France bids farewell to Paris Olympics, greats Paralympics

  • 3 weeks ago

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Transcript
00:00Well, time now for sports with Leo McGuinn and a mass exodus of athletes from Paris in the wake
00:05of these Olympic Games, Leo. Yeah, as you're saying, it's all over after 16 days. I don't know
00:11how you feel, Jenny, but I feel a little bit bereft this morning. I didn't really know what
00:15to do with myself. I was so used to getting up every day, turning on the TV and watching some
00:19random sport that I only watch every four years. But not today, as you say, all over after 16 days.
00:26And we saw hundreds of athletes leaving Paris today. Some took the train, the likes of Germany,
00:31the Netherlands and GB, lucky enough to be able to get the train home. Others obviously had to fly.
00:38I just wanted to give you some stats from these games, seeing as it's now been wrapped up.
00:42Athletes from 64 nations won a gold medal, including Botswana, Dominica, Saint Lucia
00:48and Guatemala for the first time in their history. Also, the refugee Olympic team won their first
00:54ever medal, full stop in total. How many medals do you think were handed out, Jenny, overall?
01:00No idea at all. 1,044. So you're slightly off there with your no guess. So look, this might be
01:06making you sad that it's all over. But good news, as you say, Paralympics, we do it all over again
01:12in just 16 days, where there will be 4,000, over 4,000 athletes coming to Paris to compete in over
01:20500 events. Here's what the Paris 2024 boss Tony Estanguet had to say a little bit earlier on today.
01:28I think a lot of our compatriots are going to discover Paralympic sport
01:32and they won't be disappointed because once again, they have the same ingredients as the
01:38Olympic Games in terms of performances by incredible athletes from all over the world,
01:43extraordinary venues. And then there's the extra touch of Paralympic soul
01:50that I think is going to give us all a very, very strong emotional boost.
01:56Well, a lot of these athletes we saw leaving just then will be hoping to be back for L.A.
02:002028. But there's one Olympic legend who won't be back, Leo.
02:04Tom Daley announcing his retirement today. The diver, of course, said he definitely won't be
02:12back in Los Angeles 2028. And this is his swan song. He said it was the right time to retire.
02:20He's Britain's most successful diver, only 30 years old, but it really does feel like he's been
02:26around forever. And that's because he started so young. Beijing 2008 was his first Olympics
02:31and he was only 14 years old. He started on the global stage as a child. So he's been at the top
02:39level for 16 years now. So fair enough that he's walking away at such a young age, you might say.
02:44But as I say, Britain's most successful diver of all time, five medals, including four,
02:49including one gold. And he won silver in the team event with Noah Williams
02:54just a couple of weeks ago here in Paris. Daley had effectively retired after Tokyo,
02:59but he said he wanted to come back and compete one more time so his two kids could watch him.
03:04And they did watch him and they watched their dad claim a silver medal. So that was one of the nicer
03:09moments of the games. He got to fulfil that dream. I think it's really difficult to put into context
03:16the impact he's had on British diving before Tom Daley came over. Diving wasn't cool since in the
03:22UK. Since then, we've seen more and more gold medalists. Before him, they hadn't had an individual
03:28medalist in diving for over 60 years. Now there's been four. So Tom Daley, retirement, well-deserved rest.

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