Paris Olympics 2024: The closing ceremony recap, final medal tally, and what’s next

The Paris Olympics 2024 came to a stunning conclusion on Monday, August 12 (Hong Kong time), wrapping up two and a half weeks of international sporting events. In the closing speech for the event, the president of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach – who will step down from his role next year – described the 2024 Games as ‘Seine-sational’. He also praised the participating athletes for their sportsmanship and respect towards each other. “During all this time, you lived peacefully together under one roof in the Olympic Village [...] You respected each other, even if your countries are divided by war and conflict [...] We know that the Olympic Games cannot create peace. But the Olympic Games can create a culture of peace that inspires the world,” Bach concludes. 

9,000 athletes took a final lap of the Stade de France, and the Olympic flame entered the stadium to a performance of Sous le ciel de Paris by the Haendel-Hendrix Academy Choir. French swimmer Léon Marchand, who was the most successful athlete at this year’s Games with four gold medals and one bronze, extinguished the Olympic flame with athlete representatives from all continents, officially concluding Paris’ role as the host city.

The performance part of the ceremony follows a golden voyager from a distant time where the Olympic Games are no longer existing and need to be revived, as he uncovers metaphorical symbols that represent the spirit of the event. Highlights included the whole stadium joining together to sing Gala Rizzatto’s Freed From Desire; opera tenor Benjamin Bernheim singing accompanied by Alain Roche playing the piano while suspended from the roof by wires; and athletes clambering onstage to mosh around the French indie rock band Phoenix during their set, despite repeated announcements over the PA system to leave the performance area. The spectators also became part of the closing performance as thousands of Bluetooth-synced wristbands lit up to show athletic scenes and the Olympic rings moving across the stands of the entire stadium. French singer Yseult then belted out a rousing rendition of Frank Sinatra’s My Way as fireworks went off in spectacular fashion around the Stade de France.

Of course, the ceremony wouldn’t be complete without a showcase of what’s to come in four years. R&B artist H.E.R. sang the American national anthem before viewers were taken virtually to Los Angeles, which is set to host the Games for the third time in 2028. As was widely speculated, actor Tom Cruise jumped from the roof of the Stade de France in dramatic fashion to collect the Olympic flag before racing off on a motorcycle to begin its journey to LA. In a video montage, the flag visited landmarks in the city such as the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, and Cruise was pictured turning the Hollywood sign into the Olympic rings. Over on Venice Beach, Billie Eilish and the Red Hot Chili Peppers performed a music set, as did Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg, who has been taking on the role of special correspondent for the American TV network NBC during the Paris Games. 

All in all, it was a very Hollywood way to kick off the next Games, and we can’t wait to see what the City of Angels will bring in 2028. Meanwhile, the 2024 Paralympics will be held in Paris from August 28 to September 8, and the Milan-Cortina Olympic Winter Games will take place in Italy from February 6 to 22, 2026.

Team Hong Kong got less medals in Olympics than we did in the Tokyo Games, but our athletes have performed admirably nonetheless.

On July 28, fencer Vivian Kong clinched the gold medal in the women’s Épée individuals, parrying hard to make a remarkable comeback against French fencer Auriane Mallo-Breton. This gold medal is Hong Kong’s first medal of the 2024 Olympic Games – and our third-ever gold through the years – making its win all the more dramatic and memorable.

Hong Kong’s reigning fencing champion Edgar Cheung Ka-long has also won a gold medal in the men’s individual foil on July 30, consecutively retaining his crown from when he won in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

On the same day Cheung earned his victory, our star swimmer Siobhán Haughey also bagged a bronze medal in the women’s 200-metre freestyle. She then went on to win another bronze in the women’s 100-metre freestyle on August 1, remaining Hong Kong’s most decorated Olympian with four medals to her name.

The Paris Olympics closed with Team USA at the top of the charts, with 40 gold medals, 44 silvers, and 42 bronze – a total of 126 medals, far outstripping other competing nations. China has also received 40 gold medals and a total of 91 medals, while Japan came in third with 20 gold wins, though their overall medal count was beaten by Great Britain, who gathered 65 medals altogether. Out of the 206 competing nations, Hong Kong finished the Games ranking at 37, an admirable feat considering the size of our city!

Hong Kong’s Olympics medals tracker:

Gold: Two
Silver: N/A
Bronze: Two

The 2020 Summer Olympics were Hong Kong’s most successful, with our athletes taking home six medals. This year, the SAR is being represented by 35 athletes who will be competing in sports such as badminton, fencing, gymnastics, judo, rowing, sailing, swimming, table tennis, and more.

Notable athletes competing for Hong Kong include Tse Ying-suet and Tang Chun-man for badminton; our fencing gold medalist Edgar Cheung Ka-long along with 19-year-old Olympic first timer Daphne Chan and two other fencers; Akira Sakai and Russell Aylsworth for sailing; Shek Wai-hung for gymnastics; and our fantastic swimming team including Camille Cheng, Ian Ho, and multi-medalist Siobhán Haughey.

The Hong Kong government has purchased the broadcast rights for the 2024 Paris Olympics and will cooperate with broadcaster RTHK and television stations TVB, ViuTV, and Hoy TV to screen the Games. This means that Hongkongers will be able to watch the games for free on these local channels, whether at home or out in a venue that has cable television. 

Designated sports centres across all 18 districts of Hong Kong will house Olympics Focal Sites where the competitions will be broadcasted. These include the Smithfield Sports Centre in Kennedy Town, the Harbour Road Sports Centre in Wan Chai, the Kowloon Park Sports Centre, the Aberdeen Tennis and Squash Centre, the Chai Wan Sports Centre, the Hong Kong Velodrome in Tseung Kwan O, and more. The broadcast sites will be open from July 27 until August 12, from 8am to 11pm. 

A particularly festive place to watch the Olympics is Water World Ocean Park. A large screen has been set up inside Horizon Cove, so visitors can watch live broadcasts of sporting events while chilling in Hong Kong’s largest indoor wave pool.

There are also a range of shopping malls around town which will show live feeds from Paris and host Olympics-related events. These include TMT Plaza in Tuen Mun, Citywalk in Tsuen Wan, One North in Yuen Long, MCP Central and MCP Discovery in Tseung Kwan O, MOSTown in Ma On Shan, and – of course – Olympian City in Tai Kok Tsui.

Lastly, you could also always hit up one of the many sports bars in Hong Kong, which will no doubt be tuned into the major sporting event on our free broadcast TV channels. We’d recommend The Globe, The White Stag, Delaney’s The Irish Pub, and the sports bar inside Wan Chai Stadium – but click here to check out our full list of sports bars in town.

The Paris Olympics opening ceremony on July 26 went to great lengths to exhibit French culture and history while showcasing all that is beautiful about the City of Lights. Some highlights included Lady Gaga performing a feathery cabaret number with the song Mon truc en plumes as a tribute to French ballet dancer and actress Zizi Jeanmaire; a masked and hooded performer dashing and parkouring his way through Parisian landmarks like the Musee d’Orsay and Pont Neuf to the soundtrack from The Phantom of the Opera; and a delightful mash up of metal and opera featuring heavy metal band Gojira and an army of decapitated Marie Antoinettes performing on the façade of the Conciergerie.

A fleet of over 90 boats carried thousands of the world’s best athletes down the River Seine in the Parade of Nations, which lasted about 90 minutes. Notably, the small Palestinian delegation was met with roaring cheers from the crowd in a show of support amidst the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The final torch relay honoured some of the all-time greats in sports, with the Olympic flame being handed from retired soccer star Zinedine Zidane to Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal, to American tennis champion Serena Williams. A group of French athletes later jogged the torch to the 100-year-old Charles Coste, the oldest French Olympic champion, who passed the flame onto the final pair of French judo great Teddy Riner and sprinter Marie-José Pérec. The Paris Olympics’ cauldron was then floated into the night sky under a hot air balloon.

The ceremony wrapped up with a much-awaited performance by French-Canadian diva Celine Dion, who belted out a tribute to Edith Piaf, L’Hymne à l’Amour, from the Eiffel Tower. Dion’s appearance was especially stunning as she has not performed for years since being diagnosed with stiff person syndrome in 2022. 

Of course, no large-scale global event is ever pulled off without some gaffs. The rain progressively got worse during the parade and didn’t let up for hours, while the Olympic flag was raised upside down at the Trocadero. Most notably, the opening ceremony also came under fire for a scene which saw French singer and actor Philippe Katerine painted blue all over and clad only in leafy garlands, in a representation of Dionysus the god of wine. This performance also featured a parody of The Last Supper tableau, except with Christ and his disciples recreated with drag queens and a transgender model. Catholics and Christian groups were quick to slam this portion of the ceremony as religiously insulting, and a spokesperson for the Paris 2024 organisers has since apologised for any offence taken in a performance that was designed to celebrate community tolerance.