2024 Paris Olympics

LA Mayor Karen Bass to attend Paris Olympics Closing Ceremony

At the Closing Ceremony, Bass will take part in a historic exchange of the official Olympic flag.

LOS ANGELES-CA-JULY 18, 2024: Mayor Karen Bass speaks at an event with local leaders to host U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and highlight nearly $80 million in new funding to electrify L.A.’s bus system to build toward a greener, more sustainable region ahead of the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, in front of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on July 18, 2024. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass will make a second trip to Paris to take part in the Olympic Games closing ceremony on Aug. 11. 

Bass returned from her first trip to Paris on Monday, after attending the Opening Ceremony of the Paris Olympics on July 26 alongside first lady Jill Biden as a part of the official Presidential Delegation.

At the Opening Ceremony, Bass joined Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo in meetings about how Los Angeles can prepare for when it hosts the 2028 Olympic Games in terms of business, transportation and infrastructure development.

Bass will play another crucial role at this year’s Closing Ceremony as Mayor of Los Angeles, taking part in an official Olympic flag exchange with Hidalgo.

On Aug. 11, Bass will make history as the first Black woman to receive an Olympic flag, receiving the flag from none other than Hidalgo, the first woman mayor of Paris.

The Olympic flag debuted in 1914 in Paris to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Olympic Movement. Since then, the symbolic passing of the flag to the next host city has been a key Olympics tradition.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is in Paris for the Opening Ceremony and speaks on her future plans for the LA28 Olympic games. Lynette Romero reports for the NBC4 News nat 6 a.m. on July 25, 2024. 

The Closing Ceremony — which brings to an end the over two weeks of Olympics games and festivities — will also feature a show by Thomas Jolly, artistic director of the Paris Olympics.

The show, titled “Records,” will take place in the Stade de France and will feature hundreds of performers — dancers, acrobats and singers — all to an original soundtrack.

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