The Paris Olympics have felt cursed in a lot of ways. So of course they would close out in an eventful fashion.
Police arrested a man trying to scale the Eiffel Tower just hours before the closing ceremony of the Olympics. I can only imagine he was wearing one of those comical cartoonish ski masks.
Bystanders saw the man scaling the Eiffel Tower around 2:45 local time. Police immediately sprang into action. They ended up capturing and arresting the man for his publicity stunt.
At this time, we don't much about the man himself. Is he a local or a foreigner? Did he have ill intent related to the Olympics? Was this just someone losing a bet and being a man of his word? All questions left to answer for sure.
Videos on social media went viral. The shirtless man scaled the Eiffel Tower. He made quite the distance too. The man climbed to just above the Olympic rings on the tower.
Amir Tsarfati, [Aug 11, 2024 at 9:42 AM]
Hours before the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games - the Eiffel Tower is evacuated after a person climbed it. Large police force on site, the person was spotted above the Olympic rings on the tower above the first observation deck pic.twitter.com/SY4cMPtnb2— Rooted n routes (@rooted91954) August 11, 2024
Another video showed the police escorting the man away. They had him in handcuffs. Unfazed, the man said to a bystander: "Bloody warm, innit?"
With the Olympics Closing ceremony so close, the man's antics had far reaching effects. Authorities ended up evacuating the Eiffel Tower due to the stunt. They also evacuated the area around the tower.
Man Arrested Before Olympics Closing Ceremony
While the Eiffel Tower played a role in the Opening Ceremony, it will not factor into the Closing Ceremony.
"An individual started climbing the Eiffel Tower at 2:45 p.m., police intervened and the person was detained," a Paris police official told The Associated Press.
It's been a frantic time for Paris. The city deployed more than 30,000 police officers around the city. The Olympics themselves have been eventful. The Opening Ceremony drew criticism from conservative groups over belief it was mocking The Last Supper. That's a religious painting depicting the final meal of Jesus before his betrayal.
Meanwhile, the Olympics featured controversy over gender identity, several collapses, and an issue over the quality of the water in the river. On a more light hearted note, its athletes also went viral in various memes.
