Sunday afternoon saw the closing ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at Stade de France, with Canada reaching its all time record medal count. Team Canada won 27 medals this Olympics: nine gold, seven silver and 11 bronze. Canada also won 27 medals at the 1972 Munich Olympics, as well as the 1976 Games Montreal and 2012 in London. .Team Canada swimming champion Summer McIntosh, 17 and from Toronto, ON, won four medals in total, three gold and one silver.McIntosh, along with 22-year-old Ethan Katzberg of Nanaimo, BC, who won the gold in men’s hammer throw, were Canada’s flag bearers. .The closing ceremony, not nearly as much of a spectacle as the opening ceremony, opened with the Olympic flag bearers representing each country. Greece, per tradition, led the way followed by France. Athletes then paraded through the stadium, an incredible orchestra played and there was a giant gold medal built into the stage in the middle of the field. There was then a brief technical failure as some of the screens in the center of the stadium went dark. . Following a speech from Tony Estanguet, president of the Paris 2024 Organizing Committee, who thanked the 45,000 volunteers from 155 different countries, came the closing show — created by Thomas Jolly and colleagues, the same group responsible for the controversial opening ceremony. .It included what appeared to be a headless, winged angel greeted by a strange creature that looked like an insect saturated in gold — it was referred to as the “golden voyager.” The show featured several musical guests, including music from French and Belgian musicians, and an anonymous hooded figure playing the guitar. .Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), who announced on Saturday he was stepping down from the role due to reaching its 12-year limit."These were sensational Olympic Games from start to finish - or dare I say, Seine-sational Games," said Bach. The Olympic flag was then handed from Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo to Karen Bass, mayor of Los Angeles, where the next summer Olympics will be held. Then the closing ceremony really kicked off, as the first notes of Mission Impossible played and Tom Cruise appeared among the rafters at Stade de France. He then leapt to the floor via harness, where he shook some hands and then hopped on a motorcycle and rode off, carrying the Olympic flag on his bike. .A short clip, filmed in April in LA, shows Cruise riding the motorcycle onto a plane, and then parachuting out of it and landing by the HOLLYWOOD sign in LA as the Red Hot Chili Peppers' hit By The Way plays. . And then came Snoop Dogg, singing some of his classics. .The ceremony flashed back to Paris, where French swimmer Léon Marchand extinguished the Olympic flame.
