ADVERTISEMENTThe biggest beach volleyball star at the Paris Olympics can’t set, spike or dive around the sand.
But she sure is pretty.
Paris' world famous Eiffel Tower has been stealing the show, with fans and players alike ooh-la-la-ing over the nonpareil setting that has turned the stadium on the Champ de Mars into the Olympics' iconic venue.
“I don’t know who chose this place to put beach volleyball. He deserves a medal, too,” said Cherif Younousse of Qatar, a Olympic medalist himself. “Warming up on the side court, we were like, ‘Wow, we are under the Eiffel Tower.’ We couldn’t even imagine playing beach volleyball here.”
And the landmark the locals call La Dame de Fer - the Iron Lady - is just one reason the venue is such a hit. Fans wave baguettes, dance the can-can and sing along to music pumped out by a DJ, who turns the 12,860-seat stadium into the hottest club in Paris. A stream of celebrities, heads of state and royalty have stopped by to check it out.
Canadian Brandie Wilkerson said that even before the competition started, so many other athletes in the village were raving about the beach volleyball venue that she doesn't bother to argue.
“Yeah, ours is better,” she said with a shrug. “I don’t have anything else to say.”
Although beach volleyball only joined the Olympic program in 1996, it quickly has become one of the Summer Games' most popular sports - thanks in part, no doubt, to the women in bathing suits, but also to an atmosphere that surrounds a fast-moving competition with a beach party vibe.
The London venue at Horse Guards Parade at the Games in 2012 sparkled with a view of the Big Ben clock tower and Benny Hill-style hijinx; four years later, the stadium at Copacabana beach pulsed with a samba beat, surrounded by Cariocas sunbathing - and playing beach volleyball and soccer - on the surrounding sands. Tokyo placed its venue in a waterfront park with a view of the Rainbow Bridge.
But Paris, as Paris tends to do, upstaged them all.
Every night as the sun sets behind the latticed landmark, the stadium goes dark and fans hold up their cellphone lights in a sort of digital reboot of Vincent Van Gogh’s 'Starry Night'. At 10 pm, the Eiffel Tower is illuminated with twinkling strobes as onlookers scramble to get into position for the perfect photo, with the court and the Olympic rings and the tower all lined up in a row in the background.
“That is what dreams are made of,” said American Kristen Nuss, whose Olympic debut began right after the light show. “Guys, it’s a memory that will definitely be imprinted in my brain for forever.”
It’s not just the athletes.
Spanish, Jordanian and Luxembourgish royalty have graced the arena, as have the presidents of Finland, Estonia and Lithuania (and France, mais oui!). French soccer great Zinedine Zidane came by the morning after carrying the torch in the opening ceremony, and basketball Hall of Famer Pau Gasol came to root for his Spanish countrymen.
Moviemakers Baz Luhrmann and Judd Apatow and movie stars Elizabeth Banks and Leslie Mann have checked out the setting. Other times, it resembled a movie set: During a women’s match between France and Germany on Sunday, the crowd broke into a rendition of 'La Marseillaise,' the French national anthem, that would make the resistance in 'Casablanca' proud.
ADVERTISEMENTIt is a scene that is, most of all, très French: One woman dressed as a can-can dancer in bleu, blanc and rouge posed for pictures with any fan who asked. A painter dabbed at his oils in the back of the press tribune - the only place that offers even a few hours of shade. The DJ worked Edith Piaf songs into his hip-hop and techno playlist, and the crowd sings along. Men in berets, with painted-on Dali moustaches, waved baguettes to cheer on the French team.
Hang that in the Louvre.
And looming over it all is the century-old latticed landmark that gives the venue its name. Looking for a practice court before play began, a volunteer helpfully offered directions: “You go there,” she said, “and turn left from the Eiffel Tower.”
“I’m more than happy to tell all the other sports, ‘Yeah, we definitely got the best venue,’” said Australian Taliqua Clancy, who won a silver medal in Tokyo. “It’s absolutely incredible. Honestly, you can’t beat it.”
ADVERTISEMENTAnd some repeat Olympians are saying it is not just the best venue in Paris, but maybe the best venue ever. At the very least, it sets a standard that future Summer Games organizers will struggle to surpass.
“This will be a hard one to top, I think,” said Nuss, who is hoping her first Olympics won't be her last. “I’m not sure how anyone else would do it. But, I mean, I’m willing to see how they try.”