Memories with Léon Marchand, bobsled lost at the opening ceremony... one year after Paris 2024, volunteers talk about their Games

They were the only ones to be seen. Amidst the Olympic anthill, the 45,000 Paris 2024 volunteers colored the capital with little touches of blue and gave it the look of a summer camp. With their two-tone turquoise and indigo striped sweaters , you would have sworn that an entire village of Smurfs had taken over the streets of Paris. Always a joke to share, a smile to lighten the mood, a helping hand that comes without asking. Even on the metro, a simple glance between them was enough to create complicity: the tunic made a tribe.

A year after the Games, these uniforms have become relics for those who wore them. A special mention goes to the multicolored bucket hat, which has become a true collector's item , selling for up to €500 on Vinted. Carolina Zambrano, 25, has kept everything preciously in a drawer in her room. Everything... except this bucket hat. "It stayed in the wheelchair of the Mexican flag bearer at the Paralympic Games during the opening ceremony (Amalia Perez, four-time Paralympic weightlifting champion)!" says this volunteer who was helping the Mexican Paralympic delegation in the athletes' village. "We're still in touch, I should be picking it up soon."

“It’s still the most incredible moment of my life!”

When this strategic marketing student applied two years earlier, behind her screen, she had no idea she would experience such a moment. "Just the online tests to be selected, that was my test!" she smiles. And then, on August 28, 2024, there she was at Place de la Concorde, in the middle of the Paralympic Games opening ceremony, pushing the Mexican representative into the world's spotlight. "It's still the most incredible moment of my life!" she says. "I see myself again next to the flag, in front of this sea of people cheering us on. It's crazy when I think back on it."

And to think that the day before, she had twisted her ankle and had to take a lot of ibuprofen to cope with the pain. "But when it all starts, you don't feel anything anymore. The lights, the music, the dancers... it was just magical. I felt like I was in a movie." Her words flow quickly, as if carried away by a wave of memories just waiting to resurface.

Because all it takes is one phone call for everything to start moving again for the Paris 2024 volunteers. You tell them about the Games and, immediately, the machine goes into overdrive. "Oh, well, that's coming back to me..." , almost all of them say, before reeling off a new anecdote. It's a refrain we've heard a thousand times as we dive back into this summer month like no other with them.

“A year ago, we met at the Games. And today, we’re a couple.”

"Under the Parisian sky, lovers' march... hmm-hmm" Edith Piaf's refrain, revisited by Zaho de Sagazan during the closing ceremony, still resonates like a perfect echo of their story. Okay, so it wasn't really in Paris, but rather under the skies of Lyon, at the Groupama Stadium, that Valentin and Margot crossed paths. Two volunteers among 45,000 who, at the heart of the Games, found love.

Valentin, 21, a journalism student from the region, had applied almost without thinking, "to see the Games at home." Margot, 21, a medical student in Nice, was mainly looking "to live a unique experience." "I think that on July 26, we'll look at each other and say: 'A year ago, we met at the Games,'" smiles Valentin.

Both were assigned to the "Services/Spectator" section of Groupama Stadium for the Olympic football tournament. In short, they had to welcome, direct, and seat spectators, open doors, and answer questions. "During the competition, we ran into each other from time to time, like many other volunteers," Margot recalls. "But it was only on the last day that we exchanged Instagram accounts. And since then, we haven't stopped talking."

So, when they talk about the Games again, Valentin first recalls that semi-final between the French team and Egypt, that crazy match won 3-1 in extra time, with Jean-Philippe Mateta scoring twice. "The noise, the script... I still get chills just thinking about it." He's about to move on to another memory, but Margot immediately cuts him off: "Oh no, that one was my moment!" As if everyone jealously guards their moments from the Games. For her, the strongest remains the day Léon Marchand won his first gold medal. "The whole stadium vibrated as they watched his first final remotely on their phones. When he won, people stood up and shouted as if there had been a goal!"

"I was there, a few centimeters from Léon (Marchand), holding the microphone for him."

Yes, we're back to it again. How can we talk about these Games without mentioning this blond guy from Toulouse, the star of the summer of 2024 with his four gold medals? Hugo Andrieux, for his part, won't soon forget July 28, the evening of Léon Marchand's first victory in the 400m medley. A business manager at the Caisse d'Épargne in Saint-Brieuc, he was volunteering that evening in the mixed zone of La Défense Arena. "There were a bunch of foreign journalists, everyone wanted to ask him questions," explains the volunteer, who at the time of the competition kept a regular logbook on Linkedin and Polarsteps . "And I was there, a few centimeters from Léon, holding the microphone for him. My heart was beating 10,000, I was trying to stay calm." I kept saying to myself: "Come on Hugo, breathe, stay straight, no one should see your hand shaking!"

For this Olympic enthusiast, who describes himself as "Olympic-stalgic," the two weeks spent at La Défense Arena will remain etched in his memory. So much so that he has never reopened his volunteer bag. "It's my story with the Games, it's a unique memory. I can't use these clothes for anything else, they have enormous sentimental value. There are only a few pins that I still wear from time to time," he confides. He also takes immense pride in this experience: "Before the start of the Games, we felt this climate of doubt in France, about security with the opening ceremony, about swimming in the Seine... And at the end of the Games, among volunteers, we said to each other: "We did it!"

So when asked if he'd be willing to take time off to volunteer again at the Los Angeles Games in 2028, the answer was immediate. "I'm not going to say it's like a drug, but it's so intense that you want to relive it."

For Xavier Brahim, 50, a volunteer at the Champ de Mars Arena as a judo chaperone - he even had the chance to accompany the Japanese Sanshiro Murao, silver medalist in the -90 kg category - there is no doubt: "nothing will surpass Paris 2024."

And yet, the Breton has seen others with volunteer experiences at Euro 2016 football, the Handball World Cup, not to mention the Rugby World Cup. "But this... the Olympics were something else, a real flavor apart. We felt like we were living through a historic moment. And then meeting people from all over the world in the streets of Paris... it was just fabulous." A year later, the thousands of little stories from volunteers continue to pile up. And deep down, we tell ourselves that it's not so bad, having been a Smurf for a summer.