“We don’t really follow beach volleyball but we wanted to see the site with the Eiffel Tower,” said Solene Naeye, a local Parisian who came to the spot for pictures. She took in her surroundings and noted the beauty of the moment. “It’s a way for us French people to rediscover our city, so that’s really nice.”
Matt Knigge, an alternate with the U.S. men’s indoor volleyball team, came to the stadium on his night off from training Sunday. Knigge, from California, has traveled all over playing volleyball but said he’s never seen such an “emblematic” location.
“You’re hard-pressed to find anything more beautiful than what we have right now,” he said, pointing up at the tower. “The sun is setting in the background. I think if you were writing a fairytale of beach volleyball at the Olympics, this is it.”
He took photos of himself with his digital camera, and then asked a stadium attendant to get a photo of him, hoping for the best angle possible. Then he took a few more on his phone.
“In the day and age of social media and people marketing based on social media, this is it,” Knigge said while pointing around. “They’ve done it. They’ve achieved it.”
TikTok said the Eiffel Tower location tag on its app had over 80,000 posts Sunday, with the beach volleyball hashtag around 88,900.
Athletes from sports all across the Games have come over. French President Emmanuel Macron, who visited the stadium on Wednesday, posted a selfie video from the top row of the stands facing the Eiffel Tower.
American college gymnast and social media influencer Olivia Dunne was there Saturday night getting some shots for all her socials. She shared a video with her 8 million followers on TikTok, as well as photos on her Instagram stories. Her TikTok post, during which she was standing right in front of the Eiffel Tower, had 1.6 million views and more than 173,000 likes only 23 hours later.
Right around 10 p.m. Sunday, the lights at the stadium dimmed. The tower lit up. Orange streaks painted the blue sky. Suddenly, the tower began to glitter and everyone “ooh’d” and “ah’d” in harmony. They all raised their phones, the same image displayed thousands of times throughout the venue.
“I’ll definitely be making a post on Instagram,” said Kaden Augustine, of St. Louis, Missouri, standing next to his brother, Kanen, in matching overalls displaying the U.S. flag. “Just because of how pretty it is here.”