The Incredible Venues for the Paris Summer Olympics


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Paris will be the star of the show. That much was clear from the moment plans were unveiled for the 2024 Olympics Opening Ceremony, in which the athletes will be introduced to the world as they sail down the Seine, rather than march into a stadium in the long-standing Olympic tradition. And that’s just the start, for many of the events will take place with the city’s best-loved monuments as a backdrop. Paris 2024 will showcase the city’s beauty and highlight its historic monuments to a global audience.

Eiffel Tower. Photo credit: William O’Such
Beach volleyball at the Eiffel Tower? No problem! A temporary outdoor arena has been installed. Meanwhile, on the nearby Champs de Mars the judo and wrestling competitions will play out and television commentators will no doubt remind their viewers that this was where the sabre and fencing tournaments took place more than a century ago during the first Paris Olympic Games in 1900. Perhaps they will also mention that it was at the École Militaire, at the opposite end of the Champ de Mars from the Eiffel Tower, that Napoleon himself completed his initial military training.
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Another key area will span the river from the Invalides to the Grand Palais. There’ll be archery on the vast green Esplanade des Invalides, as well as disciplines as varied as high jump, discus and pole vaulting. Over them will sit the golden dome of the Hôtel des Invalides, built in the 17th century as a military hospital and now home to a military history museum and the tomb of Napoleon. The Alexander III Bridge, with its Belle Époque lampposts and gilded statues, will provide a spectacular backdrop for the finish line to events including – water quality on the day permitting! – marathon swimming and the triathlon. The Grand Palais, built, like the bridge, for the 1900 Universal Exhibition, will host fencing and taekwondo under its iconic dome of stone, steel and glass.

Grand Palais. Photo credit: Gordon Gartrell, Wikimedia commons
The Place de la Concorde will stage some of the newer events, including breakdancing – le breaking – which is making its debut as an Olympic event, plus skateboarding, BMX freestyle and 3 x 3 basketball. The Paris Olympic Committee always wanted to showcase these urban sports in a city center setting and this site, sandwiched between the Champs Élysées and the Tuileries Gardens, will be a spectacular venue right at the heart of the games. Staging four different sports there will mean plenty of action throughout the competition, giving the square where Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were guillotined a very contemporary prominence.

Place de la Concorde and the obelisk. Photo: David Stanley/ Flickr
Another venue weighted with history is the Hôtel de Ville, where the marathon will begin. Louis XVI appeared there wearing a red, white and blue cockade to show his support for the revolution, and General de Gaulle addressed jubilant crowds to announce the Liberation of Paris in 1944. And how fitting that the Château de Versailles, originally a royal hunting lodge, will stage the equestrian events. Jumping, dressage and cross-country eventing will all be set in the palace gardens, alongside the Grand Canal, just where the spectacular fireworks party was held to celebrate the wedding of the teenagers Louis (later Louis XVI) and Marie Antoinette in May 1770.

The Hotel de Ville in Paris celebrates the Olympics. Photo: Bonjour Paris
The grand sporting stadia of Paris will also play starring roles. The Stade de France, the country’s largest stadium, and the scene of France’s 1998 World Cup victory, will become the Olympic Stadium, hosting many track events from the 100 and 200 meter sprints right up to the 5,000 and 10,000 meter races. Sports fans will know it as the home venue for the France’s national football and rugby teams, but they may not be aware that during these matches the running track is largely hidden under the pitch. The iconic Parc des Princes, built on what was once royal parkland – hence its name – and now the home ground of Paris Saint-Germain, will host some of the football, including both the men’s and women’s finals.
The tennis and wheelchair tennis will take place – where else? – at the Roland Garros stadium. The site’s clay courts, situated on the edge of the Bois de Boulogne, are world-famous because of the Grand Slam tournament played there in late May each year. And another, lesser-known venue will also be playing a historic role. The Yves du Manoir Stadium, where the hockey will be played, is highly unusual, being one of only a very few stadia worldwide to have hosted Olympic events twice. For the Opening Ceremony of the 1924 Olympics was held there, as were many of the sporting events. It has been modernized and after the games it will become the new home for the French Hockey Federation’s training center.

Roland Garros – Finale Dames 2012 by Mathieu Lebreton/ Flickr
However, it is not just the city’s famous spots which will feature. A number of its more everyday arenas will also host Olympic events, bringing top class sport to lesser-known suburbs, as well as underlining the key theme of sustainability. At the Bercy Arena, there will be basketball, trampolining and gymnastics, while swimming and water polo will take place at the La Défense Arena. There’ll be handball, volleyball and table tennis at the South Paris Arena and boxing, modern pentathlon and sitting volleyball will be staged at the North Paris Arena in Villepinte. Badminton and some gymnastics will take place at the Porte de la Chapelle Arena.
Making excellent use of current Paris venues was always key to the planning for Paris 2024, but there have been some new builds too. Most notable is the Aquatics Center, sited in St Denis as a continuation of the major regeneration project which began with the building of the Stade de France on a brownfield site there in the 1990s. After the Olympics it will remain as a huge multi-sports center to serve the St Denis area as well as becoming a permanent home for a new national diving center. A second key theme is sustainability and the Aquatics Center has been built with bio-based materials. Its 5,000 square meter roof is covered with solar panels and will be one of the country’s biggest solar farms.
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Also new is the Olympic and Paralympic Village, due to house over 22,000 athletes including some 8,000 Paralympians, during the Games. It too will play a part in the regeneration of the area, leaving behind a new neighborhood with 2,500 new homes, a student residence and a hotel, as well as parks, offices and shopping areas. This project is another key part of the legacy envisioned for Paris from the games, having been designed to meet high environmental standards and stay in line with the city’s aim of reaching carbon neutrality by 2050.

New metro signs illustrate the Paris Olympics Venues. Photo: Marian Jones
There is no doubt then, that Paris will be center stage for the duration of the Games. There will be events across the country – football in various venues including Bordeaux, St Etienne and Nice, sailing in Marseille and surfing in Tahiti in French Polynesia – but Paris will be the main focus. The world will tune in first and foremost to admire the amazing feats performed by the world’s best athletes, but the backdrop will showcase Paris in all her variety: as a city of stunning monuments with a rich and colorful history, but also as one committed to the 21st century aims of regeneration and sustainability. Let the Games begin!
Lead photo credit : Olympics. Photo credit: Bryan Turner/ Unsplash
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