The French’s passion for their athletes, quotable quotes, and other thoughts on the Paris Olympics

PARIS — First and final thoughts following the opening week of the Olympics …

One of the most common questions I’ve gotten since arriving here on July 24 has been the easiest one to answer.

Q: What sporting event has had the best atmosphere so far?

A: Any event involving France.

It’s true. Look, certain events have been and will be electrifying simply for the fame and brilliance of the competitors. Put these Olympians anywhere, and they’re going to draw a huge and exuberant crowd and loads of global interest. You know their names already: Simone Biles, Katie Ledecky, Sha’Carri Richardson, Noah Lyles, the U.S. men’s basketball team, Caitlin Cla … oh, wait.

But the French have been a nation full of Billy Mumphreys since the Games began. Their enthusiasm has been unbridled — so much so that it has enhanced the experience of covering any event in which they have a strong rooting interest. They turned La Défense Arena, the Olympic natatorium, into a Taylor Swift show every time Leon Marchand stepped up to the starting block and only got louder whenever he closed in on another gold medal. “The pool was on fire tonight,” Marchand told reporters after one race. “I had goose bumps.” They let Joel Embiid have it every chance they get. If I hadn’t known better, I would have mistaken the France-Ireland men’s rugby sevens match I attended at a packed Stade de France for a Big Ten football game.

The 2028 Summer Olympics will be in Los Angeles — the first Summer Games in the U.S. since Atlanta’s in 1996. Yeah, it’ll be another presidential election year, so that’ll be fun. Still, the Games should, to some degree, counteract all the culture-war nonsense and infighting, put that silliness to the side, and bring us together for a while, right? A politically homeless man can dream.

So can the U.S. athletes. Ledecky, for instance, has said publicly that she would love to compete in ‘28. (She’ll be 31 then. But she just won the 1,500-meter freestyle by more than 10 seconds, so what’s the worst that would happen in L.A.? She’d win by more than six seconds?) And she made it sound like the opportunity to take part in an Olympics in her home country, in front of her fellow Americans, would be too good to pass up.

» READ MORE: Philly fencer Maia Weintraub was clutch for Team USA. Her ‘Tiger Mom’ and dad can now savor her road to Olympic gold.

“Seeing the kind of support the French athletes are getting here, I think all of the U.S. athletes are thinking about how cool that could be in Los Angeles, having the home crowd,” she said. “That would be amazing.”

It could be. It should be. We’ll see if that setting can match the energy here. It is a high bar to meet.

A few memorable quotes from the Games so far:

“What we do as track-and-field athletes is the pinnacle of sport. We are the cutting edge of human performance, whether it’s jumping far, throwing far, sprinting fast. … When you have the eight fastest people in the world in a race, the slow person is still the eighth-fastest person in the world, and the person sitting on the couch is like, ‘Dang, that 10.1 is slow.’”

— Ryan Crouser, two-time Olympic shot put champion

“You get the question of, ‘Why don’t you just retire?’ It’s something I’ve been doing since I was 5. It’s something I’ve dedicated my whole life to, and it’s just so easy for a question to be brought up in a manner where it’s not meant to be disrespectful, but if you’re the person being asked, it is a bit disrespectful. I’m here to compete.”

— Diana Taurasi, U.S. women’s basketball player

“She actually used to be kind of good before she became a cheerleader.”

— Kahleah Copper, U.S. women’s basketball player and North Philadelphia native, on the hoops skills of her sister, Latifah

On Wednesday night, after Ledecky won the women’s 1,500-meter freestyle, and Thursday night, after Simone Biles won the women’s all-around program, each was part of a press conference that included the silver and bronze medalists in the events. France’s Anastasiia Kirpichnikova and Germany’s Isabel Gose were on the dais with Ledecky, and Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade and the U.S.’s Suni Lee joined Biles.

I suppose this arrangement — having all three medalists talk at once — is done for expediency’s and convenience’s sake. The athletes are busy, and though they never seem to mind speaking with the media, the people charged with handling them tend to opt for the path of fewest and friendliest questions.

» READ MORE: Simone Biles pulled off two great comebacks in the all-around: One to win gold, one to step back from the brink.

Still, it’s a pretty stark contrast to what’s customary in American professional sports. And pretty awkward, too. Could you imagine, for example, the winning and losing quarterbacks in a Super Bowl showing up at the same press conference immediately after the game?

Reporter: Hey, Tom, what’s it like to lose the biggest game of the year in excruciating fashion to a guy who was a backup, who almost retired before this season, and who is sitting next to you right now?

Nick Foles: Yeah, Tom, what’s that like?