The Paris Olympics have reached the halfway mark and while athletes’ families are in Paris cheering their loved ones on, people from North Texas, who don’t know anyone in the Games are turning up in large numbers.
Many we talked to said they had no problem planning a trip 5,000 miles away from North Texas to go to a bucket list city hosting some of the greatest athletes in the world.
Olympic organizers have predicted that more than 15 million visitors will be at the Olympics and Paralympic events before everything is said and done.
Two of those people are Jazze Maxie and her husband Brandon.
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"We have visited so many amazing places like the Eiffel Tower and then yesterday we visited the museum, the Louvre Museum, and I just thought that was spectacular,” Jazze said. “That's like one of the best places I've ever visited ever."
Maxie is a radio personality in North Texas and said this trip of a lifetime was a Christmas gift from her husband.
"Well, since we've been married, she's been talking about going to the Olympics,” Brandon said. “I wanted to go to the Olympics. I always watched the Olympics. It doesn't matter if it was volleyball, ping pong, whatever. And we always talked about taking a trip to Europe. So I kind of took care of two things at one time."
Paris 2024 Summer Olympics and Paralympics
Watch all the action from the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games live on Peacock
While her favorite parts have of course been the sites and seeing the Games, she said she was a bit shocked at how spread out the events are.
“They should have called it the France Olympics, not the Paris Olympics because the stuff is everywhere. We had tickets to one event and we had no idea that it was four hours away,” Jazze said.
There is a familiar face at the Paris Olympics. Ron Isbell, who NBC 5 has covered at a few Olympics, is at it again. Paris is his 13th Olympics between summer and winter. He has made it his mission to see the best in the world.
Kristin Kelley from Dallas said she wore her Texas Rangers hat and she said it was like a bat signal. She has even met strangers from North Texas while she has been here.
They all may be from different places across the area, but with one thing in common... their love of the Olympics.
