Jill Biden meets with US Olympic athletes in Paris — and even helps with a relay drill

PARIS (AP) — U.S. first woman Jill Biden visited some American athletes at an Olympic coaching middle in Paris on Thursday, wishing rugby and observe and discipline rivals good luck and even participating in a stationary relay drill with runners.

Biden arrived in Paris a day earlier than the Summer season Video games’ opening ceremony on the Seine River. She’s going to watch athletes parade on a flotilla of boats Friday after a reception with French President Emmanuel Macron and his spouse, Brigitte, on the Élysée Palace.

Biden, escaping a tumultuous political atmosphere in Washington after President Joe Biden ended his marketing campaign for a second time period, spoke to the households of U.S. athletes earlier than visiting the rivals themselves on their observe fields.

“As they leap, and dash, and switch, America’s athletes aren’t solely propelled by the years of sweat and sacrifice they’ve poured into their coaching,” she stated in entrance of an enormous USA cutout coloured with the American flag. “Your love can be there, pushing them additional, serving to them go sooner, lifting them increased as they attain for gold.”

After her speech on the residence of the U.S. ambassador to France, Denise Bauer, Biden headed to a coaching middle within the northern Paris suburbs to go to with athletes on the U.S. ladies’s rugby workforce and the observe and discipline workforce. She hugged a few of them, took footage and helped in a observe drill the place athletes hand off the baton.

The primary woman began the relay drill, standing as she handed the baton to the runners positioned arm’s size aside as they practiced handing it off in fast succession.

After the opening ceremony, Biden will converse at a brunch to commemorate the opening of the Video games and have fun the 2028 Olympics to be held in Los Angeles. LA Mayor Karen Bass was amongst these accompanying Biden on the Paris journey.