The Olympics, a Triumph of Ambition, Lift France From Its Gloom
The New York Times
All sectors of society came together to achieve the nation’s dream for the Games. Success has shown that unity is possible, if often elusive.
Even the jumps at the Olympic equestrian events were meticulously crafted works of art. In the gardens of the Château de Versailles, riders negotiated fences modeled on the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower, Paris bistros, streets with a horse in their name like Passage du Cheval Blanc and a stained-glass window from Notre-Dame.
France, aiming high for the Paris Olympics — perilously high, many thought — was not about to stick mere poles in the ground and ask horses and their riders to jump those obstacles in the former residence of kings.
Uncompromising French ambition has marked the remarkable 16 days of the Olympics, a miracle of detailed planning and execution at a cost of about $4.8 billion. France came into the Games shaken by two rounds of an unexpected legislative election that yielded a political impasse. It will exit with those problems unsolved but with a new self-confidence.
“Today, no responsible politician can say that the French are durably and definitively divided and that there are not possible levers to bring them together,” Gabriel Attal, the departing prime minister, said in an interview.
That appears to be an important change.
Even if political problems flare again in the coming weeks, as they almost certainly will, a core pride at a remarkable accomplishment, impossible without the contribution of all sectors of society, appears likely to endure for a long time.
