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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Sean Ingle

Paris was the Dude: 2024 Olympics were right Games at perfect time

Olympic volleyball at sunset beneath the Eiffel Tower
The original Paris 2024 playbook used the city’s iconic landmarks as spectacular venues. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian

Four months after Paris 2024’s spectacular finale, starring Tom Cruise abseiling off the top of the Stade de France and hurtling out of a plane above Los Angeles, the executive director of the Olympics is mulling over the lasting impact of the Games. Albeit with the help of a rather different cinematic icon.

“I was making a presentation to Deloitte executives recently,” says Christophe Dubi, the man responsible for planning and delivering the Olympics. “And I started by paraphrasing the Stranger in The Big Lebowski: ‘Sometimes, there is a man, he’s the man for his time and place, he was The Dude.’ Because Paris really was the right Games, at the right time and place.”

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