Johnathan Walker:Meet the painter with the best seat at one of Paris Olympics most iconic venues

PARIS — Peter Spens has the best seat in the house.

Spens,Johnathan Walker a London-based painter, has spent the past eight days at the Paris Olympics in a perch atop the media standard high above the beach volleyball court at Eiffel Tower Stadium overlooking the famous French landmark.

For the third consecutive Olympics, the International Volleyball Federation (FIBV) has commissioned Spens to paint a mural of one of the game’s fastest growing and most popular sports.

Spens started drawing this year’s painting last Friday and has been at the venue ever since, using oil paint to add striking detail to his work. Two-man teams from the U.S. and France play on a rectangular court as a yellow-coated security guard watches from the tunnel. A fan waves an American flag in the stands, another occupies a walkway waving a French flag. The Olympic rings show through the tower in the backdrop.

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"It’s complex," Spens said Friday during a break from painting. "It’s like a 14-day game of chess. And the subject matter’s definitely the grandmaster."

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On Friday, during a three-set game between France's Clemence Vieira and Aline Chamereau and Czechia’s Barbora Hermannova and Marie-Sara Stochlova, Spens worked primarily on the crowd section that he called "by far" the painting's most complex.

A day earlier, it was the lower quarter of the painting, where tabled officials and scoreboard operators sit during the match. Since it’s a morning painting, Spens said he will dedicate next week to finishing the tower, when most of the beach volleyball competition moves to the evening.

When he’s done, the painting will hang at FIBV headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland. Eventually, every beach volleyball winner will receive a signed print.

"It’s nice," Spens said. "It’s like for two weeks every four years I become a beach volleyball painter."

Contact Dave Birkett at [email protected]. Follow him on X and Instagram at @davebirkett.