PARIS SUMMER OLYMPICS 2024 – SOME FACTS

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The symbol for the 2024 Olympics is:

The logo for Paris 2024 combines three separate symbols – the gold medal, the flame and Marianne, the personification of the French Republic.

It is the first time in history that thee same emblem has been used for both the Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games.

According to the Olympics website:

The gold medal symbolises achievement, not only of champions but all those who give everything they have and enable others to do the same.

The flame symbolises the energy that drives the event, encouraging people to be bold and forge a new way of organising the Games to rise to the challenges faced today.

The lips and stylised face represent Marianne, the personification of the spirit of creativity that inspires the Games. Marianne, symbol of the French Republic, represents the same values found in sport, the Olympics and the Paralympics – humanism, fraternity, generosity and sharing. Marianne is a familiar face in French culture that is omnipresent in day-to-day life, appearing on stamps and outside every town hall for example.

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Marianne has been the national personification of the French Republic since the French Revolution, as a personification of liberty, equality, fraternity and reason, as well as a portrayal of the Goddess of Liberty. As a national icon Marianne represents opposition to monarchy and the championship of freedom and democracy against all forms of oppression.

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The typography of the words in the logo has been created especially for the Paris Olympic Games. Named Paris 2024, it is directly inspired by the Art Deco style and is a nod to the previous 1924 games, giving an elegant, original and French effect.

Under the words Paris 2024 is the official symbol of the Olympic Games. All Olympic Games logos must include this logo.

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The Phryges are the official mascots of Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. They are two anthropomorphic Phrygian caps, a symbol of France.

The Phrygian cap, a soft, generally red hat, was worn by freed slaves in Phrygia, an ancient Greek kingdom in what is now Turkey. At the time of the French Revolution, the Phrygian cap was worn as a symbol of freedom. Marianne, the national personification of France and basis of the Paris 2024 emblem, is often depicted wearing a Phrygian cap.

Each Phryge was given a personality.

The Olympic Phryge is "the smart one" with a "methodical mind and alluring charm."

The Paralympic Phryge is "a party animal, spontaneous and a bit hotheaded." The Paralympic Phrygian is the first Paralympic mascot since Sondre, the mascot of the 1994 Winter Paralympics, to have a disability as she wears a prosthesis on one of her legs.

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Paris 2024 will be the first Olympics in history to achieve numerical gender parity on the field of play, with an equal number of female and male athletes participating in the largest sporting event in the world. Out of the 10,500 athletes participating in the Games, 5,250 will be men and 5,250 women.

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The International Olympic Committee gives the privilege of hosting a Summer or Winter Olympics to cities, not to countries. This is chosen via a vote by the members of the IOC, who are not allowed to vote for the country they hail from.

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Greece, Switzerland, Great Britain, Australia, and France are the only countries to have sent an athlete to compete in every Summer Olympics.

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Athletes are not paid by the IOC for competing in the Olympics, and any money they make usually comes from their home country’s Olympic body, or sponsors.

However, for the first time in Olympic history, athletes in Paris 2024’s track and field events will win $100K for gold medals, $50K for silver, and $25K for bronze.

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The Olympic Games Paris 2024 will officially be held from 26 July until 11 August 2024, while the Paralympic Games will take place from 28 August until 8 September.

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The Olympic competitions for football and rugby at Paris 2024 will begin on 24 July, two days before the Opening Ceremony.

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The Olympic Games Paris 2024 takes place exactly 100 years since Paris hosted the Olympics back in 1924.

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Paris joins London as the only cities to host the Olympics three times. The Games were in Paris in 1900, 1924 and now in 2024, while London hosted the Games in 1908, 1948 and 2012.

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On 26 July 2024, the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris will be held almost exactly 100 years after the 1924 Closing Ceremony, which was held on 27 July.

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The Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony will not be held in a stadium for the first time ever. Instead it will be done on the Seine, the river that crosses the centre of Paris.

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Some Olympic events will happen in iconic places of Paris: beach volleyball will be held at the Champ de Mars (under the Eiffel Tower), urban sports will be held at La Concorde, fencing and taekwondo at the Grand Palais, the start of the Marathon at the Hotel de Ville.

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Breaking, commonly known as breakdancing, will be included at the Olympics for the first time in Paris. It will not return for the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

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For the first time ever, the 2024 Games will also take place in the French territory of Tahiti, where the surfing competition will be held on the Pacific island’s legendary Teahupoo wave, located about 15 000km from Paris.

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In canoe, there will be a new event introduced at Paris 2024: Extreme slalom. Four athletes tip off a ramp at the same time and whoever gets to the bottom of the course first is the winner. There will be one event for men and one event for women.