By Karolos Grohmann
PARIS (Reuters) – The Paris Olympics will be a spectacular event at a time of historic global disruptions and growing divisive forces, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said on Monday, four days before the Games 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 ceremony in an Olympic 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,” IOC President Thomas Bach said at the opening of his organisation’s session in the French capital.
“We are convinced that together with the entire world we will experience spectacular Olympic Games,” he said, with French President Emmanuel Macron in attendance.
More than 10,500 athletes representing 206 national Olympic Committees will compete at the 16-day multi-sports event, 100 years since the last time the French capital staged them, with more than 30,000 security officers on duty.
Bach also highlighted the global sports body’s challenges in what he called a new world order.
“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” vs “Global North”. Everywhere you look, multilateralism is on the back foot.”
He said the IOC’s focus on solidarity, which will be fuelled by increased revenues over the next years that are to be distributed to national Olympic committees, international federations and other stakeholders, was crucial.
Bach said the IOC had already secured $7.3 billion for the years 2025-28 and had raised $6.2 billion in deals for the period 2029-2032.
He said 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,” Bach 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,” he said.
The IOC is pushing through with the creation of Olympic Esports Games in a 12-year-deal with Saudi Arabia in an effort to tap in to a younger audience and connect them with the Olympic brand.
“In these difficult times there are so many divisive forces tearing humanity apart,” Bach said. “In this world of division the athletes personify our shared hope for a better future.”
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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