Paris Olympics 2024 Closing Ceremonies Expected to Feature Tom Cruise, Billie Eilish, and Handoff to Los Angeles
After 19 days of competition, Sunday marks the end of the 2024 Paris Olympics. And like the July 27 opening ceremonies, today’s closing ceremonies are expected to be a combination of sports and spectacle—but with a California twist, as the event will also serve as a handoff for the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.
Brazil’s Gabriel Medina reacts after getting a large wave in the 5th heat of the men’s surfing round 3, during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, in Teahupo’o, on the French Polynesian Island of Tahiti, on July 29, 2024.
JEROME BROUILLET/Getty Images
The Paris Olympics conclude on Sunday, August 11 after 329 events across 32 sports, four of which are considered “non-traditional”: skateboarding, sport climbing, surfing, and breaking, the last of which made its Olympic debut this year. Over 10,500 athletes across over 200 countries, as well as the IOC Refugee Olympic Team, competed over the past weeks, the event’s website notes. That amounted to about 350,000 hours of broadcast TV around the world, watched by billions of people.
Add to that Sunday’s closing ceremonies, which begin at 3 p.m. ET. In the U.S., viewers can watch the end-of-games event on NBC and Peacock. While the exact details of the final ceremony are kept under wraps, here’s what we know so far:
Thomas Jolly, the Games’ 2024 artistic director behind the controversial opening ceremony drag queen tableaux that so distressed certain delicate commentators will stage the event, called “Records,” at the Stade de France, an 80,698-seat venue just north of Paris. Per the Olympics website, the event will feature “over a hundred performers, acrobats, dancers and circus artists,” and “an original soundtrack, new interpretations, musical performances and the participation of world-renowned singers will complete the picture.”
“Part of the show will take place in the air,” organizers promise, “while the giant sets, costumes, and spectacular lighting effects will take spectators on a journey through time, both past and future.”
According to the Guardian, what we see today might have been altered in the days leading up to the event. Ceremonies director Thierry Reboul tells the outlet that the backlash to the supposed boundary-pushing at the opening ceremonies “forced us to have to reread the entire [closing ceremonies] for the Âumpteenth time to be sure that there is no possible misinterpretation, that we are not made to say what we do not want to say.”
In addition to the standard parade of athletes through the stadium, iconic French bands Phoenix and Air are confirmed to perform, Reboul tells Variety. And at some point after that, the Americans will take over, as the Paris games officially end and the countdown to the 2028 LA Games begins. Reboul suggests that that portion of the show will be characterized by the spirit of excess we’re arguably known for.
“It’s usually a 12-minute sequence to launch future Games,” he tells the Guardian, but “this one will be a little longer. Los Angeles prepared it entirely, over there.”
USA TODAY reports that the boffo portion of the show will include Tom Cruise, reportedly set to “rappel down from the top of Stade de France and land on the stadium’s file while carrying the Olympic flag.” A pre-taped follow of Cruise traveling from Paris to LA, then skydiving onto the Hollywood sign, will reportedly seal the Paris to LA deal. (More officially, LA Mayor Karen Bass is expected to formally accept the Olympic flag from Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo.)
As part of the transition from France to the U.S., H.E.R. will sing the U.S. national anthem live from the Stade de France, and California-originating musicians including Billie Eilish, Snoop Dogg, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers will also perform, CBS reports.
Additional artists are also expected, all with a West Coast flavor. “It’s dedicated to them, to show what their Olympic games will look like — and they’ve had all the freedom to create their segment,” Reboul tells Variety of the LA-themed portion of today’s closing ceremonies. “It’s going to include lots of things. We’re in charge of producing some things for them, but they are 100% in charge of it.”
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