Paris Olympics
Journey of how Olympic Sports events started: According to ancient Greek mythology and history, the origins of the ancient Olympic Games date back as far as 3000 years ago when track race competitions and games were held across 5 days as part of the religious celebrations in honor of their God Zeus. The Modern Olympic Games, as they are known today, were revived by the efforts of Pierre De Coubertin, a French physical educator, with the first games being opened by the king of Greece in the first week of April 1896.
There have been 30 Modern Summer Olympic games held every four years since 1896, except for those in 1940 and 1944 which could not be held due to the ongoing World War. Since 1924, the Modern Winter Olympic games have been held on a staggered two-year schedule after the Summer Olympics. Since 1960, the Paralympic Olympic games, held for the participation of athletes with a range of disabilities, were added as a part of the schedule for the Summer Olympics. They are also held every four years, with their participation increasing from 400 disabled athletes from 23 countries in 1960 to 4520 disabled athletes from 163 countries in 2020.
Women Power: Though the ancient Olympic games did not allow girls and women to participate, since 1900, the Modern Olympic games introduced the participation of women, with 22 women out of the 997 athletes participating in the games the same year. Since then, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has made committed efforts to increase women's participation at the Olympics, and it also strives hard to promote gender equality in sports. The London 2012 Olympic schedule was the first one in which women participated in all of the sports on the programme. The latest Olympics - Tokyo 2020 saw 5409 women participate out of the total 11,319 athletes.
Why Paris and not France? The honor of hosting these Olympic games is entrusted to a city (not a country) which is decided by the IOC. The host must promise that every competitor shall be given free entry without any discrimination on grounds of religion, gender, colour, or political affiliation.
Which sports will we see: The Paris 2024 Olympic schedule comprises more than 30 Sports, i.e., Archery, Gymnastics, Artistic Swimming, Athletics, Badminton, Basketball, Beach Volleyball, Boxing, Breaking, Canoe events, Cycling, Diving, Equestrian, Fencing, Football, Golf, Handball, Hockey, Judo, Swimming events, Modern Pentathlon, Rowing, Rugby, sailing, Shooting, Skateboarding, Sport Climbing, Surfing, Table tennis, Taekwondo, Tennis, Trampoline, Triathlon, Volleyball, Water Polo, Weightlifting, with about 10,000 to 11,000 athletes from over 200 countries participating in these games. They will be shown live on the television. These games bring so many different people across the world together in the same spirit of hope, perseverance, hard work, dedication, joy, and the pride and exhilaration of representing their homeland on the world stage.
The Olympic symbol consists of five interlaced rings of equal dimensions, used alone, in one or in five different colours, which are, from left to right blue, yellow, black, green, red. The Olympic rings express the activity of the Olympic movement and represent the union of the five continents and the meeting of athletes from throughout the world at the Olympic games.
Olympic Phryge and the Paralympic Phryge are the Mascots of Paris Olympics 2024.
