Olympic all-around competition in Paris

The city of love. People like to call Paris that way. I don't really understand why. I didn't experience any special or unusual feelings that were different from usual during my time in the French capital. And in the early years of Eurosport I visited the Seine regularly, sometimes three times a week, so when I checked in at Charles des Gaulle airport I was greeted like an old friend by the staff, including of course a special preferential card from Air France. Of course, Paris is worth a trip, even without love. But it would go beyond my limited scope as a columnist if I were to list everything from the museums to the parks, the sights, the brasseries with their plush interiors and of course the restaurants that, as people like to say, set the world's culinary direction point. However, there is a lot of nostalgia involved and to really test this, you have to be able to handle the credit card casually. After all, the “Croque Madame”, an addictive, quite powerful toast with brioche, Gruyère cheese, cooked ham, eggs, milk, butter, flour and pepper, now costs more than ten euros everywhere. But the metro is still cheap and punctual. So I'm starting to save up because next year I have to, or rather can, go to Paris again. 2024 Olympics in Paris The Olympic Games will take place there and the first animations from the opening ceremony alone will give you goosebumps. The Seine, which winds through Paris like a snake, is the venue for the opening ceremony. This is somehow consistent, because Tony Estanguet is the president of the organizing committee of these games. He was three times world champion in canoe slalom, so he knows how to navigate dangerous obstacles while dancing wildly with the waves. This quality certainly benefits him now, because he still cannot say with certainty who will actually take part in the 2024 Olympic Games, which his compatriot Pierre de Coubertin revived in 1894 and then brought to Paris exactly in 1900 (after Athens in 1896), where they took place again in 1924. Above all, the so-called core sport of the Games, athletics, is proving quite resistant to the requests of the current IOC President Thomas Bach when it comes to the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes, which he demands. “Nothing has changed in World Athletics’ position,” it said in a release. The council of the world association decided last week not to allow the athletes of the two countries to take part in the meetings and title fights under its direction until further notice because of the war of aggression against Ukraine. “As the IOC has said, the approval decision is the responsibility of the federations,” it continued. Bach feels headwind, especially from Lord Sebastian Coe, who was far more successful as an athlete at the Olympic Games than the IOC president. Coe won two golds and two silvers and set a total of eight world records. He was also president of the organizing committee of the 2012 Olympic Games in London and has been president of the World Athletics Federation since 2015, which he organized and renewed after the controversial era of his predecessor Lamine Diack. Coe is unwavering in his path, which may one day even lead him to the top of the IOC, which made him wait five years before accepting him as president of a world association, which is usually automatic after a successful election. The sting still seems to hurt a little. In any case, it is clear that, according to the Olympic Charter, Thomas Bach will no longer be able to run in 2025, one year after the Olympic Games in Paris. I could easily imagine Sebastian Coe, who is a member of the House of Lords in England, becoming President of the IOC, although the rejection of Bach's proposal regarding the Russian and Belarusian athletes should in no way be understood as cheap saber-rattling . Coe is not taking advantage of the situation to collect votes for possible involvement at the top of the Olympic Movement. Basically, he consistently follows the guidelines of his committee together with other associations such as the swimmers. Resistance is particularly strong in Europe, while many countries in Africa and Asia are siding with Bach, with Chinese and Russian diplomacy combined with economic aid influencing their opinion. As a precautionary measure, Ukraine has already threatened to boycott the games if Russians and Belarusians are allowed to take part in Paris. Then it would affect those who suffer most from Putin's bombardment. Nobody can and should accept that. In any case, there is currently a lot of fire under the roof in the Olympic Empire. So it's perhaps a good thing that the opening ceremony takes place on the Seine. A little cooling never hurt. About the author: Sigi Heinrich The multi-award-winning sports journalist and TV commentator (including the German Television Prize, the Bavarian Sports Prize, the Biathlon Award and the World Sports Trophy) devotes his column to the entire diversity of sport and sometimes poaches in foreign regions. Sometimes with a smile and a wink, sometimes seriously or deliberately provocative. There should be something for everyone. Heinrich, who was editor of the Süddeutsche Zeitung for ten years after studying sports at the Technical University of Munich, commented for Eurosport for the first time at the 1992 Olympic Games. In Paris he will accompany an opening ceremony at the microphone for the 15th time.

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Olympic all-around competition in Paris

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