I attended my very first Olympics in 1992 in Barcelona, Spain just like my country, South Africa, which competed for the first time since 1960 at the same games with 93 competitors who took part in 87 events in 19 sports.
The 2024 Summer Olympics – officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad and branded as Paris 2024 – is an international multi-sport event taking place from July 24 to August 11, 2024 in France. The opening ceremony took place on July 26.
Paris is the host city, with events held in 16 additional -cities spread across Metropolitan France and one sub-site in Tahiti, French Polynesia. For the first time in the history of the Olympic Summer Games, the opening ceremony – the largest in the games history – did not take place in a stadium but in the heart of the city along its main artery, the Seine River – with boats for each national delegation.
These boats were equipped with cameras to allow television and online viewers to see the athletes up close. Winding their way from east to west, the 10 500 athletes crossed through the centre of Paris.
The parade came to the end of its 6km route in front of the Trocadéro, where the remaining elements of Olympic protocol and final shows took place. A ceremony open to as many people as possible – residents from Paris and its region, as well as visitors from all over France and around the world – with 80 giant screens and strategically placed speakers that allowed everyone to enjoy the magical atmosphere of the show.
Paris was awarded the Games at the 131st International Olympic Committee (IOC) session in Lima, Peru, on September 13, 2017. After multiple withdrawals that left only Paris and Los Angeles in contention, the IOC approved a process to concurrently award the 2024 and 2028 Summer Olympics to the two remaining candidate cities – both of the bids were praised for high technical plans and innovative ways to use existing and temporary facilities.
Having previously hosted in 1900 and 1924, Paris becomes the second city ever to host the Olympics three times, after London, which hosted the 1908, 1948 and 2012 Games. “Paris 2024” marks the centenary of Paris 1924 and Chamonix 1924, which in turn marks the centenary of the Winter Olympics and is the sixth Olympic Games hosted by France – three Summer Olympics and three Winter Olympics.
The Summer Games returned to the traditional four-year Olympiad cycle, after the 2020 edition was postponed and instead took place in 2021 because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Paris 2024 features the debut of breakdancing as an Olympic sport and will be the final Olympic Games held during the IOC presidency of Thomas Bach. The 2024 Games are expected to cost €9-billion (about R180-billion).
The Barcelona Games were the 22nd occurrence of the modern Olympic Games and were perhaps the most-successful modern Olympics.
The “Dream Team” won the gold medal and was inducted as a unit into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010.
Fermín Cacho won the 1 500m, earning Spain’s first Olympic gold medal in a running event. Chinese diver Fu Mingxia, age 13, became one of the youngest Olympic gold medalists of all time.
For the duration of the Olympics, the Vila Olímpica (Olympic Village) neighbourhood served as the official residence for participating athletes and the name stuck. The development brought new life and vigour to a historically run-down area.
From the beginning, the site was conceived as a space of quality housing, public green spaces, and wide sprawling avenues oriented towards the coast. The redesign also created new public beaches, like Bogatell, Nova Icària, and Mar Bella. Over time, the area gradually transformed into one of the city’s most vibrant entertainment zones, with newly constructed bars, restaurants and seaside snack bars – all concentrated in a new tourist-friendly part of the city.
Since the Games, rarely in the history of a city has there been an opportunity to undertake such a wide-ranging transformation. The subsequent urban development and the consequent internationalisation of the economy put pressure on cities to compete in the global arena.
The hotel sector expanded by 5 000 new hotel rooms, tourism increased enormously by 2-million visitors in 1992, 3 million in 1997 and the city has become the leading Mediterranean port for pleasure cruises.
Barcelona is firmly on the map today, with a strong image.
In 1986, the IOC voted to change the schedule of the Olympic Games so that the summer and winter Olympics would be held in different years.
- Mohale is the chancellor of the University of the Free State, a professor of practice in the Johannesburg Business School and chairman of Bidvest and ArcelorMittal
