Paris Games chief hails 12 million tickets sold for Olympics and Paralympics

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French President of the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics Organising Committee (COJO) Tony Estanguet delivers a speech during the Paris 2024 Paralympic Opening Ceremony at the Place de la Concorde in Paris, France, Wednesday Aug. 28, 2024. (Julien De Rosa/Pool Photo via AP)

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French President of the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics Organising Committee (COJO) Tony Estanguet delivers a speech during the closing ceremony of the 2024 Paralympics, Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

By TOM NOUVIAN

PARIS (AP) — More than 12 million tickets were sold for the Olympics and Paralympics and Paris organizers hailed it as “unprecedented success” on Friday.

The 12,132,647 tickets across both Games represented 95% of crowd capacity at the venues, said Tony Estanguet, the head of the Paris organizing committee.

“We knew how complicated it could be to organize such a big event, and we can now say that we are very happy it all went well,” Estanguet said at a news conference in Saint-Denis.

Estanguet noted the Paris Games set a new benchmark for attendance and engagement. The last evening of Paralympics athletics on Sept. 7 sold 67,500 tickets at the Stade de France, the highest turnout for any session this summer.

“There was a bit of daring in challenging ourselves to do things that had never been done before,” Estanguet said, referencing the Olympics and Paralympics opening ceremonies held outside stadiums, and competitions staged near prestigious landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower and Palace of Versailles.

Estanguet said this innovative approach captured the interest of 2028 Los Angeles Games organizers, who shadowed the Paris team throughout the summer.

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He also announced that the Paris and Los Angeles organizers will have multiple meetings in the coming months to share insights between the Games.

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“The main message would be to be audacious and to build on the specificities and the strength of their territory,” Estanguet advised. “It’s up to them to define what is the main strength of LA 28 and to really be audacious.”

Paris’ feel-good summer of sport culminates on Saturday in a grand parade on the Champs Elysées featuring hundreds of French athletes.

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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)