Letters from Paris

C is for Canada, E is for Eff-bombs and P is for (redacted) indelible memories of the Summer Olympics from A to Z

- ROSIE DIMANNO

PARIS After sixteen days of wondrous competition, breathtaking performances and eye-popping spectacle: Voila, c’est fini.

Put a fork in the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad. They’re done.

Three-hundred-and-twenty-nine medal events in 32 sports. And certificates awarded for the fourth- to eighth-place finishers.

Perhaps Parisians — those who didn’t bug out from the capital for vacay during the Olympic fortnight — will be glad to see the end of us, the lollapalooza that came to an end with Sunday night’s closing ceremony. But from the local habitués I rubbed up against, most seemed rightly proud of how these Games were mounted and how they unfolded. Except for the traffic snarls. We have enough of those in T.O. too, without Olympics to blame.

Memories will fade soon, even the bad ones, episodes that drove many of us bats-t crazy. But before these Games fade into the haze of history (it wasn’t all about winners and losers) here’s my A to Z of Paris 2024. A for Aesthetics A sweet detail was how glammed up female athletes — despite the soaking sweat (horses sweat, men perspire, women glisten) — presented themselves, as if to retain a patina of femininity amid their muscular jockiness. Elaborate makeup in a palette of vivid-coloured eyeliner and eye shadow. Bronzed Canadian polevaulter Alysha Newman had the cool aplomb to apply a fresh layer of cherry-red lipstick before jumps.

Lady track athletes boasted some formidable talons, perhaps useful to brace for the start out of the blocks, but I suspect mostly for the sheer razzle-dazzle of it. Canada’s 4x100-metre relay team had gone for manicures in Barcelona before arriving in Paris.