Au revoir to a wonderful Olympics

Paris officially bid adieu to its Summer Games this evening with a festive closing ceremony featuring joyous athletes, live music, theatrical performances and, yes, Tom Cruise.

Summer McIntosh and Ethan Katzberg — Canada's two youngest gold medallists — shared the role of flag-bearer as their country celebrated its most successful Summer Olympics ever.

Some closing thoughts on a truly delightful Games:

This was Canada's best Summer Olympics.

Canadians piled up 27 medals in Paris, including nine gold — both national records for a non-boycotted Summer Games. Yes, there are more events than ever now, and the Russia/Belarus ban surely opened up some podium opportunities. But this Canadian team went above and beyond expectations.

For example, the oft-cited Nielsen's Gracenote projections had Canada winning seven gold and 21 total medals, while oddsmakers more or less fell in line with those numbers. Hope you bet the over.

Canadians were front and centre throughout the Games, starring in the two most popular sports. McIntosh delivered on all the hype, and then some, winning a national-record three golds and a silver as Canada racked up eight swimming medals. Then, Canadians climbed five track and field podiums, highlighted by Ethan Katzberg and Camryn Rogers' historic sweep of the hammer throw titles and, of course, the men's 4x100m relay team's towering gold-medal upset.

Canadians broke new ground.

Rogers and Katzberg weren't the only ones to make history. B-boy Phil Wizard won the first Olympic men's gold medal in breaking, Christa Deguchi grabbed Canada's first judo gold, and Katie Vincent paddled to the country's first Olympic title in women's canoe. Beach volleyballers Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson and