Agency :
Starting from a waterborne ceremony on the River Seine, the Olympic story in the French capital, featuring the athletes’ excellent performance and heartfelt moments beyond the Games, flows into people’s mind to further interpret the motto of “Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together”.
As the Paris Olympics concludes on Sunday, the highlights in the past two weeks will definitely be cherished in memory.
For the ninth time, the 24-year-old Armand Duplantis of Sweden refreshed the pole vault world record, who cleared 6.25m in his third and final attempt to retain the Olympic title, adding one centimeter to his previous best.
“What can I say? I just broke a world record at the Olympics, the biggest possible stage for a pole vaulter, which is my biggest dream since a kid,” said the two-time world champion. “I haven’t processed how fantastic that moment was. The crowd was going crazy. I just tried to channel the energy everybody was giving me, and it worked out.”
Pole vault great Sergei Bubka of Ukraine, 60, who improved the world record from 5.83m to 6.14m in his career, noted during the Games, “He (Duplantis) is a great athlete. It is a fantastic moment for the sport, for the success of the Olympics, and particularly for his family. It is a historical result. I believe he can keep doing it.”
The basketball court saw American stars shine in Paris, as the victory of their men’s team may be the last dance of legendary LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant all together on the Olympic stage.
They received loud cheers and respect from the audience and other players in every single match with fascinating shows.
At La Defense Arena, China’s Pan Zhanle, who refreshed his own 100m freestyle world record in 46.40 seconds at Paris 2024, led the team to clinch the men’s 4x100m medley relay gold, breaking the United States’ run of 10 successive victories in this event dating back to the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.