Kate Courtney receives the Olympic flag from Tom Cruise in the transition towards Los Angeles 2028

The closing ceremony of the Paris Olympics ended with a movie-like transition to the next Olympic host in Los Angeles 2028. A staging in the purest Hollywood style with Tom Cruise as the main star, but in which mountain biking had a great prominence with the appearance of Kate Courtney carrying the Olympic flag.

Kate Courtney takes the Olympic flag from Tom Cruise's hand to carry it to Los Angeles 2028

As is tradition, the end of one Olympics gives way to the beginning of the next, and that transported us from France to the USA during the closing ceremony of the Paris Olympics. An occasion in which Hollywood did not miss the opportunity and took advantage to make a presentation in the purest Mission Impossible style.

Tom Cruise himself jumped into the void to the Olympic stadium, took the flag, rode a motorcycle through the streets of Paris, got on a military plane and flew to Los Angeles where, after parachuting, mountain biker Kate Courtney, originally from California, was in charge of receiving the flag and bringing it down from Mount Lee, where the iconic Hollywood sign is located, to the city.

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Remember that although Courtney was left out of the US selection for the Paris Olympics, she is one of the great references in national mountain biking. A sport that has its origins in Mount Talpais, California, in the 1970s but had not had great American successes in competition until Courtney became World Champion in 2018.

This milestone can be seen as the turning point after which a powerful generation of American bikers has arrived, such as Chris Blevins, Savilia Blunk, Riley Amos, or Haley Batten who have just achieved the first Olympic medal in XCO for the United States in MTB.