How the beach volleyball venue became one of the Paris Olympics’ hottest tickets

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PARIS – It just might be the hottest spot in town.

There are long lines to enter and tickets are hard to come by. But instead of clubwear and towering heels, the people who come here are wearing t-shirts and shorts, toting backpacks and waving flags to show their allegiance to their countries.

It’s not a club, technically, at least. It’s the Olympic beach volleyball venue, where the Eiffel Tower looming over the stadium, as players duel on the sand below.

On a recent night, the DJ blasted club tunes like Kylie Minogue’s “Padam Padam,” and Kesha’s dance floor hit, “Timber.” At times, everyone in the stadium seemed to wave their hands in unison. Fans stomped their feet against the metal floor beneath them so hard, at another point, that you could feel the floor shake.

And while the experience is unparalleled for the crowd – the vibes for the athletes? They’ve also been iconic.

“It’s impossible to forget she’s there because when we are having our breaks during the game, my eyes immediately focus on her,” said Brazilian player Arthur Diego Mariano Lanci of the Eiffel Tower. “I look at her, it’s a beautiful scene. I feel privileged to play in such an iconic venue.”

The volleyball stadium , which hosts tens of thousands of spectators, was built specifically for the Paris Games at the Champ de Mars gardens beneath the Eiffel Tower, which is hard to miss at 1,083 feet tall.

“I don’t know who chose this place to put beach volleyball, he deserves a medal too,” said Cherif Younousse of Qatar. “The first day we arrived, 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.”

A steady stream of celebrities – and Olympic athletes who aren’t beach volleyball players, have also been spotted in the crowd.

Among them Snoop Dog – who seems to be everywhere at the games this year, as part of his role with NBC. Also actor Elizabeth Banks, who posted photos of herself with her husband, Max Handelman, along with director Judd Apatow and actor Leslie Mann. Louisiana State University gymnast Olivia Dunne was among those who turned out, as did member of the U.S. Olympic weightlifting team.

French volleyball player Alexia Richard said that she and teammate Lézana Placette “wanted to make a show,” as they played in the iconically Parisian venue.

“That’s the most fun we’ve had on the court,” she said. “This is beach volleyball vibes and we just want to bring more in France.”

As the sky grew darker, the glowing lights of the Eiffel Tower turned on. And just before the clock struck 10 p.m., the stadium lights went dark, people in the crowd turned their phone flashlights on – and the Eiffel Tower began to sparkle.

It was the kind of moment that one couldn’t imagine happening anywhere but in Paris.

Copyright 2024 NPR

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