Starting with the July 26 opening ceremony, multiple disputes arose during the Games, many between national delegations.

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The flags of China, Chinese Taipei, and Malaysia are raised during the medal ceremony for the men's doubles badminton at the 2024 Paris Olympics, August 4, 2024.

After the resounding success of the opening ceremony, the Paris Olympic Games’ closing festivities on Sunday, August 11 at the Stade de France are expected to be much more traditional. Aside from whatever surprises the staging may hold, barely 20 heads of state and government are expected to be in attendance, compared with nearly a hundred on July 26. The guests of honor include Doug Emhoff, spouse of Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, who will represent the United States. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo will then hand over the Olympic flag to her Los Angeles counterpart, Karen Bass, as President Emmanuel Macron and International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach look on.

With two days to go before the end of the Paris Games, the French authorities have expressed their satisfaction while hoping the party won’t be spoiled by any mishaps. As a sporting interlude in a fractured world, the Paris Olympics could not nonetheless escape international tensions. There was no respite for current conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, let alone an “Olympic truce,” despite calls to that effect from the French head of state.

After 30 months of full-scale Russian invasion, Volodymyr Zelensky declined Macron’s invitation to come to Paris for the inauguration of the Olympics. The Ukrainian president even denounced the “half-sanctions” taken against Russia and Belarus, as around 30 of their athletes were invited to take part under neutral flags. Ukrainian athletes, meanwhile, brandished their medals, including three golds, as signs of resistance to the invader.

Ultraconservative criticisms

Security measures were stepped up to protect the Israeli delegation, against a backdrop of escalation with Iran in the Middle East in the wake of the assassination in Tehran of Hamas political scientist Ismail Haniyeh. Ten months after the attacks perpetrated by the Islamist organization on October 7, 2023, Israel’s bombing of the Gaza Strip has not ceased.

In French stadiums, some supporters were able to drape themselves with the Palestinian flag without causing scuffles or tensions with the capital’s omnipresent law enforcement. On the other hand, supporters from Taiwan had to fold up the banners they waved at some competitions in favor of this territory claimed by Beijing. But this didn’t prevent the Taiwanese badminton team from winning the gold medal in men’s doubles against China.

Taiwan's gold medallists Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin and China's silver medallists Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang on the podium at the men's doubles badminton medal ceremony during the Paris 2024 Olympics, August 4, 2024.

The two weeks of the competition were punctuated by several “diplomatic” incidents. While they may have remained anecdotal amid the euphoria generated by the competitions, they nonetheless reveal the divisions of the moment. For instance, while the opening ceremony was met with wide acclaim around the world, it also drew criticism from certain ultraconservative currents. Both in France and abroad, these groups felt that one of the show’s tableaux had parodied representations of Christ’s Last Supper.

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