PARIS' POST-OLYMPIC BLUES

France awaits final Games bill as funding for sport set to drop in 2025 despite interest

Swimmer Florent Manaudou is feeling glum, French MPs despair over a plummeting sports budget and the Eiffel Tower has lost its Olympic rings.

Two months after the flame went out on the glittering Paris Olympics and Paralympics, the French capital is in the grip of a bout of post-Games blues.

Swimming superstar Leon Marchand, who won four golds at his home Olympics, continues to impress in pools across the globe, but for his teammate Manaudou, the return to everyday life has proved difficult.

Manaudou, 33, was the first torchbearer on French soil when the Olympic flame arrived in Marseille in April and took two bronzes in the pool in Paris - but he wants to move on.

"It's been very complicated emotionally since the end of the Games," he said.

"Everyone keeps plunging me back in. I don't blame anyone, it's completely normal but I want to move forward.

"I don't want to be stuck in August 2024 for months and months."

In the capital, the dismantling of the temporary Olympic venues is almost complete.