First lady Jill Biden, center, delivers remarks to family members of Team USA with U.S. Ambassador to France, Denise Campbell Bauer, left, and Gene Sykes, chairman of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee, right, at the ambassador's residence during the 2024 Summer Olympics, Thursday, July 25, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)First lady Jill Biden, right, hugs U.S. track and field athlete Melissa Jefferson at the team's training facility during the 2024 Summer Olympics, Thursday, July 25, 2024, in Eaubonne, France. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)First lady Jill Biden, left, learns the proper technique to pass a baton from head women's relay coach Mechelle Freeman, center, of USA track and field, during a visit to the team's training facility during the 2024 Summer Olympics, Thursday, July 25, 2024, in Eaubonne, France. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)First lady Jill Biden, second from left, visits the U.S. Olympic training facility with Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., far left, Rocky Harris, second from right, and Brian Boitano, right, during the 2024 Summer Olympics, Thursday, July 25, 2024, in Eaubonne, France. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)First lady Jill Biden, left, speaks with Team USA women's rugby player Sammy Sullivan, right, during a visit to the team's training facility during the 2024 Summer Olympics, Thursday, July 25, 2024, in Eaubonne, France. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)First lady Jill Biden delivers remarks to family members of the U.S. Olympic team at the U.S. Ambassador's residence before the start of the 2024 Summer Olympics, Thursday, July 25, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved
First lady Jill Biden, center, delivers remarks to family members of Team USA with U.S. Ambassador to France, Denise Campbell Bauer, left, and Gene Sykes, chairman of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee, right, at the ambassador's residence during the 2024 Summer Olympics, Thursday, July 25, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
PARIS – U.S. first lady Jill Biden visited some American athletes at an Olympic training center in Paris on Thursday, wishing rugby and track and field competitors good luck and even taking part in a stationary relay drill with runners.
Biden arrived in Paris a day before the Summer Games' opening ceremony on the Seine River. She will watch athletes parade on a flotilla of boats Friday after a reception with French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, at the Élysée Palace.
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Biden, escaping a tumultuous political environment in Washington after President Joe Biden ended his campaign for a second term, spoke to the families of U.S. athletes before visiting the competitors themselves on their practice fields.
“As they leap and sprint and turn, America’s athletes aren’t only propelled by the years of sweat and sacrifice they’ve poured into their training,” she said in front of a giant USA cutout colored with the American flag. “Your love is also there, pushing them further, helping them go faster, lifting them higher as they reach for gold.”
After her speech at the residence of the U.S. ambassador to France, Denise Bauer, Biden headed to a training center in the northern Paris suburbs to visit with athletes on the U.S. women’s rugby team and the track and field team. She hugged some of them, took pictures and helped in a track drill where athletes hand off the baton.
The first lady started the relay drill, standing as she handed the baton to the runners positioned an arm's length apart as they practiced handing it off in quick succession.
After the opening ceremony, Biden will speak at a brunch to commemorate the opening of the Games and celebrate the 2028 Olympics being held in Los Angeles. LA Mayor Karen Bass was among those accompanying Biden on the Paris trip.
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