Five Olympic moments from Paris you won’t have seen on TV

For two weeks, the world has come to play in Paris. One of the planet’s most stunning cities has played host to the “crème de la crème” of Olympic royalty.

National leaders and celebrities have joined the sports stars to strut their stuff, their every move beamed across the globe by the broadcasters gathered here.

But as the athletes like to say, it is often the fans who really complete the Games.

That has been all the more true in 2024, with spectators allowed to return to the Olympics en masse for the first time since Covid struck.

They have not been awarded medals, but with their quirky displays of passion, patriotism and downright peculiarity, they have provided plenty of highlights.

Here are five of the most memorable sights from the French capital that you probably won’t have seen on TV.

Lamp posts, cycle stands, bins, post boxes: it seemed there was no piece of street furniture that spectators were unwilling to climb to catch sight of the action.

It was the first Saturday of sport, and many Parisians were starting to warm to the Games. The cycling time-trial contests were unfolding along some of the city’s most beautiful boulevards – and big crowds were beginning to gather.

The most acrobatic – or foolhardy – spectators started scaling any available object to get a better view – performing feats of acrobatics not seen until the Games’s official climbing contest began a week or so later.

The sight of residents dangling precariously out of their windows left you wondering what George-Eugène Haussmann, the man who carefully rebuilt Paris in the 19th Century, would make of it all.

A legion of picture-takers lined up to get their photos taken with “Asterix and Obelix” after a judo final in the nearby Champ de Mars Arena.

If there was a gold for fancy-dress, the French pair would have been in serious contention thanks to their depictions of the legendary comic-book Gaulish warriors.

The two men – real names Sebastian and Thomas-Felix – said the Games were showcasing French culture and bringing people together in a party atmosphere. At least everyone could “cry together” after losing the men’s 60kg judo final, they said.

Paris might be known for high fashion, but some of the fortnight’s other head-turning looks have included an Egyptian pharaoh costume, various national dresses and headwear inspired by the Games’s smiling red-cap mascots.

There was also this man:

Some of the most rousing renditions of the French national anthem heard in Paris have not been in the sporting arenas, but have instead been spontaneous singalongs by wandering French fans draped in their tricolore flags.

A version of La Marseillaise belted out on a busy metro train after the opening ceremony surpassed the more mumbly performance heard in the rain-soaked stands of the Trocadéro during the official event.

The chanting seemed to encapsulate a nation’s relief that the ceremony had been pulled off successfully after so many worries about security and organisation.

Later in the Games, social media users observed a perfect pun could be achieved by substituting the tune’s marching line with the surname of France’s most decorated athlete in Paris.

“Marchons! Oui, marchons!” is the original. The alternative references swimming sensation Léon Marchand: “Marchand! Oui, Marchand!” Expect to hear it at the next Olympics in 2028.

The coin-operated telescopes found 115m (380ft) up the Eiffel Tower are typically used by tourists to marvel at some of Paris’s other top sights, such as the details on the faraway Arc de Triomphe or the Notre-Dame cathedral.

But the city’s world-famous monuments have felt quieter than normal, briefly outshone by exhilarating spectacles of sporting endeavour.

On a woozy Monday afternoon, those sightseers who had assembled on the tower’s second-floor viewing platform discovered a clever ruse: the telescopes could be used to spy on a beach volleyball match happening down below.

It was possible to witness a thrilling comeback for Spain’s women over the Netherlands. It was just one creative way curious bystanders managed to get a glimpse of the sporting action, with all but the priciest tickets often sold out.

Many of the Games’s volunteers have had a ball in Paris, if the gleeful dancing by a troupe near the Stade de France on one balmy night is anything to go by.

Standing on the concourse of a nearby railway station, the group pulled off a well-choreographed routine to Toto’s Africa – all the while waggling their giant foam fingers as they directed punters to the platforms below with megaphones.

Some 45,000 people are said by organisers to have given up their time to help deliver the Olympics and Paralympics – herding people around metro stops, attending to athletes, and chaperoning others around bewildering security cordons. They have even been photographed spraying fans with water to cool them down.

In their distinctive turquoise and pink garb, they have frequently been the Games’s unsung heroes, and could certainly be allowed a brief evening boogie.

Picture research by Yazmina Garcia