Paris Olympics Closing Ceremony: Swimmer Emma McKeon Represents Oceania Into Retirement

After recently announcing her retirement from the sport, Australian Emma McKeon closed out her swimming career with quite the honor: representing the continent of Oceania at the closing ceremonies. 

At this year’s closing ceremony, Tony Estanguet, a three-time Olympic champion in canoe slalom, delivered a rousing speech to a crowd of onlookers in the Stade de France, which hosted rugby sevens and track and field. His speech rallied the audience, thanking everyone who was involved, and turned a spotlight on the successes of the games. He even acknowledged the host country’s recent success in the pool, saying:

“We wanted strong images, our competition venues will go down in the history of the Games. We wanted excitement, we got passion. We wanted to be inspired, we got Léon Marchand.”

Estanguet, the President of this year’s Olympics, was joined on stage by a representative from each of the inhabited continents as well as a representative from the Refugee Olympic Team. 

One very familiar figure was featured next to Estanguet as he delivered his speech: Australia’s most decorated swimmer of all time, Emma McKeon. The ceremony’s announcer in the arena highlighted each athlete by their name, sport, and career Olympic medals– leaving out their country of origin, instead electing to announce the athletes by their continents (consistent with the Olympic spirit of unity and togetherness). Joining McKeon in representing the world were as follows:

• Eliud Kipchoge, athletics, representing Africa: Two gold medals, one silver medal, one bronze medal
• Mijaín López, Wrestling, representing the Americas: Five gold medals
• Sun Yingsha, Table Tennis, representing Asia: Three gold medals, two silver medals
• Teddy Riner, Judo, representing Europe:  Five gold medals, two silver medals
• Cindy Ngamba, representing the Refugee Team: One bronze medal

Like McKeon, both Eliud Kipchoge and Mijaín Lopez announced their retirement following this year’s games. Kipchoge is a former world record holder in the men’s marathon, and López is a three-time Olympic champion wrestling in the 130kg weight class and a two-time Olympic champion wrestling in the 120kg weight class. 

The Australian women’s swimming team continued their legacy of excellence this year in the pool, and it shows through McKeon being chosen to represent the continent as well as Kaylee McKeown being selected as the country’s female flag bearer for the closing ceremony. Australia’s decision to nominate McKeown over McKeon ruffled some feathers amongst fans, as many thought the honor should have gone to McKeon, the country’s most decorated Olympian. It appears that the more prestigious honor ended in the hands of Emma McKeon, who played a larger role in the ceremony. Alongside the five other continental representatives and Leon Marchand, the Australian superstar extinguished the Olympic flame, officially closing out the Paris Olympics and “passing the torch” to Los Angeles for the 2028 Games. Marchand was originally poised to be France’s closing flag bearer, but instead was appointed to deliver the flame from the Tuileries Garden to the Stade de France.

McKeon was one of the top swimmers at the Tokyo games, winning seven medals, including four gold. She now holds six gold medals, three silver medals, and five bronze medals, earning one more of each color in Paris. At this year’s games, she placed first in the 4×100 freestyle relay, second in the 4×100 medley relay, third in the mixed 4×100 medley relay (swimming prelims), and sixth in the 100 butterfly to round out her illustrious career.