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Five things to know about the Paris 2024 Olympics

The Local France
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Five things to know about the Paris 2024 Olympics
French Olympians at the Eiffel Tower during the handover ceremony. Photo: Stephane du Sakatin/AFP

The official Olympics flag has been formally handed to Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo in the closing ceremony of the Tokyo games, so with just three years to go, what do we know about the Paris Olympics?

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The closing ceremony of the Tokyo games included a short video from the next host city, Paris, showcasing some of the city's most beautiful sites and some incredible sporting prowess.

So if that whetted your appetite, here are some things to know about the 2024 games.

 

1 Accessibility

The Paris organisers want to put events at the heart of the city, and to that end several of the capital's biggest landmarks are being pressed into service - beach volleyball is scheduled to be played under the Eiffel Tower, while urban sports including BMX competitions will be in the Place de la Concorde.

Open-water swimming events including the triathlon will utilise the River Seine, which will apparently be clean and safe to swim in by 2024.

MAP: Here is where events will be held for the 2024 Olympics

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2 Overseas

Slightly less accessible to residents of Paris will be the surfing competition, which is scheduled to take place in Tahiti. Yes, the Tahiti that is 15,000km from Paris. Tahiti is the largest island in French Polynesia, which is a collectivité d'outre-mer (overseas collective) and therefore technically counts as part of France in terms of Olympic events.

3 Breakdancing

New for the 2024 Olympics is breakdancing and the Paris organisers want to give this and other 'urban' sports like skateboarding and BMX riding a high profile. Urban events will be held in the Place de la Concorde and the Paris 2023 video at the handover event starred a French BMX rider. (And if you watched the video and are wondering who the man playing the saxophone in space was, that's French astronaut Thomas Pesquet, who is currently on the International Space Station).

READ ALSO Paris Olympics logo - 'is is Lisa Simpson or an emoji?'

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4 Green

The city of Paris is currently run by mayor Anne Hidalgo, a Socialist with a long-standing interest in environmental policies who is currently in coalition with the Green party, so the sustainability of the Games has been a big theme. Financial constraints have also resulted in the scrapping of two planned new venues, with the organising committee saying it is keen to use and improve existing venues.

There will, however, be a new athletes' village built in the deprived Seine-Saint-Denis area, which after the Games will be converted into housing for local people.

5 Flag

The Olympic flag was formally handed over to Paris at the closing ceremony in Tokyo and will be raised at the Hotel de Ville at 2.30pm on Monday. It will fly there until the end of the Games in 2024. Monday afternoon will see the flag-raising ceremony at Hotel de Ville and a celebration of France's successful Olympians at Trocadero from 5.30pm (health passport required for both events).

 

PS The head of the Paris organising delegation is Tony Estanguet, a three-time Olympic champion in the slalom canoe event, you can follow him on Twitter @TonyEstanguet for all the latest news about Les JO.

 

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Anonymous 2021/08/09 14:46
You missed one. They are going to bankrupt the country.

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