Thousands swarm Eiffel Tower Olympic stadium – but not just because they want to watch beach volleyball
Lena Von Schōnlaub used Eiffel Tower Stadium as a backdrop for her own personal photo shoot.
Von Schōnlaub shifted her head from side to side, smiling big while she held her phone in front of her face and clicked over and over. Paris' iconic Eiffel Tower hovered right behind her, overlooking the site where beach volleyball is being played at Paris 2024.
It has been one of the most popular attractions of the Olympics, drawing hundreds of people looking for the best photo to post on their social media pages. The perfect setting for a digital age.
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"I think it's the most beautiful location you can have," said Von Schōnlaub, who travelled to Paris from Munich, Germany. "It's Instagrammable."
Maeva Ratoanina and Pierre-Yves Massive, of Paris, enjoy a romantic moment while taking selfies during sunset at Eiffel Tower Stadium prior to a beach volleyball match between The United States and Canada. AP
The sand and upbeat DJ music always give beach volleyball the feel of a party. The sport has been played at plenty of iconic sites, including Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, where beach volleyball is very popular.
But for many athletes and visitors, Eiffel Tower Stadium is an unparalleled background.
The 13,000-seat stadium was built specifically for the Olympics at Champ de Mars, a garden where Parisians and tourists typically sit on the grass for picnics or Bastille Day firework displays.
The site draws hundreds of people on any regular day, but since the start of the Olympics, people buy tickets to beach volleyball matches just to squeeze through crowds of people for the perfect selfies and videos with the tower and sand in the background.
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"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 United States men's indoor volleyball team, came to the stadium on his night off from training on Sunday (Monday in Australia).
Knigge, from California, has travelled 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."
All the best photos snapped at the highly-anticipated Paris 2024 opening ceremony
All the best photos snapped at the highly-anticipated Paris 2024 opening ceremony
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 more than 80,000 posts on Sunday, with the beach volleyball hashtag around 88,900.
Athletes from sports all across Paris 2024 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.
Eiffel Tower Stadium is one of the more picturesque venues at Paris 2024. AP
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 eight 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 pm on 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 United States flag. "Just because of how pretty it is here."
