It’s been nearly a year since we said, “Bonjour!” to the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics, so what’s been happening in Paris since the cauldron went out? Let’s take a look at the initial legacy of these Games!
First up in this episode, we look at the money (because we love looking at the money). The French national auditing body, the Cour de Comptes released initial estimates at the end of June and peg the cost at around €6 billion. Of course, Tony Estanguet, head of Paris 2024, disagreed with how the numbers break out. It seems that we’re back to playing with numbers and who is getting assigned financial responsibility for some of the Games-related (or perhaps not-so-related) infrastructure projects.
Another factor is economic impact, which the Cour de Comptes hasn’t figured out yet. However, the International Olympic Committee believes it’s in the range of €6.9 to 11.1 billion. Perhaps these figures will be in the Cour de Comptes next Paris 2024 report, which we should see this fall.
We also look at audience figures, building legacies, and elements of the Games that are still impacting Paris. If you’re interested in training in the sport climbing warm-up gym, check out Le B.O.S.E.. If you want to swim like an Olympian, the newly-built (and very gorgeous) Centre Aquatique Olympique is now open for swimming and so much more. Le Prisme has opened in Bobigny to provide another workout facility that includes accessible training–and para sport research.
Paris also leveraged the Games to rejuvenate some areas of the city, as well as Saint-Denis. If you’re in Paris on July 20 and want to see how that process is coming along, you can participate in the Olympic Heritage Grand Walk, which goes from Parc de la Villette to teh Bassin de la Maltournee in Saint-Denis. It’s a free day-long adventure with plenty of surprises planned. Register here.
Cleaning up the Seine was another major project for the city, and on July 26, the first anniversary of the Olympics, the city will host a big water festival along the Seine, including a free open-air karaoke session on the Place du Chatelet.
The Paris 2024 Olympic Opening Ceremonies still pique interest with the people. Zeus the horse is on tour at Mont-Saint-Michel from July 12 through September 7, and then in Nantes from September 19 to 29. See Zeus’ rider’s armor at the Palais Galleria until October 12, and head to the 18th arrondissement to check out the golden statues of famous women.
Plus, we discuss so much more on this episode, including moments that really stick out to us as the legacy of Paris 2024 starts to take shape in our memories. What moments from Paris 2024 stick out in your heads a year later? How do you think the legacy of these Games is shaping up? Will they be among the greatest Games of all time? Will they be an economic boon to the city and country? Let us know!
Don’t forget! Our 400th episode party is coming up on Monday, July 14 from 8 to 10pm Eastern. Hope to see you there!
Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!
TRANSCRIPT
Note: This is an uncorrected machine-generated transcript and may contain errors. Please check its accuracy against the audio. Do not quote from the transcript; use the audio as the record of note.
398-The Surprising Early Legacy of the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics
Jill Jaracz: Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keep the Flame Alive, the podcast for fans of the Olympics and Paralympics. If you love the games, we are the show for you. I am your host, Jill Jaracz, joined as always by my lovely co-host, Alison Brown. Alison, hello, how are you? Bonjour
Alison Brown: Zo. That’s about all I remember of my French.
Jill Jaracz: That’s an excellent Bon though.
Alison Brown: Thank you. And I know you miss saying that to everybody.
Jill Jaracz: I do. I still, I do.
Alison Brown: That’s such a nice thing that the French do that. You know, before we went, we read all the things and we were trying to learn some French and we wanted to be. Because we were gonna be there such a long time and having to work, we wanted to be prepared.
And everywhere you have to stay bonjour, you have to stay bon. And they made it like they were gonna come and hit you if they didn’t with a baguette. But it became such a lovely thing, right? Where whenever you went in somewhere, you just said, Bonjour. it was just a, a pleasantry. Made everything a little, a little nicer.
Jill Jaracz: Yes, exactly. Like connected you with somebody. At least even if they were like, I’m playing with my phone, say Bon. No, I get it. I’m the old person now. You have to respect your elders, but that’s okay. I will take it. So, uh, this week is Happy Canada Day to our Canadian listeners. And how do you say that in Canadian French?
Alison Brown: Uh, happy Canada Day.
Jill Jaracz: Oh my gosh. I cannot believe you just said that.
The only thing you could have done to make that worse is throw an A on the end of that.
Well, I want it to sound like one of those coba qua lumberjacks. That’s what I was going for.
Well, listeners, if, if Alison has been successful in becoming a Quibi quo, lumberjack, let us know.
But Canada Day, it’s also 4th of July Independence Day for Americans. So we are doing a little bit of a, break from the normal interview show. And because we are about a year out from Paris 2024, we wanted to see what’s been going on since then. in Terms of legacy.
What did the Paris 2024 Games cost?
But you know, let’s start with the money. ‘
Alison Brown: cause you know, I love that the most, we do love the money and we keep talking about organizing committees, playing fast and loose with the numbers. You know, oh, we spent this, but then the state spent X number more.
Jill Jaracz: Right?
Alison Brown: But I actually think this was pretty good numbers.
Jill Jaracz: So far, so, uh, FRA Francis National Auditing Body, the Kamp released initial estimates on June 23 saying the games cost French taxpayers just under 6 billion euros, and that was about $6.9 billion. Games organization cost 2.77 billion. Security took up about half of that amount. So it cost about 1.4 billion for security, including 30,000 police arm officers and gender arms that came in from around the world.
Some who had their canines.
Alison Brown: I was going to say some that brought their, their lovely dogs
Jill Jaracz: and luckily they had not much to do besides patrol it seemed, and trade patches with me.
Alison Brown: Did we tell the West Side story police story? I, you know, I
Jill Jaracz: don’t know. That’s right. I forgot about that one.
Alison Brown: So one night, as you all remember, we always had to stay at the media center very, very late. So this was probably two o’clock in the morning. We would cross the street from the media center to where there was a hotel because there was always a security guard outside the hotel and wait for our taxi.
Jill Jaracz: Right, because it, I believe it was one of the Olympic Hotel family hotels. It,
Alison Brown: it was, so we felt safer there. And also then we had a very exact address to give our driver. And one night there were two groups of police officers crossing each other. One I think was, Paris Police officers. And the other, if I remember correctly, was like a French state police.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah, yeah.
Alison Brown: The, the, and they crossed and I just. Started humming the music from West Side Story, like we had two rival gangs coming out of each other
Jill Jaracz: and you were looking around, you know? Yeah, it was very West Side story.
Alison Brown: It was great.
Jill Jaracz: In terms of infrastructure projects linked to the games cost another 3.198 billion.
And according to deutsche dw.com, the president of the Al Pierre Musco Vici said last year that the games would cost anywhere from three to 5 billion. And the quote was three, maybe four or 5 billion euros, just like that’s not a whole lot of money anymore. Tony Es. Had questions about these numbers.
He was not happy apparently because he said through its methodological choices, the K in has in fact declined. To examine the only question that would meaningfully inform public debate, how much public money would have been saved if the games had not been? Held in Paris. He wrote in some comments attached to the this report.
he also said it’s undeniable that this amount would be far less than the 6 billion currently cited by the core. The organizing committee, as it already stated during the contradictory procedure, estimates that this FIC figure does not exceed 2 billion euros while the expected economic. Benefits of the games are said to represent three to five times that amount.
He added, uh, the organizers also said the attributed some spending to Paris 2024. That was for unrelated projects that started before the games kind of sounded like, oh, before the games were organized, but you started these projects and just slid that money over into our responsibility. I thought that was very interesting.
Alison Brown: Well, that’s the fast and loose on both sides.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. Right, right.
Alison Brown: You know, we’re gonna make it seem like these were more expensive. But that audit doesn’t tell you, like Tony Este says, how much money did you make? Because the Olympics were there. So not only is what would you have spent otherwise?
’cause the summer is travel season, so you always up your security. You always have more trains. You always do certain things. I. And you had a lot of people there spending a lot of money. Mm-hmm. That you may or may not have had.
Jill Jaracz: Right. And you’ve been planning for a clean send since like the 1980s. So are you putting all of the money tied to the infrastructure project onto our budget and saying it’s our fault?
I dunno. So the, auditing body plans to release more details in October and a legacy report in 2026. But so far it seems like these were kind of on track for what they an anticipated spending. The IOC also released its annual report and did estimate economic impact, and they think it’s about 6.9 billion to 11.1 billion euros of economic impact.
Alison Brown: When the organizing committee released its report, everything was better than their final budget had anticipated.
Jill Jaracz: Yes.
Alison Brown: More tickets, more, hospitality packages, less spending in certain areas. Uh, certain state guarantees of funds were not used. Which to me is huge. You know, the state and the city said, okay, if you come up with this much shortfall, we’ll cover it and they don’t need to cover it.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah.
Alison Brown: So that’s also a
Jill Jaracz: really good thing.
How many people watched Paris 2024?
In terms of audience viewership data was very high. 5 billion people, according to the IOC, watched or followed. The games. So that is you. And 84% of the world, this is the most followed games in history. They sold 9.5 million tickets and 8.5 million people watched both of the torch relays. Pretty big crowd.
Alison Brown: Well, we were definitely with a lot of people,
Jill Jaracz: we were with a lot of people and, and that was one of those where it felt like they needed to drum up. Excitement in France. ’cause remember everybody in France was like poo-pooing the Olympics and going, oh, that’s not, you know, it’s gonna cost so much money, it’s not gonna be a success.
And then of course everyone got excited about it once they were there.
Alison Brown: Well, on that organizing committee report, they talked about how. The night of the opening ceremony, how right after the opening ceremony ended, there was a rush on tickets. Oh, that, that night, all of a sudden the sale of tickets that were still available both for the Olympics and especially for the Paralympics, ’cause there’s still, there were still a lot of Paralympic tickets that hadn’t sold.
Sold in the next 24 hours. So it was like the French were waiting to see if this would be worth their time, and then they decided it was right.
Jill Jaracz: No need to question, no need for Skepticals.
The cauldron is back!
Alison Brown: And the Dutch apparently decided it was worth a train ride. Yeah,
Jill Jaracz: I’m sure. big excitement is that the cauldron is back. For the next three summers, the hot Air balloon esque cauldron designed by met the Hanu, will be on display from June 21 through September 14th.
So it’s already rising in the night, every night, and you can see it in the garden every day. It’s not gonna be the Olympic cauldron anymore because once they’re done with the games, they can’t use that branding. So it’s going to be the Paris Cauldron located in its original spot in the Tulare Gardens.
If you don’t need tickets this time to go up and see it, just go and see it and yeah. Rises every night. So already I’ve seen pictures ’cause they’ve had this big music festival in that area right now. And so it’s, you see this big music stage and the, the balloon behind it and it’s just very, very cool.
Alison Brown: And so much of the Tues was roped off during the games. We couldn’t see a lot of it. And even if you could see it, it wasn’t set up For public consumption, like as we peered through gates and things. So I can’t imagine how beautiful this must be.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah, And again, another one where they did not expect the popularity that this item had, just.
The number of people that just loved seeing this and being by it and taking pictures at night. We’d be far away and people would be taking pictures across the river ’cause you could see it all through the sky.
Alison Brown: I mean, we must’ve been walking home from dinner one night when it was going up and all these people were standing on the bridge or one of the bridges and just watching it and oohing and eyeing like little kids, Uhhuh.
And this wasn’t the first night. This probably was, you know. At least a week in, and people still got excited about that cauldron.
Jill Jaracz: It was a really good cauldron. Long, long lighting, but a good cauldron. Good cauldron. See, but we forgot
Alison Brown: that already. That is gone. That is.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah.
You know why? Because I was standing out in the rain.
Alison Brown: Okay, fair enough. I was sitting there with a cocktail with Book Club Claire, so we were having great time.
What happened to the venues?
Jill Jaracz: It was a long, long lighting, uh, legacy. In terms of venues, let’s look at some of the facilities. So first we have a Port de La Chappelle, which as you and I know, within 48 hours, it was already back to being the Adidas Arena or Adidas Arena.
that was a host for Badminton Para of badminton, rhythmic gymnastics and para of power lifting. It now is a concert and event venue. So the Badminton World Federation World Champs will be there in August. They have concerts booked into 2026 already. So if if you like the Kings of Leon or Dropkick Murphy’s or Disney on Ice or US College basketball. This was really bizarre to me, so I guess. Some teams go over and play. They’re gonna have Duke versus Baylor and Vanderbilt versus Cal Berkeley.
And then these Paris City basketball team is also supposed to be there. There are supposed to be two adjacent gyms for public and local schools, but it couldn’t figure out anything further about them. But this was a venue, it was a nice venue, and it was a good size.
Alison Brown: It was a good venue. It had very good transportation to it.
’cause it had the line, it had several train lines that stopped right there.
Jill Jaracz: Yes.
Alison Brown: So it makes it a good spot for the city people to get to.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah, you didn’t
Alison Brown: have to drive to it.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. So that is a good and very cool toilet.
Alison Brown: Oh, were those the metal ones? Those were the metal ones. Oh, those were cold in the summer.
Jill Jaracz: the Le Boer climbing site that you went to Yes. You got to climbing the, that
Alison Brown: did not have a good train line to it. No,
Jill Jaracz: no. but the warmup in Isolation gym that’s in Noe La Grand France at, chimneys Marie Peres, which is named after the first woman to climb Mount Blanc.
It is now the Lebo. Climbing club. That’s BOSE and it uses the climbing installations from the warmups and, isolation area. So that’s all there. It opened in September, 2024, had its first competition in November. The club has over 115 members and they have classes for beginners of all ages. So that turned into a regular facility in a club.
According to the International Federation of Sport, climbing the holds macros and volumes that made up the roots on the competition walls. They went to Jordan, South Africa, Australia, and El Salvador, and they will be used for clinics, competitions, workshops, and development programs. that’s interesting how things get divvied up sometimes.
Alison Brown: Well, all of those places are pretty hot and we know that these elements can survive in the blazing sun.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That is what I
Alison Brown: remember from the climbing venue.
Jill Jaracz: Well, it, it’s also interesting where stuff ends up because, a while back I posted a picture in the Facebook group of. my polling location where I am an, a poll worker.
Yes. And they’ve got mats with LA 1984 branding on them. And I was so surprised at a gym. And these are like gymnastics mats and like, are these really from 1984? They could be. Why not? Because it’s piled on. They’re, I mean, they’re in piles, but, uh, you never know. Stuff ends up everywhere. Uh, we did mention the other week that Ellen Court Hill, the mountain biking venue, is now open to the public as a place for cycling, walking, and running, and it’s available for competitions.
There was a public bike ride through this area, this past May that sounded really fun. The Aquatic Center in Sandee. Which hosted water polo. Artistic swimming and diving is now open to the public. It’s got swimming aqua fitness classes, including aqua biking. Ooh, I would do that. Uh, fitness area has a bunch of classes and a high rocks room, which is a CrossFit ask.
I would say not necessarily like work out of the day, but they have like push sleds and areas for pull-ups and that kind of thing. There is a big climbing wall and facilities for a game called lapel, which is a cross between, tennis and squash that’s played in a class court. The site is also the permanent training center for the French diving team and will host the European Swimming Championships in 2026.
I cannot tell you how much I want to go to here.
Alison Brown: But we know the hotels near there are terrible. I still want to go to here. You wanna swim in another Olympic pool, don’t you? I do. And,
Jill Jaracz: and it’s, uh, the facility honestly is really beautiful and I think there, was a little hotel, like a little IBB is right around the corner.
That might not be too bad. I don’t know, but I, it, it’s a beautiful facility. They’ve really tricked it out and I think it’s gonna be great for the community. And they said, one of the things they said was in San Deni, there are a lot of children who do not learn how to swim. Right. They don’t
Alison Brown: have the
Jill Jaracz: access.
Yes. So this is going to bring a bunch of access. Hopefully, hopefully in a way that a lot of people can afford to go, but, it just looks beautiful, man. The pond Delano, which connects totero to the Eiffel Tower, has been closed to regular traffic. Now It’s primary. Yeah. They closed it. They said, oh, this was really cool to do.
It was, and so now it’s primarily pedestrian and cycling, but taxis and buses can use it, so you’d still have to watch out for cars, but it’s not the same level of traffic that it was before. On July high 23rd, it’s going to host Sky Perish Perry, which is an international pole vaulting competition.
Alison Brown: Okay,
Jill Jaracz: that sounds
Alison Brown: terrifying.
In terms of just the optics of Katy Moon going into the sun.
Jill Jaracz: Luckily she’s a professional. If it were you and I, we would totally be in the sun
Alison Brown: because I guess it depends on which way do you position the pole. You know, if you have it sideways, they’re just going in the water and you know, that’s our dual alon pole vaulting and swimming.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, that would be kind of cool.
It would be refreshing. But then like your next vault, you would have wet hands. on August 28th, the anniversary of the opening of the Paris 2024 Olympics, there was supposed to be an introduction to blind football. I saw this on paris em.com, and, it didn’t say where it was, but It’s nice to know that they wanna make B Blind football more popular, especially since par, uh, since France won.
Alison Brown: And the French just embraced it. Oh yeah. I mean, remember how loud it was outside this? When we were walking around? Yes. We would hear, oh, there’s a blind football game going on.
Jill Jaracz: Also, Paralympic legacy in February, a facility called La Prism opened in Bob in the Salini department. It’s an inclusive fitness facility for the public.
they’ve got courts that have lines for handball, three x three food, self volleyball, and badminton. There’s a dojo, there’s a fencing hall with six strips. There are group classes, a bcha room, a huge climbing wall room, weight room, and a swimming pool with Aquatherapy Plus. It has a parasport research and development center and another sport research area with a 50 meter track, and one of the atos moved there.
Alison Brown: Well, one of the things that Andrew Parsons talked about in that last, press conference was the legacy in France, especially in Paris, of making PariSport more accessible, getting more people having access, because it can be very expensive. It can be difficult for ordinary gyms to have this equipment.
So. If that’s a legacy, that’s a pretty good legacy.
Jill Jaracz: It is, and the facility looked really cool and it’s, you don’t have to be a para athlete to be there. It’s, it’s for able bodied people as well. Again, another beautiful looking facility that came out of this and uh, again, I would like to go to there.
The Grand Pele, which was closed for three years, for a 466 million Euro restoration and modernization project is now fully reopened. So the first stage of that project was getting the nave ready so that they could have the fencing and TaeKwonDo competitions there for both the Olympics and Paralympics.
Then last fall there was a little bit more open to have some art fairs. Now the whole revamp is done. It will be the temporary home of the central Pompidou until 2030 while the Pompidou gets its renovation.
Alison Brown: And in the nave over the winter, there was an ice skating rink. Yeah, that was cool. So a lot of the skaters posted videos of themselves skating in that spot, and I said to myself, well, I know it’s cold enough.
There that the ice skating rink will be fine. But it was so beautiful and fun to see those different, you know, the steps and the arches that I recognized and said, oh, I, I can position this in my head.
Jill Jaracz: Right? And such a beautiful building and one that’s incredibly important in Paris. So it’s good that that’s all restored.
I hope that, uh, some of the background areas are easier to find.
Alison Brown: And they don’t send you down to that bathroom in the dungeon with the stone pillars that I never, I thought I wasn’t gonna make it out alive.
Jill Jaracz: And I wonder if they like painted over that one area, you know, the room, that circular room with all those doors, and then just these random, weird.
Like a painted woods, if I remember. No, they
Alison Brown: absolutely need those paintings need to stay exactly as they are and just, we would go in there and just, which door do I go in it? And out of
Jill Jaracz: it really felt like you were in a magical woods almost. And if you chose the wrong door, which I often did, you would be in trouble.
Paris 2024 Olympic Opening Ceremony legacies
Uh, we’ve got some legacies from the opening ceremonies. So Zeus the horse. Is on tour from July 12 to September seven. It will be at Moe Michelle, and then from September 19 to 29 it will be in Nas. the armor that the Rider War is part of the exhibition fashion on the move number three at the Paris Fashion Fashion Museum in the Pier Galleria until October 12th.
And then those, golden statues of famous women are moving from the National Assembly to the Ru de La Chappelle in the 18th, Aaron De Swamp. So all of that stuff is still going on.
Alison Brown: I stopped in the fashion museum, I think on our last day ’cause they had a. sports clothing through the centuries. Oh, okay.
Exhibit. It’s very small, but what a fantastic little museum. So I’m glad that they’re including, that Writer’s Armor. Yes, that’s definitely a, a museum off the beaten path that I went to. ’cause we had that free pass.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, right. The city pass. Yeah. That we got from the,
Alison Brown: the city pass. I said, oh, if it’s terrible, I didn’t pay any money.
And it’s, it was a really great little museum and even if you have to pay money for it, it’s not terribly expensive and worth a trip over to that side of the city.
What is the Olympic Heritage Grand Walk?
Jill Jaracz: There are events coming up, so if you happen to be in Paris on Sunday, July 20th. Which I wish I could be. You could take part in the Olympic Heritage Grand Walk, which goes from Park De La Ette where all the hospitality houses were to the Bason De La Monte in ee, which was a club 2024 viewing site.
The goal of the event is to help people see the transformation of this region post Olympics, because this was one of the regions where they wanted to put a ton of money into and try to revitalize it. So there are different routes. You can do the full day, 14 kilometer walk. I
Alison Brown: was gonna say that’s a long stretch between Park, Valette and Santana.
Yeah, that’s a, that’s a hike.
Jill Jaracz: or you can choose from two half day routes that are six kilometers or eight kilometers. Those are, you know, for the kids, they really said, this is for families. I’m like, oh wow, Americans, we gotta start walking some more. So along the way, you’ll go to Park de la Ette, uh, street Art Avenue, the Terra Terra Urban Farm, where you will have a gourmet break. The Park de Juan, where you will have a picnic break. The athletes village, the ate do cinema, which hosted the athletes cafeteria, and then The Greater Paris Metropolis Olympic Aquatics Center, which we talked about earlier. you will also get an information booklet and enjoy artistic performances and other surprises along the way. So start times are staggered throughout the morning. It is a free event. But you have to register for it, and we will have a link in the show notes.
And if you go, please let us know how it works. Do you think Pierre and Alice will show up? That would be fantastic if they did. Like you’re in a Pierre group, you’re in an Alice group, you’re another Pierre group. That would be so much fun. But I remember walking around some of these areas and. You could tell that there was investment and you could tell it was going to take a while to fully get realized, but it’d be interesting to see a year out how things are.
Tour de France is coming up the final stage will end in Paris and it’s going to follow some of the Olympic race route, including three climbs up Mount Marra and a finish on the.
Alison Brown: I did three climbs in Mount Mar and, and I don’t wanna do it again. when my daughter came to Paris, we did a walking food tour mm-hmm. In that area of the city, and we earned every bite, let me just put it that way. That is hills like, I have never seen,
Jill Jaracz: they were steep. they were really tough.
Alison Brown: Yeah. And steps. Steps everywhere. But it was pretty.
Celebrate Paris 2024’s first anniversary at the Seine!
Jill Jaracz: It was. It was very nice. And on July 26th, the first anniversary of the Olympics, the city will have a festival along the sun. There will be kayaking and paddle boarding on the river. They will have water, sports and games on the banks. The city will unveil plans for a monument that will honor the 2024 medalists, and in the evening there will be a giant free.
Open Air karaoke session on the Plus to sing the songs they played during the games. Would that be all? I am positive of that.
And probably, uh, sweet
Alison Brown: Caroline. And what was that, that other one? Oh, freed from desire. Oh
Jill Jaracz: yeah. I think I have a Spotify playlist.
Alison Brown: We do have a Spotify playlist of lots of things we kept hearing over and over again and every venue, you know, because for us we were seeing events every single day, all day long in different venues.
So we kept hearing the same songs. It’s like when you work in a store. And they have the crisp, you know, the one Christmas tape that plays over and over and over. Normal people don’t have the music experience that we did. I mean, everyone talks about hearing Shae and freed from desire, but man, every time I hear that Shae, I am like, it gets me right back there.
I’m like, oh my goodness. There I am again.
Jill Jaracz: That it does. And yeah, we heard everything multiple times a day. But then if we went back to the same venue, we also saw the same entertainment over
Alison Brown: and over again. The same little halftime show with the brooms. Yes. But you never saw the CanCan one, you said?
Jill Jaracz: I don’t think so.
I don’t think I saw the CanCan one.
Alison Brown: I saw the CanCan one several times. Or those creepy films of the 1924 pictures Reanimated.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, right. Where they were singing like AC DC.
Paris 2024 memories that stick with us
Alison Brown: Looking back now, what sticks with you the most do you think? Like when you think about it, what’s the first thing that pops out to you?
Jill Jaracz: You know, because it is, I’m sitting in a heat dome right now in the Midwest. Uh, the first thing that sticks out to me is me wandering around, pla of the concord, not knowing how to get back to the media center so that I could retrieve my computer. That is the first thing that sticks with me. But then I remember like, oh, the reason I was there was to watch BMX freestyle and I had had an amazing time. And then you just, it’s like a flip book of amazing competitions you went to and you just go, oh, that and that, and that, and that and I, I do say the farther we away we get from the Paris games, the more good stuff I remember versus the hard stuff. ’cause it was very difficult.
Alison Brown: Same. I, I was gonna say, the first thing I think of is in the morning during the Paralympics at our hotel, we would pack up our little lunch from the breakfast buffet, and we got, I got that little, plastic container and I’d put my little sandwich in.
Mm-hmm. And Alex, our white knight would come and make us breakfast. Right. And just how, how many lovely people, you know, Paris has such a bad reputation for people being nice. And as many not nice people that we met, we met so many lovely people that were just happy to have the Olympics and the Paralympics there.
Happy to have us there.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. And you know, Ben and I were talking. As I was pulling this, information together, I was telling him, oh, this is going on and this is going on there. And he is like, oh, I would go back to Paris and I’d stay at the hotel that I stayed with. I’m like, no, we have to stay with Alex, with the White Knight.
Alison Brown: That really, and it’s funny you say that because my daughter said to me, oh, I would just like to do a weekend in Paris. I said, I have a hotel for you because I would love to go back to Notre Dame because it wasn’t open yet, and I’ve seen all the pictures now that it’s since opened, and I’m sorry they could not finish in time, but I.
They finished it a few months later and now it’s been open for six or seven months, and what a gem, what an absolute gift to the world, right? That that rehabilitation has been.
Jill Jaracz: And The bell from athletics competitions went there, which is really cool to think that there’s another legacy that sticks around.
It was such a unique element of the games. and then that gets me on the flip book of all of the little French touches that they had, you know, with the, cos every night, every session.
Alison Brown: I remember how confused we were at first, like why is this happening? Right. And then it just became so important to us.
Jill Jaracz: Exactly. Because remember we were watching, it was the first night of competition and we went to go see rugby and our friend, Chris from Oly pod was there and we got to meet him in person and hang out with him and watch rugby and then all of a sudden everyone’s going crazy for that.
Very famous, uh, new New Zealand. Rugby player?
Alison Brown: I think so.
Jill Jaracz: And he was the one doing the twe. And we’re like, what is this thing? And when it got explained to us, we’re like, oh, this is gonna be really cool. And
Alison Brown: John Register Got to do it during the Paralympics? Yes. Oh. And we just got to see so many things that became just like the music so important to us for this very discreet period of time.
Like we got to know the Paris Metro system. So well, but if we went back now, we probably wouldn’t remember any of it,
Jill Jaracz: right? Because it was all very much on a, on a need to know basis, and you had to, you had to like fill your mind up and empty your mind very quickly with. This is where I go, like there’s so much information we have to process on every day.
You’re going to a new office basically. So you had to figure out where all of the doors to the offices are and how do you get in and where security and how much security are you going to need to go through? Like what are they gonna do to you here or not do? Like both times I was out at Versailles, it was just like, yeah, you got a backpack.
Okay,
Alison Brown: whatcha gonna do, shoot the. You’re fine.
Jill Jaracz: Right. So I, I mean there was so much to, to learn and everything that we really experienced is now gone in a way, you know, you may but not Yeah. You, because it’s still
Alison Brown: Paris. It was still very
Jill Jaracz: Paris. Right. And you could go and see events at the places where you saw events, but they’re not gonna have the par, you know, it’s just all of the, it was a very special moment in time.
Alison Brown: And we’ll get to go in the front door.
No, you don’t. You No, you can’t use this door. Keep walking, keep walking. And speaking of Pierre, and speaking of that round room. That is where I met Pierre. Oh, okay. Remember I was at fencing and I actually read Hi Pierre, and he was just like, don’t even, I hope they didn’t rehire that Pierre. Oh,
Jill Jaracz: I had, I met Pierre Arena Su and you had
Alison Brown: a nice Pierre and I did have an nice, he let you take a picture.
Exactly,
Jill Jaracz: because I was just walking and I saw him and like, oh, Pierre. And I was so excited and I don’t think Pierre knew what to do with that.
Alison Brown: Yeah. Somewhere. In Paris, there is a man going. There was this little American woman, and it could be so many different men and women in Paris that we met at various points that if we asked them this question, they’d be like, there was this little crazy American woman, but she meant well.
Jill Jaracz: Right? And I have a little framed picture of me and Macron on my bookshelf. Because that was just, that was again, another bizarre experience that I did not expect at the very beginning, like right at the beginning of everything where we’re just so discombobulated and catching up with time and, jet lag and trying to figure out where everything is and what can we expect services wise.
and then all of a sudden there’s all these opportunities that come in. Like, you can go here, you can go here. We’re doing this tour, we’re doing that tour, and we didn’t know what to you. You know, it’s one of those like, how much do you say yes to? Well, we, you know, patrons, if you’ve listened to our Katie Ledecky book discussion, this was one of those situations like, what do you say yes to?
Alison Brown: We
Jill Jaracz: said yes to the
Alison Brown: Flava Flav.
Jill Jaracz: We did
Alison Brown: medias that press conference. I remember, I think I texted you, Flava Flav is on the schedule for today and there weren’t that many people at that press conference, I think because nobody knew what that was.
Jill Jaracz: Probably not, and maybe did not realize what a big deal that was.
In America, at least on our socials of Flava Flav is helping out. And just all of the other things, like I’ve been reading a little bit about breakin and I think about, oh, being there and having so much fun and Snoop Dogg did the TWA coup, so it was just perfect. And then I got to see Reagan in all her glory and being part of one of those viral moments in a sense, or seeing that take place and you go.
And that’s one of the things he’ll talk about 20 years from now.
Alison Brown: Absolutely.
Jill Jaracz: Sadly.
Alison Brown: Yeah. And all the kids, I would give them a pin and they’d just look at me like, really? Right? Like, yeah, you don’t know who we are, but I wanna give you a pin and make you happy. And just now I’m thinking about like all the various and sundry people we met and, and just all the strange things that happened.
And how did this happen? I met this lovely Irish couple coming back from gymnastics after I had seen Reese McClanahan win. And I was like, you did pretty well. He is like, yeah, we did, and we, we talked the whole walk to the train station, just about everything and just all these people so excited to be there.
Jill Jaracz: Right. And running into people we knew. Like people.
Alison Brown: Yeah. I didn’t though. Oh, you did? I
Jill Jaracz: You didn’t get to meet the D tones of Jason Bryant?
Alison Brown: Yes, I did. And then I got yelled at by the guard to get out.
Jill Jaracz: Oh.
Alison Brown: Yeah. And I got to meet Ali Hog Ben.
Jill Jaracz: you got to meet Ali. And I didn’t get to meet Ali. We both got to meet Chris. I got to meet Ruth at at t Ireland house
Alison Brown: and I got to see Michael and John from anything but footy.
Jill Jaracz: That’s right. You got to meet him, which was so.
Alison Brown: This was so fantastic. So it was, yeah.
It’s easy for to forget the bad stuff now.
Jill Jaracz: Right, right, right, right. Yeah. And, and we kind not, we got to hang out with Ben Waterworth. I got to hang out with listener and Nicholas A. Little bit. We got to hang out with Superfan, Sarah and her family and book club, which was great.
Alison Brown: Claire got to watch me just drink cocktails at the opening ceremony party.
They were so, oh, that Paris Media Center.
Jill Jaracz: That was unbelievable how amazing that was and how much work they put in to showcase the city for us.
Alison Brown: He did a good job, Paris. It’s very easy now, like I said, to forget the bad and just be like, you know what? That really was an amazing job that that city did.
Jill Jaracz: They did perfect toast for it.
Seems like they made
Alison Brown: some, They made some money.
Jill Jaracz: Hope so. Perfect host for the post COVID games. Perfect toast.
Alison Brown: I think we should go have a baguette. Possibly one of those ginger cocktails. Yeah, but not Nutella. I do not miss the Nutella. Still haven’t gotten over the Nutella.
Jill Jaracz: I might still have some in my backpack. I still have Spoony. Oh good.
There are things spoon that, that, yeah. Every once in a while you are like, oh, I still have this. Okay. Spoony lives,
Alison Brown: spoony lives. She’s still wrapped up in a little blanket of a napkin from the media center tucked safely ready for its next French yogurt.
Jill Jaracz: Aw. But
Alison Brown: yeah,
Jill Jaracz: Paris, you did a good job. So if you have memories of Paris, we want to hear all about them.
Definitely. ’cause so many of you went and it was great to talk with everybody on the Facebook group and everybody who watched at home,
Alison Brown: when they can, uh, tell us about it.
Jill Jaracz: On our anniversary party.
Alison Brown: On our anniversary party
Celebrate our 400th episode with us!
Jill Jaracz: that is right, our 400th show anniversary is coming up. We will have a big party with, uh, anybody who wants to get on with us. We will be airing on. I. We will be taping on Monday night, July 14th, from eight to 10:00 PM Eastern Time in the us. The link to get to our recording studio is tiny url.com/ 400 party.
We will have a link to that in the show notes, and it will be, you know, drop in, stay for a while, head out whenever you’re ready. So we would love to see you and talk past games, future games, and, uh. Just have fun celebrating the show. Good moments from the show and not so good moments from the show. I’ll bring Spoony.
Coming soon!
That sounds good. That sounds good. Alright. That is gonna do it for this episode. Let us know what you think. Paris 2024 Legacy is.
Alison Brown: We do love hearing from you. You can chat with us and other listeners on our Facebook group. Keep The Flame Alive Podcast. Email us at Flame Alive pod@gmail.com. The voicemail and text line is always open at 2 0 8 3 5 2 6 3 4 8.
That’s 2 0 8. Flame it and if you need more Olympics and Paralympics in your life and who doesn’t Sign up for our newsletter@flamelivepod.com. We’ll have a link to that in the show notes.
Jill Jaracz: Next week we will be once again looking back at games, but it will be different games because it is our monthly look back at Sydney 2000.
Alison, you have basketball. I. I am looking at cycling, so there is a lot to talk about thank you so much for listening and until next time, keep the flame alive.