Otherworldly spectacle of beach volleyball under the Eiffel Tower rocks Paris – literally | Jack Snape

Any cynicism there may be about the sport’s place at the Olympics was silenced as stands at the makeshift venue shook on finals night

There’s something unnerving about watching beach volleyball under the Eiffel Tower. It’s not the imported sand, engineered so as not to stick to the athletes’ bodies. Not the contrived MC, amping up the crowd. It’s not the fixtures timed just perfectly to take in the glorious sunset across Paris. Not the picture perfect light show whose focus is Paris’ great monument.

The thing that really gets you, watching the beach volleyball medal matches at the start of the Games’ final weekend, is when the stands start swaying. Forty metres high, they ring the court on three sides. One of the hottest tickets in this Parisian summer, the temporary seats have completed the fabulous vision of the Games, simple to understand at a glance: the Olympics are in Paris.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/GIhlMDg
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