This is part of the Courier’s August 15 forum page and includes a guest commentary from a community-connected couple who attended the Paris Olympics. Here is the report:

The Paris Games and the people there do not disappoint

Editor’s note: This observation was written by Christina Jackman Schwendeman, who is married to Eric Schwendeman, a first cousin of Courier publisher Jeremy Waltner. The Schwendemans have a home in Italy and were attending the 2024 Olympics in Paris from Aug. 2-10. She wrote this on Facebook afterward. It is used here with permission.

I’ve read many headlines about how successfully Paris hosted the Olympics and they completely validate our experience. Eric and I were more amazed by the day. The city was clean, public transportation worked better than ever, we always felt safe thanks to the huge police presence and the thousands of volunteers were incredible. Not only were they helpful but extremely friendly and set the tone for the genuine joy that I think everyone collectively felt during the Games. There was an atmosphere of camaraderie and sportsmanship throughout the city. Tourists and locals, spectators and athletes all came together in a way that made us feel truly part of something special.

We sat in a cafe and chatted with a Nigerian boxer who had just lost his fight. We hung out with the huge family of American Kristen Faulkner in a subway station the day after she won gold. An Irish family practically adopted us over dinner one night, and now I think the dad might be Eric’s new best friend. We laughed with French bartenders about how carefully we try to pronounce “merci beaucoup” correctly because it often comes out as “merci beau-cul” (one means “thank you very much,” the other means “thank you, beautiful ass”). And all this against the backdrop of what I think is the most beautiful city in the world (and even Mother Nature decided to play along by giving us incredible weather).

There was a sense of unity that renewed my faith in humanity. Some of it was intangible, but one good example was that at every competition in which a Ukrainian athlete took part, the crowd cheered for Ukraine louder than any other country. And we all cheered for France.

I could go on and on, but at the end of the day, it was just a lot of fun and everything we hoped and imagined the Olympics would be. LA has big plans for 2028!