Gold medallists Summer McIntosh and Ethan Katzberg held the Maple Leaf high Sunday, part of the final spectacle of the Paris Olympics.
The duo was among the nearly 200 Canadians who participated in a ceremony to close out what has been a record-setting Games for the country.
“Our Olympians have made us proud,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a statement. “They competed with athletes from around the world and brought home a total of 27 medals. They showed everyone that Canada belongs on the world stage — as leaders and champions at the pinnacle of sport.”
With pink cotton candy-coloured clouds stretched over the open-air Stade de France, Toronto’s McIntosh and Katzberg, of Nanaimo, B.C., paraded across a massive angular stage before taking their spot in a giant circle around the floor of the 80,000-capacity venue. A live orchestra played as flags from more than 200 nations streamed past.
Olympic champions Summer McIntosh and Ethan Katzberg carry Canada’s flag into Stade de France at the closing ceremony of Paris 2024.
McIntosh, 17, won four medals in Paris, including three gold, and set two Olympic records. The 22-year-old Katzberg claimed the country’s first-ever gold in hammer throw.
More than 100 other Canadian athletes poured in minutes later, leading off two groups of thousands of athletes entering the stadium.
Canada’s 184-strong delegation at the ceremony included 130 athletes alongside 54 coaches and support staff.
The Canadians all came dressed in shorts and T-shirts in a dark, galaxy-like pattern with “CAN” written vertically down the back in white letters, and the medal winners proudly carried their hardware around their necks.
Canadian team enters Stade de France in Paris at the closing ceremony of the Olympic games.
The stadium screens carried the words, “Together, united for peace.” With the 329 medal events finished, the expected 9,000 athletes — many wearing their shiny medals — and team staffers who filled the arena danced and cheered to the thumping beats.
The stadium, France’s largest, was one of the targets of Islamic State gunmen and suicide bombers who killed 130 people in and around Paris on Nov. 13, 2015. The joy and celebrations that swept Paris during the Games as French athletes racked up 64 medals — 16 of them gold — marked a major watershed in the city’s recovery from that night of terror.
The ceremony closed out a Games that saw Canada collect 27 medals, including nine gold.
The stories behind Canada’s athletes show what makes the country great, Trudeau said.
“Their stories are the story of Canada — of kindness and dedication; of compassion and resilience; of hope and hard work,” he said. “Every corner of our diverse country has these stories — some being shared now and some yet to be written.”
Shortly after French President Emmanuel Macron and International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach had taken their seats, the ceremony opened with a singer belting out “Under the skies of Paris” — sung in the past by Edith Piaf and others.
The stadium crowd roared as French swimmer Leon Marchand, dressed in a suit and tie instead of the swim trunks he wore to win four gold medals, was shown on the giant screens collecting the Olympic flame from the Tuileries Gardens in Paris. There, the Olympic cauldron — powered by electricity instead of fossil fuels — had lit up the French capital for the duration of the Games, thrilling crowds by rising into the skies on a balloon every night.
In a speech, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach — who sat with French President Emmanuel Macron during the show — said the Games “can create a cultural peace that inspires the world,” noting that the athletes “respected each other even if your countries are divided by conflict.”
With an artistic show that celebrated Olympic themes, golden fireworks and thousands of athletes partying into the night, the closing ceremony put a final flourish to Paris’ first Games in a century.
In their enthusiasm, crowds of athletes rushed the stage during a highlight video from the Games, and stadium announcements in French and English urged them to double back. Some of them stayed, surrounding Grammy-winning French pop-rock band Phoenix as they played, before security and volunteers cleared the stage.
Los Angeles kept bringing star power of its own: singer Billie Eilish, rapper and Paris Olympics mainstay Snoop Dogg, and producer Dr. Dre performed Sunday as part of the handover from the City of Light to the City of Angels — made official as LA Mayor Karen Bass received the Olympic flag from Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo.
Each of the music artists is a California native, including H.E.R., who sang the U.S. national anthem live at the Stade de France, which hosted Olympic track and field and rugby sevens. The audience was expected to top 70,000 people.
Los Angeles will host the Olympics for the third time, with previous Games being held there in 1984 and 1932. It will be the first time the city will host the Paralympics.
After covering 17 Olympic Games, the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics will be the last for CBC Sports’ award-winning host Scott Russell.