As I leave Paris today, I wanted to reflect on the last few days I had here! These past few days I was fortunate enough to go to three different events. The first event I attended was the semi-finals for beach volleyball. This has been my dream event to attend due to the fact that the stadium is right next to the Eiffel Tower (see picture below!) Getting to watch both a women’s match and a men’s match while the sun was setting and eventually seeing the Eiffel Tower sparkle was definitely a highlight of the entire trip. The next day I had the opportunity to watch the semi-finals for women’s basketball. This game was especially exciting since the USA was playing in it! The energy in the arena was amazing and after a great game, the USA came out on top and headed to the finals! Finally, on Saturday I went to the gold medal match of women’s football (soccer) between the USA and Brazil. This game was especially exciting for me to watch in person because I attended the USA women’s soccer team’s send-off game against Costa Rica in DC! Getting to see this team compete for the gold medal was so much fun. I have never been to a sporting event that had the same level of energy and intensity as this one. Each of the 48,000 people in the stadium were chanting for their team and the excitement didn’t die down once. After a hard-fought game, the USA won the gold medal! Something else that was exciting about this game was getting to watch the medal ceremony afterwards. This was such a full circle moment for me. From watching USA team captain Lindsey Horan speak to the full crowd in DC about how ready they were to make the country proud during the Games to watching them win the gold medal felt like a great way to cap off my amazing time in Paris. I am so grateful for all of the events I got to see while in Paris. Learning about the behind the scenes of the games through the speakers and lectures has been very insightful and interesting. However, having this knowledge while going to attend the main events made me appreciate all of the work that goes into the Games ten times more.
