‘Powerful’ moment praised by Olympics viewers during athletes' final medal ceremony
Lucy Devine
Featured Image Credit: X/@Zack3O12/OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images
Olympics viewers are praising a 'powerful' moment during the games' Closing Ceremony.
The 2024 Paris Olympics drew to a close on Sunday (11 August) with the French capital hosting a huge Closing Ceremony filled with all kinds of spectacular performances.
But it was one moment in particular that viewers at home are calling 'powerful'.
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It came about when Dutch athlete Sifan Hassan, 31, was presented with a gold medal for the women's marathon event.
Viewers praised Hassan for wearing her hijab to receive her medal, after France banned Muslim women from wearing a sports hijab while competing for France.
One person wrote on X: "Sifan Hassan wearing her hijab to her gold medal crowning ceremony for the women’s marathon, after France banned females from wearing hijabs at the 2024 games. She is so powerful. What a woman!"
Another added: "Sifan hassan wearing her hijab at the closing ceremony as she gets the gold for winning the women’s marathon. in france.. where they’ve banned the hijab… my queen."
Someone else commented: "Sifan Hassan getting her gold medal in front of every single athlete with a hijab is everything to me."
Another wrote: "Sifan Hassan getting her gold medal wearing a hijab in front of the people who banned its use in sports in France. ART AND POETRY."
Sports Minister for France, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra established last year that the country would uphold 'a strict regime of secularism, applied rigorously in the field of sport' - confirming France would ban their athletes from wearing displays of faith.
In a statement to TIME, the International Olympics Committee said that athletes competing for French national teams 'must respect the principles of secularism (laïcité) and neutrality, which, according to French law, means prohibition from wearing outwardly religious symbols, including the hijab, veil and headscarf when they are acting in their official capacity and on official occasions as members of the French national team'.
This year's Closing Ceremony ended with Hollywood star, Tom Cruise arriving on stage in a rather unique way.
Cruise slid down a wire rope from the roof of the Stade de France, where he landed on stage to collect the Olympic flag from the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, and Team USA gymnast Simone Biles.
A movie of Cruise was then played, in which he flew over the Atlantic Ocean, skydived out of a plane and raised the flag over the Hollywood sign.
The stunt marked France officially handing over the hosting duties to the USA, with the next Olympic Games to be hosted in Los Angeles in 2028.