Paris bids farewell to the Olympic Games and hands the baton over to Los Angeles 2028

With a star appearance by Tom Cruise, homages to the athletes and music from both sides of the Atlantic, Paris bid farewell Sunday to its Olympic Games in a grand ceremony and handed the baton over to Los Angeles 2028.

Toward the end of the event, the mayor of the Californian city, Karen Bass, received the flag with the five rings at the Stade de France from the hands of the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach, before entrusting it to American gymnast Simone Biles, one of the champions of the Games with three golds.

The next to wave the flag was the actor Tom Cruise, who with the help of a cable came down from the deck of the coliseum, to the applause and shouts of the 70,000 spectators, and carried the Olympic insignia away swiftly on a motorcycle like the one he used in Paris in the spring of 2017 during the filming of "Mission Impossible 6."

Tribute to Mijaín López

It is the end of 19 days of competitions that took place in the French capital in a luxurious setting, thanks to its most iconic monuments such as the Eiffel Tower, the Invalides and the Gardens of Versailles. The competitions will continue with the Paralympic Games, from Aug. 28 to Sept. 8.

"From one day to the next, Paris became a party," said the president of the organizing committee, Tony Estanguet, who allowed himself to throw a small dig at the French, assuring that the Games turned "a people of irreducible whiners into passionate fans."

At the ceremony at the Stade de France, north of Paris, the athletes from the 205 delegations paraded, with the best of them showing off their medals.

Six of them were particularly honored representing their respective continents. For the Americas, the honor went to Cuban wrestler Mijaín López, who won his fifth consecutive gold in Paris in the same discipline, a feat never seen before.

The ceremony began with the extinguishing of the cauldron, a ring of seven meters in diameter that has burned in the Tuileries garden in the heart of downtown Paris since the inauguration on July 26.

Festival of music

From the beginning the ceremony was strewn with great classics from French music: in the Tuileries, Zaho de Sagazan performed "Sous le ciel de Paris," which Edith Piaf and Yves Montand made famous.

And in the stadium, a gigantic karaoke rendition was set up with the songs "Emmenez-moi" by Charles Aznavour and "Les Champs Elysées" byJoe Dassin.

Surrounded by the athletes, the band Phoenix took to the stage with their "French Touch," as a prelude to musical tracks from the other side of the Atlantic, with rapper Snoop Dogg performing in a sequence recorded in Los Angeles alongside other American stars such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Billie Eilish who performed from Venice Beach.

Back at the Stade de France, Californian singer H.E.R. performed the US national anthem.

The finishing touch to the embrace between France and the United States was provided by France's Yseult singing the most emotional of classics, "My Way," in a fireworks display.