Sir Matthew Pinsent
Four-time Olympic rowing champion

Women’s quad race rowing gold medal.

Hannah Scott, Georgie Brayshaw, Lola Anderson and Lauren Henry - a perfectly judged race put the Netherlands under huge pressure at the end and they led for what must have been 0.001% of the race! Their immediate reactions were brilliant – joy, celebration, shock and tears all at once.

GB’s Triathlon Gold medallist Alex Yee: “It has been amazing. I think obviously I'd have liked to have won it [the triathlon] in a bit more of a comfortable fashion. I think it was exciting for everyone at home. I’m glad I could put on a show and receive so much love. It has been amazing to be part of it.”

“It's absolutely mad, [to be selected as flag bearers], I'm sure Bryony would agree. We are just normal people who love our sport. For us two to be selected is just amazing and for two slightly smaller sports to be selected in such esteemed company is absolutely amazing so we are really honoured."

GB gold medallist Bryony Page on when she received the call to be a flagbearer: “I was in the dining hall with my teammates and had to take a step away to be told. I was over the moon - started crying and then I wasn't allowed to tell anyone straight away.

“I've literally been shaking since then. I thought they’re definitely going to tell something’s up here but luckily I think I held myself together just in time.”

Team GB's flag is being carried by triathlon gold medal winner Alex Yee and Bryony Page, who claimed gold in trampolining.

Antoine Dupont won gold with France in the rugby sevens and is carrying his nation's flag alongside Pauline Ferrand Prevot, who took gold in the cross-country mountain biking.

Dupont almost went face down as he came out and tripped over a cable.

A couple of athletes have almost gone down as they continue coming out into the Stade de France.

James FitzGerald
BBC News reporter at the Stade de France

That seemed a slower and more reflective rendition of La Marseillaise than we heard belted out in the torrential rain during the opening ceremony. The bombast was saved for the end, and there were a few unexpected dynamics along the way from conductor Zahia Ziouani.

It seemed to be enthusiastically sung from the stands. Many of the French I've spoken to here in Paris have said the last fortnight has felt like a time of much-needed unity after plenty of domestic political disagreement in recent months.

Alistair Watkins
BBC Sport in Paris

After Helen Glover and Heather Stanning claimed gold in the women's pair at London 2012, a young Lola Anderson wrote a note in her diary saying “it would be my biggest dream in life to go to the Olympics in rowing and if possible win a gold for GB".

She later threw it away, but her father Don retrieved it. He kept it for seven years and, when he was diagnosed with terminal cancer, reminded her of her dreams.

"I know that he would be so proud of me," a tearful Anderson said after winning gold in a thrilling women's quadruple sculls final. "I am thinking about him a lot right now.

"It's quite overwhelming to be experiencing this but I am so grateful. I threw it away because I didn't believe. I was 13 at the time, so why would you believe that?"

Anderson added the diary entry was as valuable to her as an Olympic gold medal.

"I always get a bit nervous taking it anywhere with me," she said. "What happens if a suitcase gets lost, or something like that?

"It's a piece of paper but it's the most valuable thing I have, maybe joint with this gold medal now.”

That's the flags - French and Olympic - raised and now for the flag parade to begin.

Greece, as tradition dictates, lead the way alongside France.

Image source, Reuters

Les, Liverpool

Paul, London

The Prince and Princess of Wales have called Team GB’s athletes an “inspiration to us all” ahead of the Olympics’ closing ceremony.

In a video on X, external, Prince William and Princess Catherine congratulated the athletes alongside a string of celebrities, including American rapper Snoop Dogg, former England footballer David Beckham, and retired Olympic athlete Jessica Ennis-Hill.

IOC president Thomas Bach and French president Emmanuel Macron have just stood up to shake hands and we're now being treated to a lovely rendition of the French national anthem.

I said it in the opening ceremony and despite hearing it 16 times - that's how many gold medals France have won - through the Games, this is still a banger as far as anthems go.

Even more so when it's delivered by an orchestra.

Andrew Cotter
Commentator on BBC One

We are here on a beautiful, balmy night in the Stade de France, with another show of fantasy and stories and history. Some speeches, some flag-folding for good measure.

Image source, Getty Images

James FitzGerald
BBC News reporter at the Stade de France

The quiet reverie here inside the stadium for that choral rendition of Sous le Ciel didn't last long: it's just been punctuated by big whoops and applause, which are more familiar sounds in the Stade de France.

They were first for Marchand, mentioned below, and then a contingent of Games volunteers, who've just popped up in the arena in their distinctive turquoise garb.

Andy Jameson
Former Team GB Olympic swimmer

Leon Marchand’s audacious double gold in the swimming pool in one finals session, his second and third gold medals of this Olympics.

The Frenchman took on the very best in the world in two incredibly challenging events, and probably not in the order that he would have chosen them to be.

First, the 200m butterfly, renowned as a brutal event on its own. He had to take on and beat the defending Olympic Champion and World Record holder Kristof Milak of Hungary.

Less than two hours later Marchand entered the arena for a second time that night to take on the best in the world on another brutal individual event, the 200m Breaststroke. The 15,000 capacity crowd were so partisan and crazy noisy that the starter had to ask for silence for the start.

Another Olympic record time and only 0.37 seconds outside the World Record, Marchand achieved something that nobody had ever even considered possible, not even the greatest of all time, the biggest GOAT in Olympic history, Michael Phelps, who was watching on in astonishment and admiration.

All who witnessed it were standing, screaming and shouting, in total awe and wonder at what must have been one of the most spectacular and audacious “doubles" in sporting history.

Matthew Henry
BBC Sport in Paris

As someone who spent the first nine days of this Olympics at La Defense Arena I’ll have to with a moment from the pool. Once I’ve made that choice there’s only one person I can go with – Leon Marchand.

He was billed as the big French star and delivered four individual gold medals in a remarkable sweep.

And if you’re making me pick one moment, I’d go with Marchand’s victory in the 200m butterfly. That was the first of two remarkable victories in the space of less than two hours, with a medal ceremony in between.

Marchand’s other three wins were relatively comfortable. In the butterfly he had to overhaul world record holder Kristof Milak on the final length and when he did the noise really was spectacular.

LEON MARCHAND!

They couldn't wait to wheel out the superstar swimmer, who won four golds and one bronze - that's enough, on his own, to be 20th in the overall medal table.

He's well suited and booted as he strides up to the Olympic cauldron.

Marchand is being tasked with carrying a small flame to the Stade de France.

Get him in the Seine and he'll be there much quicker.

Mark Foster
Former freestyle world swimming champion

Ben Proud becoming the second fastest man on the planet in water, winning silver in the 50m freestyle.

He got fourth in 2016, fifth in 2020 and showed that perseverance, hard work and consistency are the key - never giving up and always believing anything is possible.

The 50m freestyle is the most competitive event in the pool and the closest. Everything needs to go right, no room for error.

And to top it off Ben is the most humble man and does everything under the radar. It’s time he got the attention he deserves.

President of France Emmanuel Macron and IOC President Thomas Bach are heading to their seats for the closing ceremony.

Fifa president Gianni Infantino is also in attendance.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

James FitzGerald
BBC News reporter in Paris

That’s a question I’ve been asking as I wander the streets of Paris.

You’ll remember that various concerns were raised ahead of the Olympics – about things like overcrowding and security.

Fast forward two weeks, and “everybody’s in a very good mood, surprisingly,” said one student, Estelle.

She’d booked tickets for the Paralympics after her worries about “chaotic” scenes in the French capital didn’t materialise.

But it hadn’t been plain-sailing for her friend Lisa, a resident of Lille. She was disrupted by rail issues after a big arson attack on the French network at the start of the Games.

That incident had been “not annoying… but maybe a bit,” she recalled.