IOC expects Paris Games to be spectacular in ever-divisive world, Thomas Bach says

PARIS – The Paris Olympics will be a spectacular event at a time of historic global disruptions and growing divisive forces, International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach said on July 22, four days before the opening ceremony.

The Olympics in the French capital will see several firsts, with an opening ceremony on barges along the river Seine instead of the traditional show in the main stadium.

The Games will also incorporate the city’s major landmarks – including the Eiffel Tower – into the competitions, many of which will be staged in urban areas across the city.

It will also be the first Olympics to have gender parity, with equal numbers of men and women participating.

“Like billions of people around the world we are awaiting with impatience the youngest, most inclusive, most urban and most sustainable Games,” Bach said at the opening of the IOC session in Paris.

“We are convinced that together with the entire world we will experience spectacular Olympic Games,” he added, with French President Emmanuel Macron in attendance.

About 10,500 athletes representing 206 national Olympic committees will compete at the July 26 to Aug 11 event, 100 years since the last time the French capital staged them, with more than 30,000 security officers on duty.

While there are many reasons to be optimistic, Bach also highlighted the IOC’s challenges in its aim to unify the world.

“We are witnessing a new world order in the making,” he said. “Historic disruptions are upending the system of international relations that has been in place since the Second World War.

“The trends are clear – decoupling of economies; beggar-thy-neighbour; narrow self-interests trumping the rule of law; ‘Global South’ v ‘Global North’. Everywhere you look, multilateralism is on the back foot.

“In these difficult times there are so many divisive forces tearing humanity apart. In this world of division, the athletes personify our shared hope for a better future.”

Both Bach and Mr Macron have called for a global truce, amid the wars in Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Palestine.

“The Games will begin, and the truce will start,” the IOC chief said, recalling the Olympic values of solidarity, equality and human dignity for all.

“We can manage to bring the entire world together in peace.”

The statement came after the Israeli delegation flew to Paris on July 22 amid calls by the Palestinian contingent for a ban on Israel, citing the bombings of Gaza as a breach of the Olympic truce.

The Palestine Olympic Committee said in a letter to Bach that “approximately 400 Palestinian athletes have been killed, and the destruction of sports facilities exacerbates the plight of athletes who are already under severe restrictions”.

Ahead of the flight to France, Israel Olympic Committee president Yael Arad called it a “victory” that the team’s 88 athletes were participating in the Games.

“Our first victory is that we are here and going, and that we didn’t give up and have been competing in hundreds of competitions since October 7,” she said at Ben Gurion airport.

Arad was referring to the date of the unprecedented Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel that started the war, which has led to protests around the world.

French organisers have stepped up security in Paris where the Israeli delegation will be subject to strict security protocols.

Speaking on other challenges, Bach added that the changing lifestyles of young people in a digital world risked alienating the Olympic movement from a young generation.

“We can and we must change before we are being changed,” he said.

“For this change we need to change our mindset. We need the mindset of the digital natives. We have to go where the young people are, in the real world and the digital world.

“If we want to remain relevant in their digital lives we must engage with this digitally native generation in their digital way of living.”

The IOC is pushing through with the creation of an Olympic E-sports Games in a 12-year-deal with Saudi Arabia.

The Paris Games will also include new-generation sports like sport climbing, skateboarding, breaking and surfing. REUTERS, AFP