In 500 days on Tuesday, the 2024 Summer Olympics will burst into life in Paris as the teams float down the River Seine on barges in a unique opening ceremony.
The Paris Olympics and Paralympics have a lot riding on them -- they involve the return of full crowds of spectators to the world's greatest sporting spectacle after the Covid-blighted Summer Games in Tokyo in 2021 and the Winter Olympics in Beijing last year.
The International Olympic Committee's suggestion that it wants to find a"pathway" for athletes from Russia and its ally Belarus to take part as neutrals in Paris moved a stop closer on Friday when the International Fencing Federation said it would re-open its events to Russians.AFP | Anne-Christine POUJOULAT
Thirty countries including the United States have asked the IOC for"clarification" over how Russian athletes would be able to compete in practice.The plans to take the opening ceremony out of its traditional stadium setting and stage it on the River Seine, framed by the Eiffel Tower and other monuments, is an organisational headache and has provoked concerns from the security services.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin says it is"too early to say" while Etienne Thobois, the director general of the 2024 organising committee says"all scenarios are on the table".
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