During a ceremony held at Paris 2024’s “Pulse” headquarters, IOC President Thomas Bach symbolically presented invitations to the presidents and representatives of the NOCs of Greece, as the birthplace of the Olympic Games, and of the host countries of recent and upcoming Olympic Games and Youth Olympic Games, as well as the IOC’s Refugee Olympic Team.
Speaking at the ceremony, President Bach expressed his excitement at welcoming the world to Paris for what will be a “new era” for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, as the first planned and delivered in line with the reforms of Olympic Agenda 2020, serving as a blueprint that will help shape future editions of the Olympic Games and inspire other major events.
“Today, one year from the Olympic Games Paris 2024, we are celebrating a new stage in this great Olympic history that is ours,” IOC President Bach said. “With the Olympic Games Paris 2024, we can truly look forward to the advent of a new era of Olympic Games. These Olympic Games will be more inclusive, younger, more urban and more sustainable. These will be the very first Olympic Games held with perfect gender parity. In this way and in many other ways, we can expect an Olympic Games that conforms to our Olympic Agenda from start to finish.”
As the first Games that are fully adapting to the reforms of Olympic Agenda 2020, Paris 2024 has minimised construction. The Olympic and Paralympic Games will be held in 95 per cent existing or temporary venues.
Paris 2024 is also targeting 50 per cent reduction of carbon emissions compared to the average of London 2012 and Rio 2016 to become the first Olympic Games aligned with the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, which the governments of this world signed in 2015 in Paris.
The Olympic Games Paris 2024 will be the first ever Olympic Games with gender parity. The IOC has allocated exactly the same number of quota places to female and male athletes.
Competitions will take place in the heart of Paris, for instance at the Eiffel Tower and the Place de la Concorde. For the first time ever in Olympic history, we will celebrate the Olympic Opening Ceremony in the heart of the city, with the River Seine as the stage for a sensational welcome to the best athletes of the world, by hundreds of thousands of people along the river bank.
Every visitor will not only be a spectator, but can also be a participant. Paris 2024 has succeeded in getting a daily 30-minute exercise period in the curricula of French primary schools, aiming to reach 4.2 million pupils nationwide. The “Marathon Pour Tous” [“Marathon for All”] will give 40,000 runners the unique experience to run their race on the very course of the Olympic marathon.
“The mission of the Olympic Games is to unite the entire world in peaceful competition,” added President Bach during the invitation ceremony. “In our fragile world, with conflicts, divisions and wars rising, we need this unifying power more than ever. The Olympic Games must always build bridges of understanding and friendship.”
The NOCs that received invitations during the ceremony were:
Hellenic Olympic Committee (Greece being the birthplace of the Olympic Games), represented by NOC President and IOC Member Spyros Capralos
Japanese Olympic Committee (Olympic Games Tokyo 2020), represented by Yasuhiro Yamashita, NOC President, IOC Member and Olympic champion in judo
Chinese Olympic Committee (Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022), represented by Zhang Jiasheng, NOC Vice-President
Italian National Olympic Committee (Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026), represented by Giulia Quintavalle, member of the NOC council and Olympic champion in judo
United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (Olympic Games LA28), represented by Elena Meyers Taylor, NOC Board Member and five-time Olympic medallist in bobsleigh
Australian Olympic Committee (Olympic Games Brisbane 2032), represented by Alex Hill, Olympic champion in rowing
Senegalese National Olympic and Sports Committee (Youth Olympic Games Dakar 2026), represented by Mamadou D. Ndiaye, NOC President and IOC Member
The IOC’s Refugee Olympic Team, represented by Masomah Ali Zada, member of the Tokyo 2020 IOC Refugee Olympic Team in cycling and holder of an IOC Refugee Athlete Scholarship, and
French National Olympic and Sports Committee (Olympic Games Paris 2024), represented by NOC President and IOC Member David Lappartient.
In total, invitations to Paris 2024 have been sent to 203 eligible NOCs. This excludes the NOC of Guatemala, which is currently suspended, as well as the NOCs of Russia and Belarus. The IOC has previously announced that it will take its decision on the participation of individual, neutral athletes with a Russian or Belarusian passport, in line with the recommendations for International Federations and international sports event organisers on the participation of athletes with a Russian or Belarusian passport in international competitions, at the appropriate time.
Excitement in France and around the world is already growing ahead of Paris 2024, as seen by the huge demand for tickets. Nearly seven million tickets have been purchased so far, with the Paris 2024 Organising Committee committed to realising its goal of making the “Games wide open” and accessible to as many people as possible. This includes an affordable ticket pricing structure, with tickets for all sports available for as little as EUR 24 for the Olympic Games and EUR 15 for the Paralympic Games, and with around 50 per cent of public tickets costing EUR 50 or less.
Prior to receiving their invitations to the Games, the NOC representatives present in Paris joined President Bach on a tour of the Olympic Village, before experiencing a special celebration with athletes and other key stakeholders on the River Seine.
The invitation ceremony, which featured several performances celebrating French culture, also saw the IOC’s Paris 2024 Coordination Commission Chair, Pierre-Olivier Beckers-Vieujant, and Paris 2024 President Tony Estanguet outline the latest progress that has been made in organising next year’s Olympic Games, while expressing their excitement and anticipation as preparations enter their final year.
Recent achievements include the successful staging of the sailing test event in Marseille , officially marking the start of Paris 2024’s testing programme, and the hosting of the Chefs de Mission Seminar , welcoming representatives of NOCs from around the world to help prepare their delegations for the Games.
Prabhjot Singh
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