Olympics closing ceremony LIVE: Latest updates as USA top final medals table at Paris 2024

Turns out Leon Marchant has a big job on his hands tonight. The Olympic flame has been placed inside a tiny golden lantern, which Marchant picks up with great care before heading off on a walk through the courtyard…

Later, Marchant will carry the flame back into the Stade de France before it is finally put out, signalling the end of the Olympic cycle. Back inside the stadium, an orchestra kicks off the party.

It’s a local community orchestra from Saint-Denis, a suburb north of Paris. It’s about to get very French. A lone flautist sets off on La Marseillaise – as Emmanuel Macron takes his seat next to the outgoing IOC president Thomas Bach.

We start with a look good on that Opening Ceremony two weeks ago… which produced memorable moments right at the end with the lighting of the Olympic cauldron – a hot air balloon that took off into the night.

As for tonight, we begin with a swaying, enchanting choral performance from in front of the Olympic flame at the Jardin de Tuileries , as the sun sets on the Paris Olympics.

And here comes the first big star of the night! Four-time gold medal winner Leon Marchant – the face of the Paris Games and swimming superstar, looking very smart in a black suit.

The ceremony will start in five minutes as the stadium announcer urges spectators to take their seats in the Stade de France.

Golden hour is almost over in Paris as the sun sets over the stadium. I’m just so glad it’s not raining. The opening ceremony was nearly the end of my Olympics.

Tonight’s show will be entirely held in the Stade de France – no galloping down the Seine or leaping over Paris rooftops tonight for the central cast.

After US gymnast Jordan Chiles had her bronze medal taken away—a decision the US has said it will appeal—teammates, including Simone Biles and others from the sports world blasted the Olympic’s decision.

Fellow gymnast Suni Lee took her Instagram Stories to share her disappointment with the Olympic judges. She wrote, “All this talk about the athlete, what about the judges?? Completely unacceptable. This is awful and I’m gutted for Jordan.”

“I got your back forever Jo,” she added. “[You] have all my flowers and you will ALWAYS be an Olympic champion.”

Moments of the Olympics: Andy Murray retires

The 37-year-old announced before the Olympics that Paris would be his final tournament, and didn’t he put on a show alongside Dan Evans.

Murray and Evans saved seven match points on their way to making the third round, entertaining the Paris crowds with a final display of defiance.

It was an emotional rollercoast but it allowed Murray to finish on his terms.

Moments of the Olympics: Simone Biles returns

The greatest gymnast of all time made a stunning Olympics return in paris, winning three golds and a silver to leave the “twisties” in the past.

After two weeks of intense, thrilling competition between the world’s best athletes – not to mention a handful of controversies – the Paris Olympics are coming to an end.

The stage is (almost) set for a very different show to the lightning action that has electrified the purple running track at the Stade de France. For now, that is gone, or at least covered by a black carpet and a stage of different pointed shapes.

It’s all a mystery for now, but we’re around half an hour or so from the Closing Ceremony getting underway

The British Olympic Association says Team GB’s medal haul at Paris 2024 should be celebrated, despite Britain finishing in its lowest position in the table for 20 years.

Great Britain ended the Paris Olympics with 65 medals – the same amount won on home soil at London 2012 and second-best ever tally on foreign soil – with only the United States (126) and China (91) claiming more.

But Team GB won eight fewer gold medals than in Tokyo three years ago and were 13 down on the 27 collected at Rio 2016.

A final return of 14 gold, 22 silver and 29 bronze saw Britain slip to seventh spot in the medal table – its lowest place since finishing 10th at Athens 2004 – and third-best European nation behind hosts France and the Netherlands.

That was certainly not expected when Team GB chef de mission Mark England said last October that “the wheels are going to have to come off if we’re not top five”, while stating the aim was to be the best in Europe per gold medals won.

But BOA chief executive Andy Anson said at a post-Games briefing: “It’s hard to feel like that when we’ve won 65 medals.

“It’s frustrating to be seventh in the medal table, but we’ve got to celebrate first the number of fantastic moments, the way athletes have won their medals.”

The end of the Olympics has arrived with a closing ceremony at the Stade de France set to bring the curtain down on Paris 2024.

It’s been 17 days since the rain-soaked opening extravaganza on the River Seine and conditions are much brighter for the spectacle in Saint Denis.

While each country competing at the Olympics will also have their moment – although they will not be travelling down the Seine on boats this time.

Gold medallists Alex Yee and Bryony Page will be Great Britain’s flagbearers at the closing ceremony, and here’s a look at everyone else.