Inside Champions Park: Paris puts on an Olympic party and everyone's invited

Olympic Sports

Inside Champions Park: Paris puts on an Olympic party and everyone's invited

Published: 07 Aug. 2024, 02:57

JIM BULLEY
jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr

Serbia's Novak Djokovic, gold medalist in the men's tennis singles, poses at Champions Park in Paris on Monday. [AFP/YONHAP]

PARIS — It’s 3:45 p.m. when I step off the metro at Trocadero station and the lines to get into the eponymous park are already thousands of people long. It takes 20 minutes to reach the back of the queue and another 40 to get back to the front and into the venue.

But this is the hottest party in Paris, and it’s definitely worth the wait.

The Parc des Champions, or Champions Park, has long been touted as the jewel in the crown of the Paris Olympics. An entirely free event right in the center of the city, organizers billed it as the “DNA of Paris 2024,” promising to bring together the athletes, the fans and the host city in a way that has never been done before.

Olympic PR likes to include things like “DNA” and “never been done before,” but it’s generally best to take those claims with a pinch of salt. In the case of Champions Park, however, Paris has delivered — offering spectators and athletes alike the chance to take part in what is essentially all the best parts of a Closing Ceremony, but every single night.

French swimmer Leon Marchand poses at Champions Park on Tuesday. [AFP/YONHAP]

It’s 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) when the Korea JoongAng Daily visits Champions Park on Monday, and there’s at least 10,000 people either down in the mosh pit — “the ditch” is the official name — or sat in the grandstand. The heat doesn’t appear to have kept anybody away, with the crowds easily nearing the 13,500-person venue capacity.

Despite being free, Champions Park is as significant a structure as any other Olympic venue. With a tiered grandstand on three sides and the Eiffel Tower on the fourth, the set up consists of a long runway-style stage flanked on both sides by the ditch with the grandstand behind. If you took out the stage and added a few fences, it could easily be the archery venue.

There’s a festival feeling inside. Loud music blasts from the speakers and the big screens alternate between flashing “Make some noise” and the French “Faites du bruit.” The French MCs give off a sort of cheesy Europop summer camp vibe, but it works and the crowd loves it.

Champions Park as seen from the Eiffel Tower in Paris on Monday. [XINHUA/YONHAP]

First up on Monday we have a performance from a local hip-hop dance crew. Hip-hop is very much the vibe — the production that follows is directed by renowned French-Algerian dancer and choreographer Mourad Merzouki, who has spent 30 years working to raise the profile of hip-hop dance.

It doesn’t get much bigger than main stage at the Olympics.

“Spectators were on their feet to applaud these artists from all horizons — dancers, acrobats and circus artists,” Merzouki told the Associated Press. “It was a real pleasure for us to feel and see the place of dance in this major sporting event.”

A view from ″the ditch″ at Champions Park in Paris on Monday. [JIM BULLEY]

And then came the main event. The primary role of the Champions Park is exactly what the name promises — to bring the Champions to the park.

The champions in question are the previous day’s biggest winners — schedules permitting. The athletes in attendance each take a spell on the long stage, accompanied by loud music and a lot of cheering. There’s occasional dancing and a lot of selfies. It has the same wild energy that the athletes bring to the Closing Ceremony, but this time the crowd is right at the heart of it.

On Monday the star of that show was men’s tennis gold medalist Novak Djokovic, decked out in both gold medal and Serbian flag. But he was by no means the only one — the athletes seem to be enjoying the chance to celebrate with the fans as much as the fans enjoy celebrating with them: On Monday, over 100 athletes took a walk on the champions stage, from a rowing crew conga to the French BMXers that rounded off the night.

Forme Olympic champion swimmer Michael Phelps poses at Champions Park in Paris on Tuesday. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

Athletes competing outside of Paris have even traveled to the capital specifically to visit Champions Park for the rock star treatment.

"It gives you that little glimpse into what it might be like to be famous for just even just for five minutes," Great Britain’s shooting silver medalist Amber Rutter told AFP, after traveling 170 miles from Chateauroux to attend the event.

Once the athletes have all been and gone, the park stays open for a few more hours with the evening’s biggest events broadcast live on the big screen. The party has continued at Trocadero throughout the Games, skipping only the middle weekend. It will be back in action again during the Paralympics.

People applaud before the start of the Champions Park medalist celebrations in Paris on Tuesday [REUTERS/YONHAP]

Champions Park also offers a unique opportunity for the fans. Despite its mass appeal, for the vast majority of people the Olympics is a purely ticket or TV experience. Stadium seats can be both expensive and hard to come by, so there are always going to be large parts of the population that are left out.

At Champions Park, all you’ve got to do is turn up. If you can get to Paris, you can get to the park. It’s a unique chance to experience the Olympics for people who were unable to get tickets, and with the Eiffel Tower standing guard over the stadium, it also provides one of the most iconic images of the Games.

But as successful as the event has been in Paris, there’s a chance it might not have a future at the Games. AFP reported an anonymous official saying Tuesday that the event is unlikely to be repeated at Los Angeles 2028 for practical and security reasons.

Chinese diver Long Daoyi poses at Champions Park on Monday. [XINHUA/YONHAP]

Back in Paris the party continues, and it will do until Saturday when Friday’s medalists are the last to get a chance on the stage. On Sunday there will be the real Closing Ceremony — probably offering a very similar vibe, but in a much bigger stadium.

Until then, Faites du bruit!

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]