Paris celebrates the flag handover with a party at the Eiffel Tower

In a hopeful precursor to the next Summer Olympics in three years, thousands of spectators gathered near the Eiffel Tower to welcome the handover of the Olympic flag to Paris.

Among the more than 5,000 people in attendance at the Trocadero Gardens were French medalists who had already returned from Tokyo as well as Paris 2024 president Tony Estanguet.

The event, held during the Closing Ceremony in Tokyo, featured a flyover by jets releasing blue, white and red smoke, symbolizing the colors of the French flag.

The French national anthem La Marseillaise greeted the handover of the Olympic Games, including a special saxophone solo from astronaut Thomas Pesquet on the International Space Station.

The plan to end with the unfurling of a massive Paris 2024 flag, the world’s biggest, at the top of the Eiffel Tower was scuttled by the windy weather. Instead, an image captured during the flag test on June 8 was shown.

The crowd at the event in Paris was in stark contrast to the Closing Ceremony at an all but empty Olympic Stadium in Tokyo that closed the books on a Games without almost any spectators.

The Olympic flag handed over to Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo in Tokyo will arrive in France on August 9, accompanied by Hidalgo and the last group of French athletes to return from Tokyo.

Paris 2024 says a flag tour, starting with the Seine-Saint-Denis region, will be organized throughout France after the Paralympic Games in Tokyo end.

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