PARIS — The chants of ''Ra-fa! Ra-fa!'' roared the moment Rafael Nadal entered Roland Garros for Monday's match against Novak Djokovic. So hyped was the crowd just minutes in, the chair umpire asked the spectators to be quiet during play.
There's a very notable difference between the Paris Games and the two Olympics immediately before it: the noise.
From the judo mat to the swimming pool, the star-studded stands at gymnastics and every venue in between and beyond — even 10,000 miles away in Tahiti where surfing is going on — the fans have returned to the Games in raucous fashion. The Paris Olympics are the first with spectators since the COVID-19 pandemic forced Tokyo in 2021 and Beijing in 2022 to host their Games with eerily empty venues.
''This is probably a once-in-a-lifetime trip for us,'' said Jodie Linsey, who flew 23 hours from Australia with an overnight stop in South Korea so her 14-year-old daughter, Ellie, a swimmer, could see her idols in the pool.
It was a trip they couldn't have made the last two Olympics, which operated under tight pandemic restrictions. The sounds were quite different in Tokyo: Athletes complaining about the scorching heat could be plainly heard. Opponents could eavesdrop as the masked coaches of rivals gave instructions. The squeaking of sneakers on the court provided a soundtrack at basketball. Same with the thud of a volleyball at that indoor venue, and even a splash in the pool.
''I'm someone that thrives off crowd and the environment, so when that wasn't there in Tokyo, I really struggled to get up for it, and then obviously when it started to go wrong for me in the final, it was really hard to then keep going and push myself and I was really disappointed with it," said Kimberley Woods of Britain following her bronze medal in the women's kayak singles slalom event at Paris.
"Here, didn't have any of that issue. The crowd really spurred you on. It was just there. The noise was there, the atmosphere was there and, yeah, they really spurred you on at the end.''
Hundreds of fans were lined up to enter Roland Garros nearly three hours before Monday's 60th meeting between Djokovic and Nadal, more than any other two men have played against each other in the sport's Open era, which began in 1968. Nadal has not revealed if the Olympic stage in Paris, where he won 14 French Open titles, is his farewell tour.
