Global praise as Paris Olympics close with ‘Golden Voyager’ character
The character paid homage to the founding of the modern Olympics, and looked ahead to the future
The character 'Golden Voyager' was played by French breakdancer Arthur Cadre
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The Paris Olympics Closing Ceremony has drawn global praise after a memorable ‘Golden Voyager’ character took to the skies over the Stade de France, played by the French breakdancer Arthur Cadre.
Mr Cadre wore a costume that made him look like a golden, sparking apparition; as he was carried on wires that made him appear to fly. The impressive costume was made by Swiss creator Kevin Germanier.
The show - which was seen by 17 million viewers nationwide - was masterminded by artistic director Thomas Jolly, who also organised the colourful-but-controversial Opening Ceremony on July 26.
The ‘Golden Voyager’ character was intended to symbolise an “interstellar voyager who arrives at the stadium to discover the vestiges of the Olympic Games” in the far future, when the Games no longer exist, said Mr Jolly.
The name of the character was an homage to the ‘Voyager Golden Record’, which was a record sent into space by NASA in 1977.
The character appeared to attempt to ‘restart’ the Games. This included the flying of the Greek flag - in homage to Greece, where the Games first began.
This in itself was a nod to Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin, co-founder and former president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), who is known for restarting the Olympic Games in their current format, at the start of the 20th century.
In addition to his dancing and contortionist abilities, Mr Cadre was chosen for the role as he has a strong Olympic pedigree; his father was a sailing champion at the Seoul 1988 Games, while his mother was a member of the French volleyball Olympic team.
Mr Jolly contacted Mr Cadre about the role eight weeks ago, the dancer said. “I was thrilled, I have never participated in a project of such scale in France before,” he told the BBC.
Mr Jolly said he had also been inspired by creatures from video games, and classic science fiction graphic novels and films.
Notable performances
After a performance that ended with him being surrounded by other dancers dressed to appear as ‘extra-terrestrials’, Mr Cadre stood under five golden Olympic rings, and then gave way to a planet-shaped stage, and a concert by French rock band Phoenix.
The band performed alongside several artists, including the singer Angèle, and the Cambodian rapper VannDa.
Other notable moments at the Closing Ceremony included Hollywood star Tom Cruise abseiling into the stadium, and - of course - the parade of the international athletes and flag bearers.
Read also: Tom Cruise stunt?: what to expect at Paris Olympics closing ceremony
Record-breaking Games
The Games have been hailed as one of the most modern, sustainable, and gender-equal Games ever, after the IOC’s Olympic Agenda 2020 reforms. These include allocating 50% of the athlete places to female athletes.
Read also: Paris Olympics hailed as most spectacular of all time around world
Read also: French biggest buyers of Olympic tickets, followed by UK and US
Of 32 sports, 28 reached gender parity; and there were record attendees for the women’s rugby (66,000), women’s basketball (27,000), and women’s handball (26,500).
The Games also sold a record number of tickets, at more than 9.5 million. There were also four more sports taking part for the first time: skateboarding, sport climbing, surfing, and breaking (break dancing).
There were 32 world records broken across eight disciplines, and four countries won their first ever gold medal (Botswana, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, and Saint Lucia).
Unfortunately, one country was not quite so thrilled with the Closing Ceremony; New Zealand (Māori-language name Aotearoa) was ‘left off’ an abstract representation of the world map during the event, despite the country itself having ranked 11th place on the overall medals table.
Countries of a similar size (in terms of landmass), including the UK and Japan, were clearly visible, but the ocean south-east of Australia was curiously blank.
‘Far-off’ New Zealand being accidentally left off of world maps is not a new problem; in 2018, then-Prime Minister Jacinda Ahern even appeared in a comedy video with comedian Rhys Darby, poking fun at the phenomenon.
The Closing Ceremony marked the end of the Olympics, and opened the way for the Paralympics, which are set to begin on August 28 and last until September 11.
