A Bandon woman and her friend enjoyed the highs of the Paris Olympics and even got to attend the spectacular closing ceremony of what was a highly successful Olympics for Team Ireland. And while Billie Eilish didn't perform at the closing ceremony in Paris, it didn't deter from their once in a lifetime experience.
Speaking to The Southern Star, Mairead Cummins said her friend Paul Mahon entered a raffle last year to be in with a chance to purchase tickets for the 2024 Olympics in Paris and ended up getting tickets for the athletics for the Friday and Saturday evening in the closing days of the Olympics as well as the closing ceremony on the Sunday.
'On Friday we saw the women's shot put, men's triple jump, men's 400m hurdles, men's 4x100 relay, women's 10,000m and women's 400m which were all amazing and exciting,' said Mairead.'
'Naturally the most exciting event for us to see was the women's 400m final with Rashidat Adeleke. It was surreal seeing her walk out onto the track. She seemed very calm and looked to be preserving her energy, walking slowly when all the other athletes jogged to the starting line. It was devastating to see her beaten by such a tiny margin of 0.7 of a second. The support in the stadium for her was incredible and the sense of disappointment was felt by everyone. Besides France, it felt like Ireland had the most supporters there.'
Mairead and Paul were equally excited about the 4x400m women's relay on Saturday.
'We were really fired up for this, firmly believing they were going to win as soon as Rashidat confirmed that she would be part of the team. Watching them walk out onto the track was quite emotional, with all the Irish shouting and cheering them on. Sophie Becker started out really well but Rashidat took it to another level bringing us into second place. It felt like we were going to get second, then at least third. The shouting and roaring from the crowd was amazing, we all went a bit crazy. I've never seen anything so close, coming in fourth place by 0.14 of a second. It was particularly devastating considering they broke the national record.'
Mairead had praise for the 45,000 volunteers across Paris who she said kept everything on course and made people feel safe and welcome.
'Everyone was so happy, friendly, positive and encouraging. We talked to people all round us who shouted for Ireland, as we did for their teams.'
She said the closing ceremony was extra special with a live orchestra, contemporary dancers, a pianist playing on a suspended piano accompanied by a French tenor.
'It game me goose-bumps. It really was beautiful. The women’s marathon winners were awarded their medals at the closing ceremony with The Netherlands’s Sifan Hassan taking the gold. It was the first time that the women’s medal ceremony, rather than the men’s, closed the Olympics which cemented their message of diversity and inclusion.'
'We had heard rumours about Tom Cruise, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Billy Eilish and Snoop Dogg being part of the closing ceremony. Tom did abseil into the stadium, which was very cool, mingling with the athletes before coming on stage to take the flag and present it to the mayor of LA and Simone Biles, then took off with it on his motorbike to deliver it stateside. We were a bit gutted not to see the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Billy in real life in Paris as we had hoped!'
Nevertheless, they said it was an Olympics to remember.
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