We all remember very well March 24, 2020, with the outbreak of the Corona virus. It was the day they officially announced the postponement of the Tokyo Olympic Games for a year, the day the whole world realized how huge and impactful this epidemic is, because if an event as big as the Olympics can be postponed because of this damn virus, that means everything. But this announcement was accompanied by another side effect that can be noticed today – our waiting period between two Olympics has been shortened, and in exactly two years from today (July 26) the Paris 2024 Games will begin.
Yes, it’s been less than a year since we experienced Israel’s four great medals, since the crazy world records of Julimar Rojas in the triple jump and Kirsten Warholm in the 400 meter hurdles, since the most publicized story with Simone Biles, since Luna Chemtai Salpeter retired near the end of the marathon (And she already had time to make amends with the bronze medal at the World Championships), since we were excited about the city of Tokyo and the whole world. Many things have burned into our memory and not enough time has passed for them to be forgotten, but from here to there the torch will pass to the next destination without us feeling that time is running.
So if we are already marking two years since the opening ceremony in the City of Lights, we should look to the future. What do we already know about the next Olympics? What things will change? Which branch will be added? What about the facilities? And what do the organizers promise us? Everything in the next article >>>
Let’s start with some dry details: as mentioned, the games will open on July 26, 2024 and end on August 11. Paris will become the second city in history to host the Summer Games for the third time (including 1900 and 1924), after London did so first (1908, 1948 and 2012). In fact, the upcoming games will mark exactly 100 years since the previous Olympics in the French capital, and this will be overall the sixth time that the country has hosted the Olympic Games after the Winter Games were also held there three times before.
Greater Paris will of course host most of the competitions, but there will be quite a few other host cities in order to profit from the huge event for industries that require a lot of stadiums, such as football. Also, cities like Lille (basketball and baseball) and Marseille (sailing) will be destinations for other specific industries, and it should be noted that the surfing industry in general will take place in a completely different place on the map of the earth – on the island of Tahiti in French Polynesia, 15,700 km from Paris. This will of course break a record of an Olympic event farthest from the host city.
Now let’s get to some interesting updates that will make the upcoming games a bit innovative. First, already last year the head of the organizing committee Tony Estanga (a former Olympic rower who won three gold medals) announced that the plan in Paris is that the opening and closing ceremonies this time will not be held inside an Olympic stadium, but in an outdoor area that will allow many more people to experience the event and bring the ceremony closer to iconic places of France. Last December, it was announced that the athletes in the delegation parade will sail on the Seine River for 6 km between two bridges, in a section that will pass by the Louvre Museum, the Notre Dame Cathedral and the Place de la Concorde, among others.
According to estimates, around 600,000 people will be able to take part in the great experience, when the most formal part of the ceremony will take place in a makeshift complex with 30,000 seats. Quite a few media outlets in the world defined the planned opening ceremony as “one of the most intriguing, diverse and unusual in history”, but of course also questioned the ability of the government and the Olympic Committee to contain such an event in light of the scandals recorded in France this year.
We will move on. In terms of the sport itself, then in Paris we will get one new branch that will enter the circle for the first time – the branch of breakdancing. Unlike Tokyo, where four disciplines made their debut (karate, climbing, surfing and skateboarding), this time only one more is added, and at the same time one discipline is declining and will not appear in Paris – karate. A total of 32 branches will appear in the upcoming Olympics in 329 different competitions. In fact, the first games will start already on July 24, two days before the opening ceremony (which is customary in the Olympics).
In the detailed schedule of the games that has already been released to the public, it was stated that “the games in Paris will be the most equal in history in terms of gender, with equal opportunity for women and men to be in the spotlight.” One of the salient points in this context is that the women’s marathon competition will for the first time be the closing chord of the games on the last day.
The facilities of most branches already exist and do not need renovation of one kind or another. On the official website of the Olympic Committee it was stated that “originally the desire was to use 95% of the facilities that are already ready or that will be used as temporary complexes”. In addition, a promise was made that the games this time “aim to be the most environmentally sustainable ever”. The intention is to reduce carbon emissions, use public transportation and bicycles for spectators who arrive, use as much renewable and non-polluting energy as possible and very little construction and renovation work in regards to the facilities.
So if we return to focusing on the facilities, here is a quick breakdown of some of the prominent places (at least according to the current planning): all athletics competitions and rugby games will be held at the familiar Stade de France; The football matches will be divided between stadiums of clubs from the French league (such as Parc de France, Stade Velodrome in Marseille, Parc Olympique in Lyon and more); The tennis matches will be held at the Roland Garros Grand Slam complex; Most of the water sports competitions will be held in an existing hall on the outskirts of Paris near Nanterre.
It should be noted that there are also most of the facilities for branches that need a closed hall, such as basketball, volleyball, gymnastics, boxing, fencing, taekwondo and table tennis. From the reports at the moment, only one more water sports facility will be built in order to split part of the water polo games and hold the diving and artistic swimming competitions there as well. Regarding other outdoor sports, most of them already have plans to turn the designated host facility into a temporary facility that is adapted to the specific branch, such as the complexes for the branches of cycling, beach volleyball, archery, skateboarding, 3×3 basketball, climbing and the new breakdancing. It should be noted that the horse riding competitions will take place in the courtyard of the magnificent Palace of Versailles. The Olympic village is planned to be established in Saint-Denis.
In this way, the organizers of the Games have less to worry about the infrastructure and facilities that mostly exist (befitting an advanced Western country that has already hosted the Olympic Games and other major sports events in the past), and mainly they have to focus in the next two years on the way in which they can accommodate this thing called the Paris Olympics 2024, especially the opening ceremonies And the latest ones that are planned. And us? We can only fantasize about another colorful celebration, about more memories that will be burned into us for a long time, about another huge and successful Israeli expedition and more blue and white medals.