As Los Angeles takes over in 2028, the Los Angeles Times worries: "Finally, dramatically, it has ended, the 2024 Paris Olympics finishing its last lap Sunday with incomparable enthusiasm, unbridled joy, and one last look at the gloriously intimidating Tour Eiffel. All of which means one thing. We’ve got next. Gulp. How on earth can the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics surpass what the world just witnessed in a two-week burst of picturesque rejoicing from the Champ de Mars to the Palace of Versailles? How can we match the overwhelming emotion from screaming fans and weeping athletes in a blockbuster Parisian party that was two weeks of pure Hollywood?"

The New York Times judges that "uncompromising French ambition has marked the remarkable 16 days of the Olympics, a miracle of detailed planning and execution at a cost of about $4.8 billion. France came into the Games shaken by two rounds of an unexpected legislative election that yielded a political impasse. It will exit with those problems unsolved but with a new self-confidence." Writer Roger Cohen continues: "It is as if the renowned schools of France that produce world-class engineers and world-class analytical thinkers found a way to fuse with the creators of French artistic beauty, turning Paris into a sumptuous, efficient stadium and its sometimes surly inhabitants into some of the kindest people on earth."

The Swiss daily Le Temps described the Olympic Games as "a complete success," but wondered: "It's always a little embarrassing to admit that we enjoyed the cleanliness, safety, reliable and efficient transport, friendly people and smiling policemen, because there's bound to be a downside, a social or financial cost to pay. A reality that, sooner or later, will catch up with us. (...) Soon, Paris will be returned to the Parisians and the media to political struggles. The real test for Paris and the Olympic spirit will come with the Paralympic Games, from August 28 to September 8. Will there be the same enthusiasm? The same atmosphere at the competition venues? The same deployment of resources? The same desire to share through sport?"

"Paris's stunning vision for the Olympics wins a gold medal," titles The Economist. The British weekly recalls that "as recently as April, according to a poll, the single most-frequent word used by the French to describe their attitude to the Olympics was 'indifference'; only 19% declared themselves 'proud'. But once the games got under way, and the medals flowed in, the French went wild. They found new heroes, notably Léon Marchand, the 22-year-old swimming champion and five-time medallist. Crowds have broken out into spontaneous renditions of 'La Marseillaise' at any excuse, including the nightly rise into the sky of the Olympic cauldron beneath a golden helium balloon." Pointing out that "95% of the venues used for the Paris Olympics were already in place or temporary," the magazine praises an Olympics that proved "that the games need not be Pharaonic."

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