We have been so lucky to have traveled so much and taken so many trips throughout the years. Among many many trips, Paris for the Olympics takes the cake as my favorite travel experience! There is something to be said about the energy, excitement, and international setting that is the Olympics. Plus, it is such a once in a lifetime experience that I am so grateful for.
This is the first of several posts as there is so much to cover! From how we got tickets, to the events, to the atmosphere. One post would be way to long for your reading attention span (and my writing attention span). First, this post will cover the events we attended.
We were really lucky to get tickets to so many events! I will do a post on the tickets, how much it cost, and tips in another blog post, but for now, my tip is to plan in advance. In the end, we got to see Woman’s Gymnastics, Woman’s Diving, Track & Field, Woman’s Indoor Volleyball, and Beach Volleyball x2. I have so many thoughts about all of the games so here is a deep dive per sport.
🏖️Starting off strong with Beach Volleyball was a huge highlight! There is nothing like it to be facing the Eiffel tower with the energy of the fans, good weather, and quality sports. I will say this a lot, but this really was a once in a lifetime experience! We got to go to 2 days of beach volleyball- we are so lucky and fortunate! On the second day, we were in row 3, at the net, facing the Effiel tower- it was UNREAL. The energy was electric doing the “monster smash” cheer and taking in the views. Incredible doesn’t even begin to describe it ❤
🤸♀️Next up, we had Woman’s Gymnastics. Now, when I mention this event people get so so excited and ask if we got to see Simone Biles, saw any goal medal sessions etc. Unfortunately, this event was a bit of a let down…. We had category “B” seats, but honestly they weren’t very good. We also got the worst of the preliminary draws so we didn’t get to see any big names. Although, w did cheer on the Netherlands which was a bit fun. So to answer the questions, no we didn’t see Simone Biles and no we didn’t get to see any medals. Although, in 2023, we went to the World Championship Worlds for Gymnastics which is a preliminary to the Olympics. Here we got to see all of the big names, super close up, and saw the medal rounds. All for a much cheaper price in Antwerp!
🏃♀️Next up, was Track & Field. Typically, this isn’t my favorite event to watch, but it turned out really fun! It was cool to be in the giant stadium and to see a lot of athletes. Spoiled again with 3rd row seats and we finally got to cheer on some Americans. This was the only event that we got to see Americans at. We saw many different events in our time slot and were joined my some of Ryan’s coworkers which was nice to have others to chit chat with.
🏐Indoor Volleyball- wow was this a highlight! I love woman’s volleyball and I think after seeing it at the Olympics I would say I prefer indoor volleyball to beach volleyball as it is so fast paced and longer points vs beach volleyball. Our seats for this were literally ON THE FLOOR at the net. We were behind the players and it was so cool! We got to see the China vs Turkey game and it was really close going into 5 sets. Although it wasn’t Americans, I am glad we got to see such a close game and the crowd was going crazy! I would highly recommend seeing a volleyball game at the Oylimpics.
🤿Finally, the last event that we attended was woman’s springboard Diving. This was quite a last minute decision as we got the tickets the night before on the resale platform. At this point, we had 1 day left in Paris and we hadn’t really seen any Americans and we wanted to see some as well as go to one more final event. We saw these tickets for the semi-finals for springboard diving and it looked promising for an American (and Minnesotan) to be in the group. Unfortunately, the American we were hoping to see got 19th and they only took the top 18 in the semis. It was still super cool to see though and the venue was beautiful and brand new! These were the most expensive tickets we got, but well worth it for our final event of the trip before we headed to the high speed train to head back to Amsterdam.
Stay tuned for more of the Olympics!
❤ Melanie
Smiles from Miles Away 