Paris Wonderful Paris

Paris Summer Olympics



Olympic symbol
The five-ringed symbol of the Olympic Games

The 2024 Summer Olympics will take place in Paris between 27 July 2024 and 12 August 2024. But did you know that they already took place there twice before?

The first time, in 1900, for what's known as Games of the II Olympiad, and the second time, in 1924, for the Games of the VIII Olympiad, and yes you are right 2024 will be the hundredth anniversary of the 1924 Summer Olympics.



That well maybe because the man who "reinvented" the Olympic Games, as founder of the International Olympic Committee, was a French man called Pierre de Coubertin.

Pierre de Coubertin
Baron Pierre de Coubertin

The 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games

The 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games

The 2024 Summer Olympic Games, formally called the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad of the Modern Era, will be celebrated in 2024 in Paris, France, officially designated at the 131st IOC Session in Lima, Peru on 13 September 2017. The cities of Hamburg, Rome, and Budapest were also in the running until their withdrawals on 29 November 2015, 11 October 2016 and 22 February 2017 respectively; and the city of Los Angeles is designated to host the 2028 Olympic Games, in accordance with the agreement reached with the IOC on July 31, 2017. After London (1908, 1948 and 2012), Paris becomes the second city to celebrate the Games Olympic Games for the third time, a hundred years apart (1900, 1924 and 2024), before it was the turn of Los Angeles (1932, 1984 and 2028).



The Paris 2024 project relies on 95% of existing or temporary sites for an announced budget of 6.6 billion euros. The only achievements needed are an aquatic center to be built next to the Stade de France, a covered arena with 7,500 seats for basketball and wrestling at the Porte de la Chapelle, and the Olympic village that will be riding out of three municipalities in Seine-Saint-Denis5. Tony Estanguet, who co-directed the bid team with Bernard Lapasset, took the presidency of the organizing committee of the Paris Olympics 2024, whose general director is Étienne Thobois.

The 1924 Paris Summer Olympic Games

The 1924 Paris Summer Olympic Games

The 1924 Summer Olympic Games, Games of the Eighth Modern Olympiad, were held in Paris, from May 4 to July 27, 1924. For his farewell to the Games, Baron Pierre de Coubertin campaigned in favor of the French capital, which organized its second Games after those of 1900.



Coubertin's Olympic motto borrowed from Abbe Henri Didon: "Citius, Altius, Fortius" (faster, higher, stronger) is introduced on the occasion of these Games, as well as the ritual of raising the three flags to the closing ceremony.

In 1924, 44 nations and 3,089 athletes (including 135 women) competed in 126 events in 17 sports. The most prominent athletes at the Games were Finnish runners like Paavo Nurmi, swimmer Johnny Weissmuller and fencer Roger Ducret. 100 years later, Paris is hosting the Olympics again.

The 1900 Paris Summer Olympic Games

The 1900 Paris Summer Olympic Games

The 1900 Olympic Games, Games of the Second Olympiad of the modern era, were held in Paris in 1900 following the decision taken in this direction at the first Olympic Congress (1894). There were no opening or closing ceremonies on the program, but on June 3, 1900, a parade of gymnasts took place in the velodrome of Vincennes during the Federal Feast of the Union of Gymnastics Societies of France.



These Games take place within the framework of the organization of the "International competitions of physical exercises and sports" of the Universal Exhibition of Paris 1900, over a period of five months In this frame also, and despite the efforts then the disapproval Pierre de Coubertin, the Olympic symbols are nonexistent1. For example, many athletes who participated in these "contests" do not know, for some until their deaths, that they participated in the Olympic Games.

The Olympic Games in Paris in 1900 are part of the festivities proposed by the World Expo. Numerous sports competitions involving 71,230 athletes (including 1,960 foreigners) are held under the authority of the organizers of the Expo. Some of them are school, purely French-French where they put on the program quite unexpected disciplines like certain races with various obstacles. Performing a coherent sorting among this heterogeneous set is a challenge.



Many authors have examined the question, but the range of their estimates, which ranges from 1,000 to 60,000 participating athletes, shows the difficulty of the task. The International Olympic Committee has also very formally addressed this issue in order to establish a consistent track record for this Olympiad. According to the IOC's work, 997 athletes from 24 nations competed in 90 events in 19 sports.

Women's participation

Women participate for the first time in the Olympic Games in 1900. According to figures from the International Olympic Committee, there are 22 of the 997 athletes. Women's golf and tennis events are organized and some women participate in mixed events in sailing, croquet and horse riding.

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