Dive into the history of Olympism in Paris: the Hôtel de Ville de Paris (Paris City Hall), Louvre Museum, Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral, Musée de la Monnaie, Comédie Française, Palais Garnier and the Élysée … have marked the history of the Olympic and Paralympic Games
In 2024, Paris becomes the biggest sporting arena in the world! For the third time in its history, after 1900 and 1924, the French capital is hosting the Summer Games. Beyond its status as a host city, Paris occupies a fundamental role in the history of Olympism and the modern Games. Paris's monuments, museums, and other emblematic attractions - even the most surprising ones - are steeped in history and Olympism. Find out more!
Paris - along with Los Angeles and London - is the only city to have hosted the summer Games three times (in 1900, 1924 and 2024). This rare occurrence owes much to the determination of the City of Paris, a major player in the organization of these three editions. As proof of its commitment, in June 1914, Paris City Hall hosted a ceremony in honour of the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Olympic movement. And today, its square welcomes numerous sporting activities, such as a skating rink every winter, Paris Plages in summer … and is at the heart of the celebrations during the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024.
Sport is a matter for everyone! On 5 July 1924, the day of the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games held in Paris, another solemn moment linked to Olympism occurred ... in the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris. In the morning, Cardinal Louis-Ernest Dubois presided over an ‘Olympic Mass’. The Cardinal, also the archbishop of the capital, pronounced the founding words, ’Que Dieu reçoive votre hommage. Que sa bénédiction donne à vos jeux, à vos luttes, à vos concours, toute la fécondité et tous les succès que vous en attendez, pour l’union et la prospérité des nations représentées en votre stade de Colombes’ (May God receive your homage. May his blessing give your Games, your struggles, and your competitions all the fruitfulness and success you expect, for the union and prosperity of the nations represented in your Colombes stadium’ (the name of the stadium in which the opening ceremony was held).
The Olympic Games originated in ancient Greece, and the Louvre Museum houses collections that provide an insight into this thousand-year-old heritage. Its Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities features pieces that reveal the importance of the sports practiced by the Greeks at the time: the amphoras with boxers, javelin throwers and runners, and the impressive 3-metre-high statue of Milon of Crotone. Considered the greatest athlete of Antiquity, he won numerous victories at the Olympic Games. A 17th-century work by Pierre Puget.
The Théâtre de la Comédie-Française, a national cultural institution, also marked the history of Olympism. The 4th Olympic Congress was held there from 25 to 26 May 1906. It was on this occasion that the Olympic Committee - IOC – decided to add art competitions to the Olympic programme. As a result of this historic meeting, music, literature, painting, sculpture, and architecture were included on the programme in 1914, held in Anvers, in Belgium, before disappearing in 1948.
During the Olympic Games in Paris in1924, the Palais Garnier, designed by architect Charles Garnier, was the venue for a gala in honour of the IOC, the Committees of participating nations and International Federations. Guests had the pleasure of attending a varied and exquisite show: a danced poem by Vincent d'Indy, music by Massenet and a ballet by Barbier and Mérante. Not to miss, the ceiling painted by Marc Chagall.
The most beautiful avenue in the world is famous for being the place where the French go to celebrate their country's great sporting victories. The French Olympic delegations paraded here after the 2008 (Beijing) and 2012 (London)** Games, to the acclaim of several thousand people. On 15 June 2005, the avenue was transformed into the Olympic Fields. One million visitors took advantage of the sports facilities installed for the occasion, including a swimming pool and athletics track. On 28 August 2024, the Avenue des Champs-Élysées will become part of Olympic history again when it hosts the Opening Ceremony of the Paralympic Games.
The Grand Palais, one of the capital’s iconic monuments built in 1900 for the Exposition Universelle, is today a major venue cultural and sporting events. For the Olympic Games in Paris in 1924, the spectacular glass roofed structure was the setting for a competition that was rather atypical, to say the least ... the Art Competition! The competitions in sculpture, painting, literature, architecture, and music consisted of exhibiting Olympic works inspired by sport. A century later, the Grand Palais – renovated for the occasion – will again be a competition venue, not for artistic disciplines, but for sporting disciplines: fencing, taekwondo, and wheelchair fencing.
The Élysée Palace, the official residence of the president of the French Republic, is closely linked to the Olympic movement. Heads of state have supported the various bids of French cities to host the Olympic Games, including Paris. The Hôtel d'Évreux - the name of the private mansion which houses the Élysée Palace - welcomes and honours Olympic medallists. In 1964, Charles de Gaulle awarded the National Order of Merit to the medallists of the Innsbruck Winter Games. In 2018, Emmanuel Macron received and honoured the Olympic and Paralympic delegations from the de P’yŏngch’ang Winter Games.
Renowned for its exceptional art collections - in particular, Impressionnist – an outstanding exhibition programme, and atypical and recognizable architecture, the Musée d’Orsay has also been the setting for Olympic celebrations. During the Paris 1900 Games, the organizing committee of the shooting events held a grand banquet there. During the 1924 Games, the Palais d’Orsay – its name before becoming a museum – and its reception rooms hosted a reception for the international federations.
The Monnaie de Paris doesn't just manufacture coins! It also produced the first Olympic medals of the modern era, for the Games in Athens in 1896. It continued to produce medals for various Olympiads staged in France, such as those held in 1924 and 1968. For the 1900 edition, the medals produced were unusual in that they were rectangular in shape! This is a shape we have not seen since in the history of the modern Games.
A setting of remarkable refinement for hosting an Olympic event! In 1900, the majestic Luxembourg Gardens, situated in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, welcomed the longue paume events, a discipline of French origin derived from the jeu de paume. On 27 May and 10 June 1900, some thirty or so French teams competed on a longue paume court of the Sénat, in the Luxembourg Gardens. The ‘Société de longue paume de Paris’ won three of the four tournaments held on this occasion.
With its prestigious amphitheatres, the no less prestigious Sorbonne University is a place of learning that has made Paris famous the world over. But it is also the birthplace of the modern Olympic Games. It was here, at a sports festival organized in 1892, that Pierre de Coubertin proposed re-introducing the Olympic Games. It was not until a congress, again at the Sorbonne, in 1894, that the participants embarked on this Olympic adventure, which resulted in the first modern Games, in Athens, in 1896.
A century before the first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens in 1896, an Olympic event was organized in Paris on three occasions, from 1796 to 1798: the Olympiad of the Republic. Spectators enjoyed naval jousting on the Seine, races on foot, on horseback or in a chariot and wrestling events... At the 1900 Paris Games - the 2nd edition of the modern Olympic Games - the Parc du Champ-de-Mars hosted the fencing tournaments, in sabre and foil. In a nice nod to history, for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris the beach volleyball and boccia events will be staged in a temporary open-air arena, at the foot of the Eiffel Tower: the Eiffel Tower Stadium!
The idea of an Olympiad of the Republic originated in 1793 at the Palais des Tuileries -no longer in existence. On 17 September 1793, Gilbert Romme, a revolutionary and founder of the Republican calendar, proposed the creation of a Public Games inspired by the Olympiad of the Greeks. Three years later, the Olympiad of the Republic was held. During the 1900 Games, the Tuileries Gardens hosted the epee tournament and made Olympic history. It was the first time that three medals of different colours (vermeil, silver, and bronze) were awarded, inspiring the principle of three medals for the top three performers in each event, which was introduced at the following Games, in Saint-Louis, in the United States, in 1904.
Symbolic of a city and a country, the Eiffel Tower has played an essential role in the history of the Olympics in France. During the Paris 1924 Games, the antenna on the Eiffel Tower broadcast 115 sports announcements as well as ‘talks’ on the history and values of Olympism. It has welcomed several Olympic torch relays: in 1994 (IOC Centenary Congress) and in 2008 (Beijing 2008 Torch Relay). For the Paris 2024 Games, it will be at the heart of exceptional arrangements with a 54-hectare pedestrian promenade, the start of the triathlon and cycling time trials, and proximity to the stadiums and other competition venues: Eiffel Tower, Trocadéro, Invalides, Pont d’Iéna, Arena Champ de Mars and Alexandre III Bridge.
In Paris, these include the hotel InterContinental Paris Le Grand, institutions – the Sénat, the Assemblée Nationale, the Institut de France, the Palais de Justice - the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the church Saint-Germain-des-Prés, the Musée de la Légion d’honneur et des ordres de Chevalerie and luxury establishments such as maison Lalique and the Bon Marché Rive gauche.
