Inside Paris La Défense Arena, Canadian swimmer Finlay Knox stood behind the blocks and soaked in the feeling of hearing more than 13,000 cheering fans.
Sharing the pool for a couple of races with French swimming sensation Léon Marchand, who won four gold medals and a bronze at the Paris Olympics, Knox estimated the crowd was 10 times louder than normal.
Even though the French fans may not have been cheering for Knox specifically, he drew energy from them. "It was a truly incredible moment for me, and something that I had never experienced in my swimming career," Knox told reporters on Sunday.
With the last two Olympic Games staged during a pandemic emergency, Paris has marked the return of fans. Organizers promised a spectacle, and so far, it's lived up to that promise, from the venues to the celebrities in the stands.