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

PARIS (AP) — 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.

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 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 to be held in Los Angeles. LA Mayor Karen Bass was among those accompanying Biden on the Paris trip.