Olympics
Paris 2024 torch lit in ancient Olympia, relay under way
The torch for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games was lit in ancient Olympia in a traditional ceremony on Tuesday, marking the final stretch of the seven-year preparations for the Games’ start on July 26.
Greek actress Mary Mina, playing the role of high priestess, lit the torch using a backup flame instead of a parabolic mirror that is normally used, due to cloudy skies, for the start of a relay in Greece and France.
It will culminate with the lighting of the Olympic flame in the French capital at the opening ceremony. Paris will host the summer Olympics for a third time after 1900 and 1924.
“In these difficult times we are living through, with wars and conflicts on the rise, people are fed up with all the hate, the aggression and negative news they are facing day in and day out,” International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach said in his speech.
“We are longing for something which brings us together, something that is unifying, something that gives us hope. The Olympic flame that we are lighting today is the symbol of this hope.”
The IOC has cleared the way for Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete at the Olympics despite the ongoing war in Ukraine but they will do so as neutral athletes with no national flag or anthem, a decision that angered Moscow.
French President Emmanuel Macron also said last week Russia would be asked to observe a ceasefire in Ukraine during the Paris Olympics. The Kremlin said Ukraine might use it as an opportunity to regroup and rearm.
Suspending armed conflicts under an Olympic truce during the Games was a standard practice in ancient Greece.
TORCH RELAY
The high priestess then lit the torch of the first runner of the relay, Greece’s Olympic rowing champion Stefanos Ntouskos.
After a short run he then handed the flame on to France’s three-time Olympic medallist in swimming and head of Paris’ Olympic torch relay, Laure Manaudou, as the representative of the host city.
The flame will be officially handed over to Paris Games organisers in Athens’s Panathenaic stadium, site of the first modern Games in 1896, on April 26 after an 11-day relay across Greece.
It will then depart the next day for France on board a three-masted ship, the ‘Belem’ where it will arrive on May 8 in Marseille, with up to 150,000 people expected to attend the ceremony in the southern city’s Old Port.
The last torch bearer in Marseille will climb on the roof of the Velodrome stadium on May 9, organisers said.
Marseille, founded by the Greek settlers of Phocaea around 600 BC, will host the sailing competitions.
The French torch relay will last 68 days and will end in Paris with the lighting of the Olympic flame on July 26.
-Reuters
The Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) has been indicted by an investigative panel set up on Nigeria’s negative exposure at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The Mumini Alao investigative panel set up by the former sports minister, John Owan Enoh came to the conclusion that the AFN officials were responsible for the omission of Favour Ofili’s name among the competitors of the 100m race for which she was qualified.
The committee recommended that the AFN should compensate the disappointed athlete, the sum of $5,000 or its equivalence in Nigerian currency (N8million).
This is to take care of the disappointment and depression that the athlete suffered on account of her omission from the women’s 100 meters event at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
That was the high point of the 54-page report of the panel which was to have been released last week but was put on hold owing to the change in administration of Nigerian sports governing body.
The new man on the saddle, Shehu Dikko reportedly gave apporoval for the release of the committee’s report.
According to the report, conclusive evidence revealed that the Secretary General of the AFN, Mrs Rita Mosindi, was negligent in her duty of communicating to the then Ministry of Sports Development and the Nigeria Olympic Comm ittee (NOC) information about Favour Ofili’s event status in a reliable and timely manner.
It is recommended that Mosindi should be penalized. She is not alone. The committee also indicted the AFN technical director, Samuel Onikeku.
“Conclusive evidence also revealed that the Technical Director of AFN, Mr. Samuel Onikeku demonstrated poor judgement by neither reporting nor acting on information about the non-registration of his own athlete, Favour Ofili, for the women’s 100 meters event when he first got a “hint” of the “rumour.”
“Ofili’s situation might have been rescued if the Technical Director had reported or acted immediately on the information that he received. Mr. Onikeku should be sanctioned by the Board of AFN of which he is a member.
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.
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