Olympics
French President Macron promises to swim in Seine river as he inaugurates athletes’ village –
French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday promised to take a swim in the river Seine one day, as he officially inaugurated the 2024 Olympic village and praised the legacy the Games will leave to Paris, including a swimmable river.
The keys to the 52-hectare village, just north of Paris along the Seine, were officially handed to the Olympics organisers on Thursday. It will host some 14,500 athletes and their staff before welcoming 9,000 for the Paralympics.
“You bet I will,” Macron told reporters when asked if he would swim in the river Seine, which the city has promised to make clean enough for swimming by 2025.
“I will do it,” Macron said. “But I won’t give you the date, or you risk being there,” he quipped, before giving a wink.
This photograph taken on February 29, 2024, shows a view of buildings at the Paris 2024 Olympic village on its inauguration day in Saint-Denis, northern Paris, France. The village, constructed on a 52-hectare site is located on a cluster of former industrial wastelands with the centrepiece being the Cite du Cinema. LUDOVIC MARIN/Pool via REUTERS Purchase Licensing Rights
Paris has been working on cleaning up the Seine so that people can swim in it again, as was the case during the 1900 Paris Olympics. But a sewer problem last summer led to the cancellation of a pre-Olympics swimming event.
Macron is not the first French politician to promise to swim in the Seine. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said she would do so more than three decades after her predecessor Jacques Chirac famously promised to do it “in the presence of witnesses” but never did.
The comments came as Nicolas Ferrand, the general director of SOLIDEO, the company in charge of delivering the Olympics infrastructure, handed a symbolic key to the village to Paris 2024 president Tony Estanguet, officially concluding a seven-year journey since Paris was awarded the Games.
After the Games, the village will be turned into an eco-friendly neighbourhood benefiting 6,000 residents and featuring two schools, a hotel, a public park, shops and offices plus planted areas for pedestrians and non-motorised vehicles.
“Our athletes will be able to experience the Games in the best conditions and you contributed to changing the lives of the people in the area,” Macron said.
He hailed France as a “nation of builders”.
“What has been done on time and within budget as we finalise the reconstruction of Notre Dame is nothing short of remarkable,” Macron added.
Notre-Dame is set to reopen for religious services and to the public on Dec. 8 this year, the cathedral having been renovated after being ravaged by fire in 2019.
Reuters
Olympics
Olympic rings removed from Eiffel Tower
The Olympic rings installed on the Eiffel Tower since June to celebrate the upcoming Olympic Games were removed from the Parisian monument early on Friday morning, as confirmed by an AFP photographer. But the Paris City Hall intends to replace them with a more permanent structure until 2028.
The five-coloured rings, measuring 29 metres in length and 15 metres in height, were placed between the first and second levels of the iconic iron structure on 7 June.
According to Inside the Games publication, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo wants the Olympic symbol to continue decorating the monument until the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.
But the descendants of the tower’s creator, Gustave Eiffel are opposing the move. They are insisting that the Olympic rings are aesthetically in conflict with the concept and design of the Tower.
The 30-tonne rings initially installed on the Eiffel Tower were also not designed to withstand winter weather conditions.
Olympics
Despite Egypt winning 3 medals at Paris Olympics, President Al-Sisi orders sports system overhaul
Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi ordered a comprehensive evaluation of sports federations that participatedat the Paris Olympic Games, following a mission report submitted by the country’s sports minister.
The mandate includes a thorough expenditure check and a performance review to better highlight areas of improvement and fund allocation in future Games.
Additionally, the president plans to take necessary measures against federations —such as limiting funds— that had negative results in the Paris Games.
Egypt’s participation in sports where it lacks a competitive advantage will also be limited, as the president aims to direct resources to promising athletes to ensure optimal results. The president also aims to reduce administrative and technical staff within Olympic delegations and task relevant ministries with preparing future Olympic athletes.
Al-Sisi’s Olympic overhaul is to be presented to the cabinet for approval and urged the government to prioritise amending the sports law for the House of Representatives for review.
Egypt took home a total of three medals in the Summer Games. Ahmed El-Gendy triumphed in modern pentathlon, Sara Samir claimed the silver in weightlifting, and 21-year-old fencer Mohamed El-Sayed earned the bronze.
-Insidethegames
Olympics
Paris 2024 Games break record ticket sales
Paris 2024 sold a record 12 million tickets for the Olympics and Paralympics, beating the Games record previously set by London 2012, organisers said on Sunday.
Some 9.5 million tickets were sold for the Olympics and 2.5 million for the Paralympics, which end on Sunday.
In 2012, London organisers set the record for the Paralympics with 2.7 million tickets sold but only 8.2 million were sold for the Olympics.
-Reuters
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