When the Paris Olympics chose the slogan “Games wide open”, it was about more than just bringing sport out of stadiums and on to city-centre streets, reports The Guardian.
Creating temporary venues in astonishing settings – from beach volleyball at the Eiffel Tower to skateboarding at the Place de la Concorde – allowed France to avoid the cumbersome “white elephant” building projects of the past, and present a greener Games.
But Paris’s theatrical sporting backdrops were also carefully designed to be a breathtaking visual showcase that would attract viewers across the world with the beauty of the Games, stunning even the athletes themselves.
As spectators gathered in the shadow of historic monuments from the Château de Versailles to the Grand Palais, and the triathlon swimmers dived into the River Seine, Paris was drawing a line under the last Games in Tokyo, which were held largely without spectators during the Covid pandemic.
Tony Estanguet, the three-time Olympic canoe champion who is the Paris Olympics’ chief organiser, talked of this summer’s Games as a magical “picture postcard”.
See the photo-reportage of the Games published by The Guardian.