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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Business
Helen Livingstone

‘Mission complete’: what the papers say about the Paris Olympics closing ceremony

Emma Finucane Emily Campbell Neil Henderson Paris Olympics Olympics (Event) the Paris Olympics "Coe Leon Marchand Team GB
A composite of UK and French sports pages from Monday 12 August
A composite of UK and French sports pages from Monday 12 August. Emma Finucane and Emily Campbell featured heavily as the Paris Olympics came to an end on Sunday with the closing ceremony. Composite: Supplied

UK and French newspapers have celebrated their countries’ athletes at the end of the Olympic Games in Paris, with many of the British papers featuring cyclist Emma Finucane and weightlifter Emily Campbell.

The Guardian’s sport section goes with “Something incredible: Team GB performance hailed despite several near-misses”, below a picture of Campbell, who won a bronze medal. The “incredible” comment was the “bullish message” coming from Team GB after “an extraordinary 16 days of action”, the paper reported.

The Daily Mail celebrated with the headline “The Incredibles” beneath a picture of Campbell and Finucane, the first British woman to win three medals at the same Olympics in 60 years.

The Daily Telegraph referenced controversies over women’s boxing in its sports headline, going with “Coe: I’ll stand up for women” above a picture of the arena hosting the closing ceremony and the caption, “Au revoir, Paris. Lights go out on 2024 Olympics”.

The Sun featured US actor Tom Cruise, who abseiled into the arena to pick up the Olympic flag as Paris hands over to Los Angeles 2028, under the headline “Mission Complete”.

The Daily Mirror’s main sports splash focused on Bruno Fernandes’ expected new deal at Manchester United but had a special section up top headlined “Emmazing” with a picture of a smiling Finucane and the subheading “Finucane makes it a glorious end to Games for GB”.

The Daily Express also featured Finucane holding the British flag aloft on its main sports section under the headline “She’ll always have Paris: Finucane offers cycling bold new future with third medal of Games”.

Although not its main splash, the Independent used a picture of the closing ceremony fireworks on its front page, with the headline “Olympics end in spectacular style.”

The i went with a similar picture of the Olympic rings and fireworks with the headline “Merci Paris!”, reporting that “Team GB beats Tokyo total on final weekend” and “A star is born: Finucane grabs her third cycling medal”.

French papers also celebrated. “Paris 2024: You’ve had some beautiful games”, Libération wrote on its front page with a picture of the city’s special flying Olympic cauldron floating in a darkening sky above a crowd of spectators. It praised the event for its “popular enthusiasm, flawless organisation and record French medal haul”.

Sports newspaper L’Équippe used a picture of swimmer Leon Marchand, who won four golds, holding the Olympic flame in a lantern above the headline “Keep the flame”. After a closing ceremony “much less original than the opening ceremony”, “the France of Leon Marchand must now capitalise on this enchanted fortnight”, the paper wrote.

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