Paris’ Iconic Olympic Venues Praised by Athletes, NGB Leaders

PARIS — Whether the idea of beach volleyball at the base of the Eiffel Tower, fencing in the Grand Palais or swimming inside a rugby stadium, the venues being utilized for the 2024 Olympic Summer Games have drawn raves from U.S. national governing body executives and buzz among athletes.

Few venues have garnered more social media buzz than the home of fencing, the Grand Palais that on Sunday night also featured two Americans in the women’s foil gold medal match in Lee Keifer, the defending Olympic champion, against 21-year-old Lauren Scruggs of New York City.

“It’s the home of fencing,” said Phil Andrews, USA Fencing’s chief executive officer. “The home of our community as fencers is Paris and the French have rightly been proud of this venue. They’ve done this sport exceptionally proud in partnership with FIE and we can only hope to be even close to the atmosphere that’s created here in L.A.”

“This is insane,” said Scruggs after earning a silver medal, losing 15-6 to Keifer in the gold medal match. “Just seeing the sheer amount of people who are interested in fencing and who want to support fencers is just amazing. I’m just super grateful to be able to fence in front of such a big crowd and in such a beautiful space.”

USA Rugby Chief Executive Officer Bill Goren is able to point toward the sport’s success with France winning the men’s rugby sevens gold in front of 70,000 fans as a data point for the sport.

“This is an exciting and monumental moment for our game,” Goren said. “We’ve talked to LA28 and the (International) Olympic Committee saying ‘hey when we come to America, we want a big stadium and we want to see it grow.’ Right now we’re in Dignity Health, that’s going to be great and we know we’ll fill it, but give us a bigger stadium.”

And then there is the beach volleyball venue, which is iconic both in day and night action at the base of the Eiffel Tower.

“It was so magical, especially when all the lights went down,” said Taryn Kloth after she and partner Kristen Nuss won their opening pool-play match Saturday. “One, to walk into the venue and see all the fans and just hear everybody was spectacular. Then you got to see the spectacle of the light show and the phones and everything together, it was unbelievable. What a way to start the match.”

The match was paused at one point while the Eiffel did its hourly night show, bringing even more attention from the fans … and players.

“That is what dreams are made of, sitting there seeing the Eiffel Tower twinkle, seeing all the flashlights around us going off,” Nuss said. “That’s a memory that will definitely be imprinted on my brain forever.”

The ability to block out the setting, hard as it may seem, was key to the team’s win on Saturday as well.

“When we are in tough situations, it does put things in perspective of like ‘hey Taryn look up,’” Nuss said. “And you just stare there for a minute and you see the Eiffel Tower and you are like ‘Wow, OK we get to play beach volleyball down in front of the Eiffel Tower. That’s just awesome.’

“It kind of puts you back at peace and then you can reset and start a new point.”

Kloth and Nuss will play all of their pool-play matches at night and “we are playing in Paris, under the Eiffel Tower, I will play whenever they want me to,” Kloth said. “As much as I can.”

Paris built a 6,000-seat aquatics center for the Games for diving, artistic swimming and water polo preliminary games. Swimming is in a temporary pool at La Défense Arena, a 30,000-seat indoor stadium for the storied Racing 92 rugby team. The pool is at one end of the arena, with a warm-up pool located behind a curtain dividing the facility in half.

The next Summer Games in Los Angeles will make an even bigger splash. LA28 announced earlier this summer the competition will be at 70,000-seat SoFi Stadium. The U.S. Olympic trials were held at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis and broke numerous attendance records, drawing 285,202 fans over nine days including 22,209 for one session.

Fencing Across America

Sunday night was a landmark one for USA Fencing, with Kiefer of Lexington, Kentucky, and Scruggs showcasing their different paths to the sport as well as the NCAA system with both having been college fencers; Scruggs’ semifinal win was over Canada’s Eleanor Harvey, also a collegiate fencer.

It’s the first time in U.S. fencing history that Team USA has two Olympic medalists in women’s foil and Scruggs is the first Black American fencer to win an individual medal in a women’s event. Scruggs is also a proud member of the LGBTQ community and one of the leading athletes in USA Fencing’s standing as one of the top NGB participants in the DEI movement.

“Lauren and Lee tonight in this beautiful venue will inspire another generation,” Andrews said before the final. “You cannot hope for better people to represent your organization.”

And in a fortuitous bit of timing, the gold medal match will come right as USA Fencing starts its Fencing Across America initiative designed to bring the sport to communities across the United States. One of the events will be at the Grand Central Terminal in New York with a life-sized poster of Scruggs in the venue.

“Some of (the cities) were ones which we had existing relationships with,” Andrews said. “Some of them were ones where we had CVBs who were really helpful to us in identifying sites. Cleveland’s a great example of that. Salt Lake City’s a great example of that. … it’s deliberately during the Games. We need to bring the Games home. NGBs as a business model win when we see an increase in membership. That happens when you connect the people watching at home with the inspiration to go and try the sport.”

To that end, Andrews said “it takes partners. It takes CVBs coming with us. It takes venues like Grand Central Terminal, Mall of America, the National Mall, Cherry Creek Mall (in Denver). It takes our clubs and volunteers at home who are doing outreach in their own cities.

“When we get home, the work does not stop,” Andrews added. “We’ve got to go out there and get into communities, into the YMCAs and JCCs across America. That’s how sport grows. That’s how NGBs grow and participatory sports like a fencing, like a judo, like a taekwondo. That’s how you win, that’s how you build.”

Rugby in the Spotlight

Rugby Sevens starting ahead the Opening Ceremony gave the sport a boost because it was one of the few in action before Friday, leading to a soft launch for the Games and a boost for USA Rugby, which will have not only the LA28 Games to promote the sport but the Rugby World Cups in 2031 for men and 2033 for women.

“We are so lucky to have it at the beginning of the Olympics in a time slot where Americans can watch it,” Goren said. “It’s been massive exposure.”

Goren, along with World Rugby, was in Washington, D.C., two weeks ago to meet with prospective host cities for the upcoming World Cups. Cities attending included Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Birmingham, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, Nashville, New Orleans, New York City, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C.

There is no timeline for a final list of host cities but when there is, Goren said “we’ll have the opportunity with each city to see what the true opportunity is and then start putting events in those cities going toward the World Cup. The first time they see rugby won’t be in the World Cup. We’ll put events there that are medium sized and large as we start growing markets leading into the World Cup.”

Only one thing has not worked out for Goren so far: “Calder (Cahill) met Snoop Dogg and I didn’t,” said Goren, looking enviously over at USA Rugby’s head of marketing and communications.