At the Olympic beach volleyball venue, the Eiffel Tower stars in a très French show

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Czech Republic’s Ondrej Perusic serves during the men’s pool E beach volleyball match between Czech Republic and Canada at Eiffel Tower Stadium at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Sunday, July 28, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)

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in a beach volleyball match at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

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Supporters for France wave flags during the women’s pool C beach volleyball match between Germany and France at Eiffel Tower Stadium, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Sunday, July 28, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)

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Thomas Zellner, left and Thibault Vinson celebrate being Parisian while cheering for France’s Lezana Placette and Alexia Richard in a beach volleyball match against Germany at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

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Italy’s Adrian Ignacio Carambula Raurich, far right, serves the ball sky high in a beach volleyball match against The Netherlands at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Sunday, July 28, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

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Snoop Dogg attends the women’s pool C beach volleyball match between USA and France at Eiffel Tower Stadium at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Wednesday, July 31, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)

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Spectators photograph a colorful sunset at Eiffel Tower Stadium prior to a beach volleyball match between The United States and Canada at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

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A spectator walks through a water mist sprayers on her way to Eiffel Tower Stadium to watch a beach volleyball at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Sunday, July 28, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

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Germany’s Svenja Mueller warms up before a beach volleyball practice in Eiffel Tower Stadium at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Thursday, July 25, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

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Teams of Japan and Netherlands compete during the women’s pool E beach volleyball match at Eiffel Tower Stadium at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)

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A view from the Eiffel Tower down towards the Champ de Mars taking in the beach volleyball stadium at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, Pool)

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Brazil play Spain, right, in a beach volleyball match at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, Pool)

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Search lights shine above Eiffel Tower Stadium, the beach volleyball venue at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

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Brazil play Spain, right, in a beach volleyball match at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, Pool)

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A visitor takes an image via the viewfinder of a telescope from the Eiffel Tower and down towards the Champs de Mars taking in the beach volleyball stadium at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, Pool)

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A staff member sprays water on spectators during the women’s pool E beach volleyball match between Brazil and Lithuania at Eiffel Tower Stadium at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)

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Stephanie Touissaint, foreground, uses a fan to keep cool in the sweltering heat at Eiffel Tower Stadium during a beach volleyball match between Cuba and Brazil at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

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The United States plays Morocco in a beach volleyball match at Eiffel Tower Stadium at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

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Brazil’s Barbara Seixas De Freitas serves during the women’s pool E beach volleyball match between Brazil and Lithuania at Eiffel Tower Stadium at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)

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A spectator wearing an Olympic mascot hat watches a beach volleyball match at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

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Canada’s Brandie Wilkerson, left, and Canada’s Melissa Humana-Paredes celebrate their victory over Paraguay in a beach volleyball match at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

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Supporters of France wave flags during the men’s pool F beach volleyball match between France and USA at Eiffel Tower Stadium at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)

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A spectator waves a French flag before a beach volleyball match between the US and Czechia at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Sunday, July 28, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

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French spectators at Eiffel Tower Stadium watch beach volleyball at sunset at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Sunday, July 28, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

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Peter Spens, of London, England, paints the scene at Eiffel Tower Stadium during a beach volleyball match at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

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The Eiffel Tower is seen at sunset before the start of the women’s pool B beach volleyball match between USA and Canada at Eiffel Tower Stadium at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)

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FILE - French President Emmanuel Macron visits the Tour Eiffel stadium that will host the Beach Volleyball, at the Champs-de-Mars, at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France, Wednesday, July 24, 2024. (Christophe Petit Tesson, Pool via AP, File)

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US artist Snoop Dogg attends a women’s beach volleyball match between The United States and France at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Wednesday, July 31, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

By JIMMY GOLEN

PARIS (AP) — The biggest beach volleyball star at the Paris Olympics can’t set, spike or dive around the sand.

But she sure is pretty.

The Eiffel Tower has been stealing the show from the competition below at the Summer Games so far, with fans and players alike ooh-la-la-ing over the nonpareil setting that has turned the stadium on the Champ de Mars into the Olympics’ iconic venue.

“I don’t know who chose this place to put beach volleyball. He deserves a medal, too,” said Cherif Younousse of Qatar, a Olympic medalist himself. “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.”

And the landmark the locals call La Dame de Fer — the Iron Lady — is just one reason the venue is such a hit. Fans wave baguettes, dance the can-can and sing along to music pumped out by a DJ, who turns the 12,860-seat stadium into the hottest club in Paris. A stream of celebrities, heads of state and royalty have stopped by to check it out.

“I’m more than happy to tell all the other sports, ‘Yeah, we definitely got the best venue,’” said Australian Taliqua Clancy, who won a silver medal in Tokyo. “It’s absolutely incredible. Honestly, you can’t beat it.”

Although beach volleyball only joined the Olympic program in 1996, it quickly has become one of the Summer Games’ most popular sports — thanks in part, no doubt, to the women in bathing suits, but also to an atmosphere that surrounds a fast-moving competition with a beach party vibe.

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The London venue at Horse Guards Parade sparkled with a view of the Big Ben clock tower and Benny Hill-style hijinx; four years later, the stadium at Copacabana beach pulsed with a samba beat, surrounded by Cariocas sunbathing — and playing beach volleyball and soccer — on the surrounding sands. Tokyo placed its venue in a waterfront park with a view of the Rainbow Bridge.

But Paris, as Paris tends to do, upstaged them all.

Every night as the sun sets behind the latticed landmark, the stadium goes dark and fans hold up their cellphone lights in a sort of digital reboot of Vincent Van Gogh’s “Starry Night.” At 10 p.m., the Eiffel Tower is illuminated with twinkling strobes, and would-be influencers scramble to get into position for the perfect picture, with the court and the Olympic rings and the tower all lined up in a row in the background.

“That is what dreams are made of,” said American Kristen Nuss, whose Olympic debut began right after the light show. “Guys, it’s a memory that will definitely be imprinted in my brain for forever.”

It’s not just the athletes.

Spanish, Jordanian and Luxembourgish royalty have graced the arena, as have the presidents of Finland, Estonia and Lithuania ( and France, mais oui! ). French soccer great Zinedine Zidane came by the morning after carrying the torch in the opening ceremony, and basketball Hall of Famer Pau Gasol came to root for his Spanish countrymen.

Gymnast Livvy Dunne cheered on fellow LSU Tigers Nuss and Taryn Kloth before posing for pictures to satisfy her 6 million TikTok followers. On Wednesday, Snoop Dogg and the cast of the “Today” show came to watch Americans Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes beat France in straight sets.

Moviemakers Baz Luhrmann and Judd Apatow and movie stars Elizabeth Banks and Leslie Mann have checked out the setting. Other times, it resembled a movie set: During a women’s match between France and Germany on Sunday, the crowd broke into a rendition of “La Marseillaise,” the French national anthem, that would make the resistance in “Casablanca” proud.

It is a scene that is, most of all, très French: One woman dressed as a can-can dancer in bleu, blanc and rouge posed for pictures with any fan who asked. A painter dabbed at his oils in the back of the press tribune — the only place that offers even a few hours of shade. The DJ worked Edith Piaf songs into his hip-hop and techno playlist, and the crowd sings along. Men in berets, with painted-on Dali moustaches, waved baguettes to cheer on the French team.

Hang that in the Louvre.

And looming over it all is the century-old latticed landmark that gives the venue its name. Looking for a practice court before play began, a volunteer helpfully offered directions: “You go there,” she said, “and turn left from the Eiffel Tower.”

“I think it’s the best venue ever,” France’s Clemence Vieira said after a 21-16, 23-21 loss to the Americans in front of the enthusiastic hometown fans. “It’s very symbolic, because the Tour Eiffel is a symbol of France. So I think there’s nothing to say but it’s just the best ever.”

Vieira, a 23-year-old first-time Olympian from Toulouse, might be a little biased. But even some repeat competitors agree: The 2024 beach volleyball venue is not just the best in Paris, but maybe the best in the history of the Games.

At the very least, it sets a standard that future organizers will struggle to surpass.

“This will be a hard one to top, I think,” said Nuss, who is hoping her first Olympics won’t be her last. “I’m not sure how anyone else would do it. But, I mean, I’m willing to see how they try.”

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AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

Olympic Hightlights

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FILE - South Africa’s Jacques Freitag competes in the men’s high jump of the 2004 Olympic Games, in the Olympic Stadium in Athens, Friday Aug. 20, 2004. Local media is reporting that South African police have discovered the body of former high jump world champion Jacques Freitag after he went missing last month. The reports said the 42-year-old, who won the 2003 world title in Paris and competed at the 2004 Olympics, had been shot. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)

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FILE - Ilona Maher of USA is tackled by Sharni Williams of Australia in a semifinal of the Rugby World Cup 7’s championship held in Cape Town, South Africa, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2022. The main task for Maher, the breakout social media star on TikTok at the Tokyo Olympics, is winning a medal in Paris. (AP Photo/Halden Krog, File)

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FILE - Jacques Freitag of South Africa waves his national flag after he won the Men’s high jump event at the World Athletics Championships, at the Stade de France in Saint Denis, north of Paris, Monday, Aug. 25, 2003. Local media is reporting that South African police have discovered the body of former high jump world champion Jacques Freitag after he went missing last month. The reports said the 42-year-old, who won the 2003 world title in Paris and competed at the 2004 Olympics, had been shot. (AP Photo/Thomas Kienzle, File)

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Sammy Sullivan of USA in action during HSBC rugby sevens series in Singapore, on May 4, 2024. The anthem played as Army officer Sammy Sullivan stood to attention and saluted beside her U.S. rugby teammates before a gold-medal game in Hong Kong against Olympic champion New Zealand. No prizes for guessing where her mind may have drifted to: Paris in July. (AP Photo/Suhaimi Abdullah)

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USA Water Polo Women’s Senior National Team attacker Ryann Neushul, left, trains at Long Beach City College Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024, in Long Beach, Calif. Following in the footsteps of two older sisters who won gold with the U.S. women’s water polo team, Ryann Neushul is making her Olympic debut in Paris this summer. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

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Iranian wrestler Iman Mahdavi, 28, practices at the Lotta Club Seggiano gym, in Pioltello , northern Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

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FILE - Steven van de Velde of the Netherlands competes during the CEV Beach Volley Nations Cup Vienna 2022 men’s semifinal game against Austria at the Red Bull Beach Arena in Vienna, Austria, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2022. Van de Velde, convicted and imprisoned eight years ago for raping an underage girl in England has qualified for the Paris Olympics. (AP Photo/Florian Schroetter, File)