 PM BST
Mobbing
“Aux Champs-Élysées” sings everybody.
“I think they’ve captured it perfectly,” says Hazel. “This is not the time for high art, it is the time for a sing song.”
But now a tune that encapsulates both: Gala Rizzatto’s Freed From Desire.
08:48 PM BST
Flag bearer
08:26 PM BST
Here’s GB’s flag bearers
08:25 PM BST
Now the portion of the ceremony
where medalists enter.
08:21 PM BST
Matt Pinsent on boxing row
“They cannot have both equity and inclusion. So weird that IOC allowed it to happen.”
08:16 PM BST
Now time for some flag-bearing
“We will now say a display of elite selfie taking,” says Andrew Cotter.
08:15 PM BST
Tell you what
they’ve got a massive xylophone there. Enormous.
08:13 PM BST
Anthem time
La Marseillaise played by orchestra. Very nice too.
08:12 PM BST
I have no idea what is going on
I expect that’s half the fun. Good old Paris.
Anyway, Leon’s safely bagged up the flame and is taking it some place.
08:09 PM BST
Le flame de Olympics
08:08 PM BST
Léon Marchand has entered the chat
He’s been instructed to something with the Olympic flame. It looks bizarely tiny on the telly, a bit like in Spinal Tap where they accidentally order a mini Stonehenge.
08:04 PM BST
It’s already very strong
A lady in a black dress with a sort of Les Mis feel is giving it une cent et vingt-cinq per cent with an acapella song.
There was nothing left in the budget to do her eyebrows, shame.
08:02 PM BST
We are off and running on the BBC
Courage, Hazel Irvine. Courage. What Gallic tomfoolery can we expect?
I saw that both Phoenix and Air are playing, so that bit at least should be decent.
07:57 PM BST
I regret to inform you
that Macron’s in. Paris crowd presumably warming up for Le Booing.
07:51 PM BST
Sounding out
On the stadium’s two big screens, we can see the hosts of Quels Jeux, French television’s hugely successful nightly Olympic celebration, chatting away by way of introduction. Unfortunately we can’t hear them. Let’s hope they get the sound sorted by the time Snoop Dogg is due to perform.
07:42 PM BST
A very stripped-down Closing Ceremony?
Judging what is in place on the floor of the Stade de France, this looks a very stripped-down Closing Ceremony. There’s a star-shaped stage in the middle, with lots of walkways spinning off it. I suspect what we are going to see is a lot of musical acts and plenty of interpretive dance. But we have all been given wristbands which apparently are going to light up at one point in the proceedings. Don’t hold your breath.
07:29 PM BST
Australia’s call
07:20 PM BST
BBC montage
07:17 PM BST
Clare’s outfit
07:11 PM BST
Security
07:06 PM BST
Nice one from Bloomy
07:04 PM BST
BBC coverage begins
Clare Balding is hosting, in an extraordinary psychedelic blazer.
06:57 PM BST
Finucane becomes first GB woman to win three medals since 1964
In the end, Emma Finucane fell short of the three gold medals which Dame Laura Kenny, perhaps unwisely, predicted for her at these Games. But after becoming the first British woman since Mary Rand in Tokyo 60 years ago to win three medals of any colour in a single Olympics, and the first British woman to win three track cycling medals in a single Games, it is safe to say we witnessed the birth of a superstar in Paris.
The 21-year-old from Carmarthen will head to Monza in Italy in a couple of weeks, to indulge her passion for all things fast at the Italian Formula One Grand Prix. And while she is unlikely to command the same level of attention as Lewis Hamilton or Lando Norris, her favourite driver, it would be a surprise if Martin Brundle does not make a beeline for her during his gridwalk. Finucane has become a major name in British sport in the space of the last week. The BBC have probably already clipped their SPOTY montage.
Bronze in the individual sprint on the final day was a disappointment in one sense. Finucane is the reigning world champion in the discipline and hopes were high that the new golden girl of GB cycling could give Team GB’s Olympics a golden glow at the very last.
Click here to read more.
06:49 PM BST
GB’s Campbell pulls out show-stopping celebration after claiming weightlifting bronze
By the time she attempted to lift the equivalent of an adult male lion above her head, Emily Campbell had already roared onto the podium for a successive Olympic Games. Britain’s weightlifting queen fell short in her clean and jerk attempt of 174kg, but at least pulled out a show-stopping celebration as she wrote her name in the history books with her brilliant bronze.
As she blew a kiss to the crowd, Campbell, who won a silver three years ago in Tokyo, was unaware she had just become Britain’s first double Olympic weightlifting medallist since 1964.
Click here to read more.
06:38 PM BST
Paris prepares to hand over Olympic baton to Los Angeles
LA28 has said musicians and native Californians Billie Eilish, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Snoop Dogg, the hip-hop artist who has been contributing to NBC Primetime’s coverage of the Games, will be performing in the closing ceremony.
Grammy-winning artist H.E.R. will perform the American national anthem live in Paris, while rumours have swirled around Paris that Tom Cruise will also be involved.
“This is the biggest moment in LA28 history to date, as the Olympic flag passes from Paris to LA,” LA28 Chairperson and President Casey Wasserman said in a statement.
06:27 PM BST
Our flagbearers are on the way
06:20 PM BST
A message from His Majesty The King
Classy statement from the King:
My wife joins me in sending our warmest congratulations to the competitors and their support teams from Team GB and across the whole Commonwealth, for their many outstanding successes at the Olympic Games in Paris.
Your achievements, across so many disciplines, were forged from that invaluable combination of raw talent, true grit and hard toil over many years, burnished these past weeks by sportsmanship and team spirit in the finest tradition of the Games.
To those who missed out on the greatest prizes, you have most certainly not fallen short in the pride that you, too, have generated for your nations.
As we thank France for hosting such a wonderful tournament and look to the Paralympics ahead, I can only say that you have all been an inspiration.
Charles R
06:12 PM BST
The flag bearers at the closing ceremony
Algerian boxing champion Imane Khelif will be among the flag bearers when Olympic athletes bid farewell to the Games tonight.
Other gold medalists who will do the honors are US swimmer Katie Ledecky, French rugby star Antoine Dupont and Chinese Taipei’s Lin Yu-ting, who similarly to Khelif has been embroiled in a gender eligibility row.
The closing ceremony features the athletes’ parade and the handover of the Olympic flag to the organizers of the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.
Organizers said the ceremony will include more than 100 performers, acrobats, dancers and circus artists on a huge stage.
06:00 PM BST
Paris 2024 hands over to LA 2028
By Jeremy Wilson
Britain’s gold medallists in trampolining and triathlon – Bryony Page and Alex Yee – will be the flagbearers for the Paris 2024 closing ceremony at the Stade de France on Sunday.
Bryony Page, who won silver in Rio, became Team GB’s first ever trampolining gold medallist while Yee, who was also upgrading a past individual silver, followed Alistair Brownlee in making it three men’s Olympic triathlon champions from the last four Olympic Games.
Yee’s gold medal, which was won in the final few hundred metres of the race when he overhauled New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde, was one of the most dramatic finishes in any competition. He also followed that up with the bronze in the triathlon team event.
Team GB have won medals across 18 different sports in Paris, equalling the 65 medals that were won in London but two short of the record 67 in Rio de Janeiro. The number of golds, however, dipped to 14 from 22 in Tokyo, 27 in Rio and 29 in London, after a series of near misses amounted to 22 silvers and 29 bronze medals.
Page and Yee were nominated by a British Olympic Association panel and will carry the Union flag into the Stade de France for the ceremony, which begins at 8pm UK time.
“When I got the call to tell me, I couldn’t believe it, it truly is such an honour,” said Page. “For a sport like trampolining, which is quite niche, it’s quite amazing – and to be able to hold the flag for all of the Team GB Olympians here is incredible. It’s a very emotional and proud moment, and I cannot wait to hold the flag for every single athlete who has competed – it’s such a special team to be a part of.”
Yee said: “I’m really excited and honoured to be given the opportunity to be one of the Team GB flagbearers. It means a lot to me.
“The closing ceremony is a key part of the Olympic experience and having not got to experience it in Tokyo, I wanted to come to it in Paris. So, to be able to go to it, first of all, was really special, but then to get the phone call this morning to be asked to hold the GB flag was really, really special.
“There’s been so many incredible performances over the last two weeks from Team GB, so to be selected as somebody who’s represented Team GB well and made the country proud is really special.”
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