Teddy Riner dressed by Emmanuel Macron, a huge Olympic star absent… What happened at the Champions Parade?

Sunday 15th September 2024 05:09 AM

After a successful summer thanks to the Paris Games, the capital definitively closed this part with several hundred French athletes who paraded on Saturday, September 14, 2024 on the Champs-Elysées. If this celebration greatly put Teddy Riner in the spotlight, it also displayed a major absentee who is nevertheless well known to the public…

It all started on Saturday afternoon, September 14. That’s when the parade started with a tricolor fireworks display around the Arc de Triomphe. The same one that inaugurated the opening ceremony on the Seine on July 26. The only difference? The weather, which was resplendent for this closing. For the occasion, there were more than 300 Olympians and Paralympians who were present for this farewell parade. A final meeting with the public who had responded since they were between 8000 and 10000 people came to applaud them. A beautiful spectacle which could also be admired by the Parisians since the Patrouille de France put on an impressive show in the sky of Paris.

After having rekindled the flame of the unknown soldier under the Arc de Triomphe, Emmanuel Macron, who recently took a crowd bath in the South, was notably able to attend the decoration of 118 medalists. He was accompanied by his wife Brigitte Macron, dressed in white. Indeed, the latter were decorated by former athletes, elected officials such as the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, or resigned members of the government such as Gérald Darmanin or Amélie Oudéa-Castéra. The President of the French Republic took charge of Léon Marchand, Félix Lebrun, Antoine Dupont and Aurélie Aubert, boccia gold medalist. A very solemn moment that took place under the cheers of the crowd. As a reminder, with 16 titles and…