Greece opens closing parade of Paris Olympics

Greek athletes Emmanouil Karalis and Evangelia Platanioti opened the parade at the closing ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Credit: ERT1 screenshot

Greece opened the parade of athletes for the closing ceremony of the Paris Olympics on Sunday evening.

Emmanouil Karalis and Evangelia Platanioti were the flag bearers for Greece, which, as usual, entered the stadium first. Greece, where the first Olympic Games were held more than 2,700 years ago, is the birthplace of the Olympic Games.

More than 71,000 spectators attended the closing ceremony at the Stade de France in Paris. Credit: ERT1 screenshot

The closing ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games

The Paris Olympics have gone by in a flash. Thousands of athletes from around the world have dazzled the world with their athletic prowess and strength, and the 2024 Summer Olympics will soon be a distant memory. The Closing Ceremony marks the official end of this spectacular sporting event that lasted more than two weeks.

The event takes place at the spectacular Stade de France in Paris with around 80,000 spectators watching the event live and millions of people from around the world joining them in front of their televisions.

IOC President Thomas Bach and French President Emmanuel Macron. Credit: ERT1 screenshot

The organizers of the French Olympics have promised the world a visual, choreographic and acrobatic spectacle that will go down in history.

There have been a lot of rumors circulating on the internet in recent days about who and what we can expect from the show.

So far, we know that there will be a handover of power at the organizers of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, which could involve many American stars.

LA 2028 organizers have also confirmed that the Red Hot Chili Peppers, as well as Billie Eilish and Snoop Dogg, will perform.

The Greek flag-bearing duo

Emmanouil Karalis and Evangelia Platanioti were the flag bearers of Greece, carrying the honor and responsibility of holding the nation’s flag high for the world to see.

Karalis won a bronze medal for Greece last Monday in the pole vault competition held in Paris as part of the athletics events at the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Platanioti won 6th place for Greece with Sofia Malkogeorgou in the women’s duet in the artistic swimming free routine final.

Gold medalist Tentoglou to be Greece’s flag bearer at the Los Angeles Olympics?

Miltiadis Tentoglou, Greece’s only gold medallist at this year’s Olympics, was offered the choice of being the flag bearer tonight but media reports suggested he respectfully declined.

It was this refusal by Tentoglou that led Karalis and Platanioti to become the nation’s standard-bearers on Sunday evening in Paris.

“I want to make my country proud by standing on the top step of the podium. I would like to be the flag bearer for Greece at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, if possible and if no one else wants to do it,” Tentoglou, 26, said at a sponsorship event held a few days ago, noting that he hopes to raise the Greek flag in 2028 in the Californian capital.