Paris, Olympic city

Historically, Parisian heritage sites have been the setting for sporting competitions. Once again, the 2024 Olympics will rely heavily on these spectacular environments to create unique settings. But a few months before the launch of the event, certain points still remain to be resolved. Will the “city of lights” rise to the challenge?

A bullfight in a velodrome (the Vel’ d’hiv’)? A horse show in the Grand Palais? A game of basketball in the arenas of Lutèce? A rowing race at the foot of Notre Dame? All this has indeed taken place in Paris in the past, and the 2024 Olympics are preparing to offer such a grandiose medley to the cameras from around the world who will flock there. “The Games in the capital promise a total spectacle, in exceptional sites, designed for athletes, spectators and television viewers,” say the organizers. In fact, if, as in 1924, an Athletes’ Village and an Olympic swimming pool* will be built for the occasion, the guiding principle is to use as much existing equipment as possible.

The Arena Porte de la Chapelle will therefore host badminton and rhythmic gymnastics, as well as para badminton and para weightlifting. At the Arena Bercy, we will see basketball and wheelchair basketball, artistic gymnastics and trampolining. The Arena Paris Sud will host weightlifting, handball, volleyball, table tennis, goalball, boccia and para table tennis (the latter three sports being reserved for parathletes). Football at the Parc des Princes, tennis at Roland Garros: who would doubt it? But this stadium will also host boxing!

More spectacularly, many Parisian heritage sites will host the Games. The Champ de Mars, cradle of the first Parisian Olympics*, will become a temporary open-air arena built between the Eiffel Tower and the Military School. Beach volleyball and blind football competitions will take place there. A stone’s throw away, the ephemeral Grand Palais, renamed for the occasion Arena Champ de Mars, will be the setting for judo, wrestling, para judo and armchair rugby. Under the watchful eye of Louis XIV, archery, athletics and road cycling competitions will take place on the Esplanade des Invalides. These last two disciplines will also occupy temporary facilities at the foot of the Trocadéro. At the Grand Palais, completely refurbished for the occasion, the fencing and taekwondo competitions will take place. City Hall will see the start of the main event of the marathon, while Concorde will host 3×3 basketball, freestyle BMX and two “additional Olympic sports”: skateboarding and breaking (which will be the first – and maybe last – appearance at the Games). 

The Alexandre III Bridge, for its part, will see cyclists, triathlons and marathon swimming (in open water). In any case, we can hope so, because the first tests in the summer of 2023 have not proven to be really conclusive. If the Seine once hosted the Olympic swimming competitions*, and despite the promises made by the mayor of the city several decades ago, we can only note the degree of pollution which today makes the river impassable. In view of the Olympic Games, the authorities are redoubling their efforts to make it suitable for sporting events but a storm that is a little too violent can destroy all hopes, by rendering the retention basins ineffective… “We will postpone the competitions by a few days, so that the water quality becomes acceptable,” say the organizers. May the god of rivers (and Games) hear them!

In any case, the opening ceremony* should take place on the Seine.