And here we are. Two weeks, over three hundred individual events, medals and podiums and tears. And with a soft breath from Leon Marchand, it’s over. The Games of the XXXIII Olympiad have concluded. And Paris knocked it out of the park.

While the opening of the Paris Olympics broke all the norms, the closing followed the script to a “t”. A huge stadium filled with spectators. A live orchestra. An artistic segment steeped in expression, with elaborate sets and an army of dancers and acrobats. Show-stopping performances, from a stirring operatic number to a concert by Phoenix. All leading to a stunning pyrotechnics display. Check, check, check, check, double check.

On the face of it, that sounds boring. And, to be fair, after watching enough Olympic opening ceremonies, it’s easy to feel jaded. Hard as it is to imagine, you can actually stop feeling moved by legendary performers, legions of acrobats, and wild fireworks displays. But somehow, this still felt different. Not just because of the departures of the opening ceremonies, but those of this decade thus far. Tara Lipinski said it best, when she described the ceremonies, and indeed the 2024 Olympics on the whole, as a return to normal.

Strange as it may be, for the Olympic Games, this is normal. The crowds, the spectacle, all of it. And while the opening ceremonies wowed audiences with their scale, the closing offered something even more important right now: nostalgia. Paris sent a valuable message: the Olympic Games are back.

During the pandemic that dominated the start of this decade, it was easy to feel that nothing would ever be the same. It felt as though the world would never return to normal, and we were told we must accept the “New Normal”. During the pandemic, even the Olympics were denied us: two Games defined by empty stadiums and masks, quarantines and social distance.

Of course, COVID hasn’t gone away, and won’t any time soon. And after denying us Noah Lyles at his best in the 200 meter, it proved it wasn’t done stealing our joy. But these Games made it clear that, even if everything won’t return to normal, the Olympics have.

Since 2012, the Olympic Games have had a rough road. Cost overruns, corruption, and authoritarianism plagued many of the recent Games (while Tokyo did their absolute best, given the ravages of COVID). But Paris, and France, had nothing to prove, and didn’t try. They didn’t want to demonstrate their dominance to the world, to intimidate or shock us. Instead, they made the Games not about them, but about us. All of us, as it should be. In that, too, Paris offered us a breath of fresh air…and hope.

The Olympic Games are entering a new era. For the first time, the Games are planned out through the next decade. New policies by the IOC make it less likely we’ll see any Games, at least in the near future, plagued by the issues that marred so many installments over the past ten years. Over the coming ten years, we’ll see two Olympics in Western Europe, two in the United States, and one in Australia, which promises to be great fun after the success that was Sydney 2000.

Beyond that, the future remains unwritten. No one can know what lies ahead for the Olympic Movement. But Paris 2024 felt like a reset: a return to the comfortable norm of Olympic competition. The French fans were raucous, but also welcoming. There were so many moments of sportsmanship and camaraderie. And once again, the Olympic Games helped young people from across the world reach across borders, and make friends.

The Closing Ceremonies in Paris concluded with a stirring rendition of My Way, performed by French singer Yseult. It was said that it was a closing statement from the people of Paris: “we did it our way”. But I disagree.

They didn’t do it their way. They did it our way. And for that, all I can say is “Merci”. – MK