Olympic Watch: the Games are On

The run-up to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games has been a rollercoaster of emotions. Here we bring you some of the stories that made the headlines in preparation for these summer Olympics.

Put five rings on it

The eyes of the world are on Paris this summer, and the Eiffel Tower is dressed for the occasion with the Olympic Rings in full display. Each edition of the Games sees the Olympic Rings placed in an iconic location in the host city, such as Tower Bridge in London in 2012, or Odaiba Bay in Tokyo in 2021. So, when it came to picking a placement for the rings for Paris 2024, what could be more iconic than the Eiffel Tower? Tony Estanguet, President of Paris 2024, said: “The Eiffel Tower is Paris, it’s the face of France. We wanted to offer a sight to remember!”

AP news reported that the rings will be illuminated nightly with 100,000 LED bulbs for the duration of the Games. Four cranes and 30 people were needed to hoist the recycled steel rings, measuring 29m wide and 13m high, onto the south side of the monument. The Eiffel Tower is also the setting for competitions such as beach volleyball, judo, wrestling and road cycling and will be at the heart of the celebrations as the backdrop to the Champions’ Park at the Trocadéro. The tower also inspired the design of the podiums and the medals, which each contain a fragment of its original iron.

Medals with a heart

Paris 2024 has unveiled the striking design of the medals for the upcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games, integrating the iconic Eiffel Tower into each piece, literally. Erected for the 1889 Universal Exhibition, the Eiffel Tower is made of cast iron. Manufactured in Lorraine, the cast iron produced by reducing iron ore is refined by an operation called puddling, removing the excess carbon which makes the resulting iron almost pure and extremely strong. During renovation in the 20th century, certain small sections that had to be removed were carefully preserved. Every Olympic medal will include at its centre a piece of this original iron from the Eiffel Tower, symbolising the heart of the athlete’s achievement, in a fusion of the Games’ most coveted symbol with the timeless emblem of Paris. The medals were made by legendary French jewellers Chaumet.

A river runs through it

The French waterways authority Voies Navigables de France (VNF) signed an agreement to promote the Seine at the heart of the 2024’s Olympics and Paralympics. Not only will the river play a leading role in the opening ceremony, but it will also be the venue for certain sporting events, in particular open water swimming, plus celebrations and hospitality gatherings. The initiative aims to demonstrate how much inland waterways can contribute to the sustainable city of tomorrow and promote the advantages of river transport in terms of logistics, environmental protection and quality of life for local residents. It is hoped a renewed relationship between Paris and the Seine will be the lasting legacy of the Paris 2024 Games.

Will the Seine be ready?

When President Emanuel Macron launched the Olympic Games countdown this spring, he said that ‘one of the most beautiful gifts that the Paris 2024 will leave behind is making the Seine and Marne rivers fit for swimming again’. The mammoth effort to turn around the once heavily polluted waterways requires a €1.4bn investment, half of it provided by the public purse. The project would have allowed Parisians to swim in the river for the first time in a century, authorities having banned it in 1923 because of high levels of pollution. “Swimming at the foot of the Eiffel Tower will be very romantic,” said Emmanuel Grégoire, deputy mayor of Paris in charge of urban planning.

The unprecedented efforts that started in 2016 to improve the water quality of the Seine were rewarded this summer. The test Triathlon women’s swimming event went off swimmingly, to the delight of the crowds who lined the river banks to cheer on 65 of the world’s best triathletes. Held a year before the games, the race was a first step towards the organisation of the official triathlon, para- triathlon and marathon swimming events which will take place at the scenic Alexandre III bridge, at the foot of the Grand Palais and at Les Invalides. The Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris have acted as an accelerator for restoring the river’s water quality to make bathing in the Seine an everyday reality again.

With two weeks before the opening ceremony, Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo has promised she would take a dip some day before the ceremony. A guest on France Inter radio station on July 10th, she claimed the river was no longer poluted and had reached safe levels of bacteria by late June and early July, though the flow and the weather conditions could be disruptive for the opening ceremony. The Île-de-France region has experienced heavy rainfall these last few weeks which has increased the Seine’s river flow.

Boat le taxi

During this summer’s Olympics, you can reach the Eiffel Tower from the Louvre museum via a floating taxi, taking in the beautiful views from the Seine in a 20-minute ride. It’s the ideal way to avoid the traffic and crowds! The service, a collaboration between the tourist office (Paris je t’aime), the Paris Port Authority (CPP) and the port (Haropa), can be booked online up to 24 hours in advance, with boats confirming (or declining) the booking within a few minutes. The cost is €145, which can be split by up to six passengers, the maximum number that can comfortably fit on the boat.

This new service will be offered during the Olympics between 2pm and 6pm daily, with a view to roll it out permanently if it is well received. As well as embarking on a pleasant, relaxing trip along the Seine, passing by the capital’s most emblematic buildings, in a convenient and climate-friendly form of transport, Taxi Seine Paris also allows access to cultural sites such as the Louvre, the Orangerie and the Hôtel de la Marine along the way, as well as major Olympic venues such as the Parc Urbain la Concorde and the Tour Eiffel Stadium. It also allows you to discover SPOT24, an exhibition dedicated to the Games, sport and urban cultures, located near the Eiffel Tower.

Get set!

The lead-up to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games has been abuzz with anticipation and excitement and now that the time is upon us, let’s take a moment to celebrate the unsung heroes of the games. At the heart of this global event are 45,000 volunteers who have been selected to lend their time and energy to the event. This diverse team is made up of 50% men and 50% women, with one in three volunteers coming from the grassroots sports movement. They hail from 101 different departments across France, and 20% of them are international applicants representing 150 countries. A special Volunteer Convention kicked off this unique behind-the-scenes experience bringing together 40,000 of the volunteers in a festive atmosphere. Attendees had the opportunity to meet with the event’s organisers and ambassadors and get to know their fellow volunteers.