Paris is all set to welcome the world to the Summer Olympics from the 26th of July 2024 to the 11th of August 2024. The mega event is going to be the first post-pandemic event and is set to include 329 medal events across 32 sports. The games are scheduled to be held at Parris, France, and Tahiti, the largest island in French Polynesia.
The events include equestrian racing at the Palace of Versailles, beach volleyball in front of the Eiffel Tower, and fencing at the Grand Palais. The audience attendance is already predicted to be in the millions. The opening ceremony itself is even making Olympic history.
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For the first time, it’s expected to happen outside of a stadium. A parade of athletes will travel on boats down the Seine, the river that runs through several Parisian neighborhoods.
Here are 5 interesting facts about the Summer Olympics which are to be held at Paris
1. The official mascot of the Paris Olympics is… a hat.
Previous Olympic mascots have included pandas, bears, and tigers, but Paris is one of the fashion capitals of the world. Perhaps that’s why their official mascot is the Olympic Phryge, a traditional hat that was once worn by French revolutionaries.
It’s pronounced, “freege.” These hats have shown up on French coins and stamps. They are a symbol of freedom.
2. YouTuber Jake Paul will train with the U.S. men’s boxing team
While Jake Paul isn’t an Olympic athlete, he will gain some valuable experience at the Games this year. In September 2022, the notorious YouTuber and professional boxer announced a partnership with the U.S. Olympics.
He will train with qualifying athletes at Team USA’s boxing home base in Colorado Springs, Colorado. In exchange, Paul will advise the athletes on how to build their followings on social media and document his experience online.
3. Olympic medals will contain iron once part of the Eiffel Tower
This year’s Olympic medals include a special part of Parisian history.
Each Olympic medal will be infused with iron from the original Eiffel Tower, which was built for the 1889 World’s Fair. The pieces of iron were cut from parts of the tower that were replaced during renovations over the years and saved.
To create these medals, the Olympics recruited Chaumet, a French luxury jewelry maker to infuse 18 grams of iron from the Eiffel Tower into other materials made from silver, gold, and bronze. Winning athletes in both the Paris Paralympics and the Olympics will receive these unique creations.
4. The Paris Metro has been equipped with over 3,000 translation devices
Want to go to Paris but don’t know how to speak French? Anticipating hundreds of thousands of visitors from all over the world, the Paris transit system, called RATP, found a solution. Workers at the city’s Metro system will be equipped with handheld AI translation devices that are able to translate between French and 16 different languages.
These languages include English, Arabic, Mandarin and Korean, with text appearing on screen and read out loud for visitors. The handheld device is called Tradivia and has been given to over 3,000 ticketing agents who work at the booths in different subway stations across Paris.
5. The U.S. is already predicted to win the most medals
The Paris Olympics hasn’t even started yet and people are already placing their bets. Nielsen’s Gracenote, which supplies statistical analysis for international sports leagues, predicts that Team USA will win the most medals at the Paris Olympics. The organization predicted that the U.S. would win 39 gold medals and 123 overall in 329 events. It will be updated monthly leading up to the Olympics. Gracenote also predicts China will come in second with 35 gold medals and 89 overall.
Countries predicted to be in the top 10 for winning the most medals include Britain, Japan, France, Australia, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, and South Korea.
The Sportz Planet DEsk,
Atharva Shetye.
