rewind.
This year, Paris hosted the Olympic Games, featuring 32 sports, 329 events, and 10,500 athletes over 16 days of competition. Paris became the second city, after London, to host the Summer Olympics three times. Behind this organisational feat lay a history that long predated the French capital’s successful 2015 bid; this was an event that had been not just years, but millennia in the making.
The first written evidence of the Olympics dates back to 776 BC. Originally a religious festival, the Games were designed to honour Zeus, the king of the Greek gods, and were named for their location in the sacred city of Olympia. Initially, there was only one event: the footrace. Over time, the Games expanded to include the pentathlon, chariot racing, and various forms of hand-to-hand combat (for free men, that is). For the Greeks, the importance of the Games was such that they measured units of time in four-year ‘Olympiads’ – the duration between each iteration of the Olympics. Supposedly, even wars were rescheduled around the four-year Olympic calendar. However, this was to come to an end under Roman rule; in 393 AD, 12 centuries after they had begun, the Games were banned by Emperor Theodosius for promoting ‘paganism’.
After a 1,500-year hiatus, the Olympics were revived – in Paris. Baron Pierre de Coubertin, riding a wave of renewed interest in the Games, gathered key stakeholders at the Sorbonne University in June 1894. Two thousand people attended, including 13 foreign delegations, and by the end of the month, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was created – and the Olympic Games reborn. The first modern Games were hosted two years later in Athens, Greece, the symbolic birthplace of the ancient sporting event. The second were held in 1900 in Paris. This edition saw the first female competitors; of a total of 997 athletes, 22 women competed across five sports. The Games have since continued to expand, both in the number of events and the number of athletes they include. The 1960 Stoke Mandeville Games are widely regarded as the first Paralympics, and with the addition of a women’s boxing event, London 2012 became the first Olympics where women competed in all sports in the programme. Such changes were designed to further the values laid out in the Olympic Charter: a celebration of sport and common humanity, in the spirit of friendship, solidarity, and fair play. ‘Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together’.
Of course, despite their high aspirations, the Olympic Games have not been without controversy. The 1936 Berlin Olympics were hijacked as a vehicle for Nazi propaganda; American track medallists provoked backlash for their Black Power salute in Mexico in 1968; and the legacy of the 1972 Munich Games was marred by the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes by Black September, a Palestinian militant group. Fewer than 67 delegations participated in Melbourne in 1956, amidst protests against Soviet handling of the Hungarian Revolution and Israeli, French, and British actions during the Suez Crisis. Dozens of African nations boycotted Montreal’s Games in 1976 over the inclusion of the New Zealand rugby team, which had recently toured apartheid South Africa.
Paris 2024 was not devoid of criticism or politics. The bedbug infestation that hit international news appeared to be under control, however, Parisians and spectators remained unconvinced by the purportedly hygienic state of the Seine – despite the mayor’s brave dip. The French government also attracted criticism for its treatment of homeless people in advance of the Games, evicting thousands from the greater Paris region with limited long-term relocation proposals. Notably, there was no Russian or Belarusian delegation. The IOC condemned Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine and Belarus’ support of the invasion. Athletes from both nations were allowed to compete under a neutral flag, provided they could demonstrate no connection to the war or the armed forces. They were not invited to participate in the opening ceremony.
Paris 2024 was also an Olympics of laudable firsts. It was the first Olympics to claim carbon-neutral credentials and the first Olympics with equal male and female athlete participation. In line with its ‘Games Wide Open’ ethos, it was also the first Olympic Games to commence with an outdoor opening ceremony. Tickets for the 100-boat-long procession down the Seine ranged from €2,700 for a fully catered package to free for an upper-quay-side view. Spectators were also invited to enter a lottery for a place in the August 10th Marathon Pour Tous, following the official route just hours after the men’s race.
As the Olympic flame returned to the City of Light, a location with a long history with the Games, it remains unclear what Paris 2024’s defining legacy will be. Whatever this year’s Olympic Games will be remembered for, the opening ceremony along the Seine will go down as a spectacle to remember.
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