Paris Olympics closing ceremony - what you need to know

After more than two weeks of action-packed sport, Paris is preparing for the 2024 Olympics closing ceremony.

It will take place on Monday, 12 August and is being held at the Stade de France, which has hosted athletics and rugby sevens during the Games.

It is scheduled to start at 7am (NZ time) and finish at 9.30am.

How can I watch the closing ceremony?

Sky has the New Zealand broadcast rights for the 2024 Olympics, including the opening ceremony.

Sky will have 12 channels dedicated to the games. Some will be screened on Sky Open, which is free-to-air.

Is Tom Cruise involved in the closing ceremony?

Organisers have remained tight-lipped about who is appearing, but film star Tom Cruise is heavily rumoured to be taking part by abseiling down the stadium.

There will be a segment during which Paris hands over to the next hosts of the summer Olympics - Los Angeles in 2028 - and that could be where the Hollywood star features.

The closing ceremony will feature performers, dancers and circus artists taking part alongside famous headlining acts, both French and American.

Snoop Dogg, who has been prominent throughout the Games, is set to perform - as are French artists Air and Phoenix.

Artistic director Thomas Jolly said the show was called 'Records', and it promises to take the audience on a science-fiction dream-like immersive journey through time.

That will begin from the origins of the Olympic Games and will go to a dystopian future when the Olympics have disappeared and must be reinvented.

Athletes' parade and handover of the Olympic flag

As well as the unique artistic section, the closing ceremony will also include more traditional elements, including:

• The parade of athletes.
• The thanking of the 45,000 volunteers.
• The medal ceremony for the women's marathon.
• The extinguishing of the Olympic flame, which will be brought from Tuileries, where the cauldron has been on display and visited by tens of thousands of fans.
• The proclamation of the end of the Olympic Games, made by the president of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach
• The handover of the Olympic flag from Anne Hidalgo to Karen Bass - the respective mayors of Paris and Los Angeles.

What is the weather forecast?

Although the closing ceremony is taking place inside a stadium, unlike the rain-soaked opening ceremony along the River Seine, it is still open to the elements.

No rain is forecast for Sunday. Instead it will be extremely hot, with temperatures peaking at 33C in the French capital.

- BBC, with additional reporting by RNZ