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PARIS Sorry, Rose Bowl. Weve found a better sunset.
The finest stadium view on Earth has been around for all of three months and itll be gone every bit as quickly. The beach volleyball venue at the Paris Olympics is a vibrant arena, full of energetic fans cheering an intense, high-speed sport thats already one of the coolest in the Games. As if thats not enough, the advantage gets just flat-out unfair when you see the Eiffel Tower rising behind the stadiums north wall.
Come on, just look at this view:
Sunset so damn pretty theyre gonna have to work the College Football Playoff around it #OlympicGames #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/NdIbWqxMnh
Jay Busbee (@jaybusbee) July 27, 2024
Name a stadium, any stadium. This ones better. Baseball fields like PNC Park in Pittsburgh, Busch Stadium in St. Louis and Dodger Stadium look out on cities but those cities arent freaking Paris.
The fans in attendance at the first full day of beach volleyball competition got themselves an unprecedented gift: A gorgeous Eiffel Tower sunset at an Olympic venue. As rain gave way to a setting sun that cast ribbons of rose and cerulean blue across the sky, the Eiffel Tower stood in silhouette. Then its golden lights began to glow, and almost surely every single one of the thousands of people in the stands and milling around on the parkland outside lifted their phones for shot after shot.
One enterprising artist set up an easel and canvas and painted the spectacular sunset even as the United States women thrashed Canada. His work was good very good but still no match for the sky above.
This was the view that Paris should have had for the Opening Ceremony, a perfect tableau for the worlds most famous structure. The rain didnt allow for that on Friday, but Mother Nature made up for it a tiny bit on Saturday night. Beach volleyball runs right up until the Olympics final full day, all the better to allow for every opportunity to take in this masterpiece of architecture and vision.
The reason why this pairing works so well is its genius meeting genius. The Eiffel Tower is a 1,083-foot-tall testament to humanitys ability to dream big and transcend limitations. What better background for the finest athletes in the world or, at least, on sand?
The beach volleyball venue wont last forever. When the Games are gone, it will be too. But maybe thats for the best. Its like a perfect summer day sliding into twilight something you cant ever duplicate, but something youll remember forever.