Key occasions
Keir Starmer’s workplace has weighed in on the journey chaos. The UK’s prime minister has requested sport followers to heed the journey recommendation being issued by authorities.
A spokesperson stated: “Clearly the state of affairs is regarding, and just like the statements you’ve seen from the French, it’s also extremely irritating for folks travelling to attend the Video games and the Olympic ceremony.
“The prime minister would urge folks to proceed to comply with the journey recommendation and the statements from the journey operators.
“Regardless of this disruption, it is vitally clear that each in France, right here and world wide, everyone seems to be vastly excited and looking out ahead to what will probably be an extremely profitable Olympic Video games, and we gained’t let disruption overshadow that.”
Quarter of Eurostar trains cancelled for opening days of Video games
One in 4 Eurostar trains will probably be cancelled on Friday and over the weekend following “co-ordinated” vandalism which brought on disruption forward of the Olympics in France.
The rail operator, which runs worldwide providers from London St Pancras, confirmed 25% of its trains would not run on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
A number of of its trains to Paris had been cancelled whereas others had been diverted or topic to delays due to the continuing points over the Channel, with prospects informed to cancel their journeys the place attainable.
“Eurostar expects this example will final till Monday morning,” the operator stated in an announcement. PA Media
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From the Guardian archive: how the ‘imposing’ opening ceremony to the 1924 Paris Olympics was lined …
Paris, Sunday
The repeated thud of the saluting weapons had ceased and the strains of the Marseillaise had died away when a bugle name gave the sign for the march previous of the world’s athletes. The elegant stadium at Colombes, not, after all, to be in contrast with our grandiose affair at Wembley, but able to holding sixty thousand spectators, was full to the brim for yesterday’s opening ceremony.
Within the tribune of honour M Doumergue, president of the republic, had taken his seat, along with the Prince of Wales as consultant of the British empire, Prince Henry, and different notables. Immediately the nice defile started.
For selection, and but perfection of type, for picturesqueness of gown and color and bearing, it could be exhausting to discover a parallel to this procession of athletes of forty-five nations. Every nation had been left to decide on its personal uniform, and the outcome was a unprecedented vary of colored blazers, badges, and headgears from straw hat to fez.
Learn extra right here …
Quiz time! As you would possibly count on, loads of Olympics curiosity in our sports activities quiz of the week. Plus: vital Hurstpierpoint FC content material! Huzaifah Khan is that this week’s quizmaster …
London Eurostar passengers requested to postpone journeys
Gwyn Topham
Eurostar passengers travelling from London to Paris on Friday had been requested to postpone journeys if attainable, with trains delayed and cancelled after arson assaults happened on high-speed rail strains hours earlier than the beginning of the Olympics.
Most providers had been leaving St Pancras Worldwide station on time however journeys had been anticipated to be extended by no less than an hour in France. Two afternoon departures have been cancelled.
The disruption, attributable to what French authorities described as coordinated and malicious assaults on rail infrastructure between Paris and Lille, got here hours earlier than the Video games’ opening ceremony, probably stranding some passengers hoping to attend.
Eurostar stated in an announcement: “Resulting from coordinated acts of malice in France, affecting the high-speed line between Paris and Lille, all high-speed trains going to and coming from Paris are being diverted by way of the traditional line in the present day Friday 26 July.
“This extends the journey time by round an hour-and-a-half. A number of trains have been cancelled. Eurostar’s groups are absolutely mobilised in stations, within the name centres, and onboard to make sure that all passengers are knowledgeable and might attain their vacation spot. We encourage our prospects to postpone their journey if attainable.”
Passengers would be capable to cancel or get a refund or change their journey freed from cost, Eurostar stated.
Thanks Luke, greetings all. Organisers are in all probability jumpy for any high-profile bonanza, however there are clearly jitters all-round for tonight’s opening ceremony given in the present day’s disruption in France. Protests on various fronts – native, nationwide and worldwide – might be gravitating to Paris over the approaching weeks.
There are contingency plans in place if protests make the deliberate 6km parade alongside the Seine untenable – “we’ve fallback eventualities, plan Bs and plan Cs”, Emmanuel Macron stated final month – however I feel it’s truthful to say that there’s a considerable safety presence in France’s capital in the present day. Various choices for tonight’s ceremony embody a smaller occasion within the Trocadéro space or shifting the entire thing into the Stade de France.
For those who missed something, right here’s the Olympics-related content material we’ve printed in the present day, on a European morning when arson assaults on France’s high-speed rail community have soured the temper.
Let’s hope for a peaceable afternoon main into this night’s opening ceremony … handing over to my colleague, Stuart Goodwin, for the following bit.
Jack Snape
Australia’s prime athletes are out to make their mark on Paris over the approaching weeks, their finest endeavours leaving a robust, if fleeting, affect on the French capital. However most of the a number of thousand Australians who stay domestically have already made a permanent impression on French life.
Fox McInerney, proprietor of espresso store Good Information and roastery Cayo, says Australian cafe tradition has taken maintain up to now decade, and there are actually greater than 10 Australian-owned or run companies in central Paris offering a substitute for the dominant native model Cafés Richard.
What’s Taste Flav doing on the Olympics carrying a Workforce USA water polo helmet? Jay Cohen, of the Related Press, explains all:
Taste Flav stopped for hugs, handshakes and high-fives as he made his approach across the Workforce USA Home on the Paris Video games on Thursday. He by no means stopped smiling.
“That is fairly an expertise for me proper now, you realize, as a result of the one time I’ve ever seen the Olympics was on TV,” Flav stated. “You understand what I’m saying? However I all the time needed to see what it felt like being there. So now I obtained the chance to be right here. It’s the perfect.”
Flav, a founding member of the hip-hop group Public Enemy, is in Paris as a part of his duties because the official hype man for USA Water Polo — a partnership that got here collectively after he linked with US captain Maggie Steffens on Instagram in Could.
The 65-year-old Flav is embracing his new obligations together with his common model of seemingly boundless enthusiasm. “I’m so prepared, man. … I’m so hype proper now about this sport,” stated Flav, carrying a customized USA Water Polo clock. “I want I used to be taking part in it. I’m hyping myself up proper now to ask them to let me on the workforce.”
The street to Flav‘s Olympic debut started when Steffens posted on Instagram about her experiences with the US ladies’s program, which has gained an unprecedented three straight gold medals going into Paris.
Whereas paying tribute to her teammates and expressing love for her gruelling sport, Steffens additionally highlighted the monetary wrestle for many Olympic athletes. Flav’s supervisor introduced the problem to his consideration, and he promised his help.
“As a woman dad and supporter of all ladies’s sports activities – imma personally sponsor you my woman … no matter you want. And imma sponsor the entire workforce,” Flav commented on Instagram.
That alternate was a novel sponsorship deal between Flav — authorized title William Jonathan Drayton Jr. — and USA Water Polo. Flav made an undisclosed monetary contribution to the ladies’s programme as a part of the five-year settlement, and agreed to collaborate on social media.
He’s planning to attend the Olympic openers for the US ladies and men. The ladies face Greece on Saturday, and the boys play Italy on Sunday.
Flav, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame with Public Enemy in 2013, prepped for his Paris expertise by attending two ladies’s video games. He additionally jumped into the pool with the ladies’s workforce.
“I attempted it. I obtained to strive it to see what it appears like,” Flav stated. “And boy, I used to be within the water with the ladies for like seven minutes. And I used to be treading water for seven minutes. And I’m not going to lie. However that was like the toughest seven minutes in my life.”
Flav stated he “obtained fortunate” and linked on two objectives in opposition to Ashleigh Johnson — thought of the perfect goaltender on the earth. The importance of the second was not misplaced on Johnson, the primary black lady to play water polo for the U.S. Olympic workforce.
“We noticed the video come out … It was so cool to see it,” Johnson stated. “I learn by means of the feedback and I see folks asking questions on water polo and folks of color wanting to start out taking part in. And that’s a unique group than I’ve seen speak about our sport.”
That’s one thing Flav hopes to see extra of as he continues to cheer on the US groups. “When it comes all the way down to water polo … it’s probably not about folks of color. It’s about folks that like to play it,” he stated. “Water polo is for all races, all colors of individuals.”
Barney Ronay
“We have to re-enthuse.” This was in all probability the closest Emmanuel Macron got here to a tearful cri de cœur throughout his newest tackle on the eve of France’s Olympic Video games. It’s a affordable sufficient assertion in itself, though one that could be extra correct with the elimination of the “re” half. Welcome to Paris 2024, the thirty third trendy Olympic Video games, and the primary to have mainly crept up over your shoulder with a shrug and a pffft and an arch of the forehead.
Worrying concerning the Olympics is after all an Olympic custom in its personal proper. The temptation is all the time there to stress over the dimensions, the purity, the essential vitality of this four-yearly world anachronism.
Sticking with the US rap/hip-hop theme for a second, right here’s Taste Flav, at a Workforce USA Water Polo press convention in the present day:
Snoop Dogg carries Olympic flame in Paris
Snoop Dogg, as promised by organisers, has been carrying the Olympic flame in Paris in the present day.
“Snoop, who was born in Los Angeles – host of the 1932, 1984 and 2028 Video games – limbered up for his Olympic stint by posting a time of 34.44 seconds over 200 metres throughout a particular exhibition race on the US trials in Oregon final month.”
Is US males’s basketball’s period of Olympic domination coming to an finish?
Oren Weisfeld takes a glance:
“The 2024 Olympic Video games are shaping as much as be probably the most aggressive worldwide males’s basketball match of all time, with powerhouse nations reminiscent of Canada, Australia, Spain, France, Germany and Serbia loading up on expertise as they goal to take down the juggernaut Workforce USA.
The American males have gained gold at every of the final 4 Olympics and have assembled “The Avengers” in hopes of doing so once more. Led by LeBron James and Stephen Curry, Workforce USA is filled with NBA All-Stars being coached by NBA champions. However in contrast to many different groups they’ll face on the Olympics, this American roster had not performed collectively till a sequence of warmup video games in the previous few weeks. And regardless of their vital expertise benefit, they’ll have much less time than another workforce to come back collectively, put their NBA habits apart, and play Fiba basketball, which has different rules reminiscent of smaller courts and shorter video games, as a unit.”
The Canadian Olympic Committee CEO, David Shoemaker, stated new data from Soccer Canada confirmed suspended ladies’s head coach Bev Priestman was seemingly conscious of the drone use that has brought on a scandal on the Paris Olympics.
The COC eliminated head coach Priestman on Thursday following her suspension by Canada Soccer following complaints from New Zealand that Canada flew drones over two of their coaching periods. Assistant Andy Spence will coach Canada for the rest of the Video games.
Shoemaker additionally stated he’s comfy with Canada’s ladies’s workforce remaining in Paris to defend their Olympic gold medal amid rumblings that the workforce needs to be disqualified over the drone scandal that has thrust the workforce into the highlight.
“One of many key items of data was the conclusion from Canada Soccer that (Priestman) wanted to be suspended based mostly on their accumulation of information,” Shoemaker stated throughout on Friday.
“I’ve seen among the data they’ve, and we gathered some extra data ourselves that made me conclude that she was extremely more likely to have been conscious of the incidents right here.” Reuters
A century has handed since Paris final hosted the Olympics.
John Windmill has compiled a gallery of fascinating images:
The official Olympics X account going alllllll the best way again to 1996 and Celine Dion’s efficiency on the opening ceremony in Atlanta:
Nick Ames
On the time, Lola Anderson had written it off as a cringeworthy adolescent whim. She was removed from the one teen to have been swept alongside by the countless summer time of London 2012 and, watching Nice Britain surge down Dorney Lake in direction of one in all their 4 rowing golds, was struck by “this huge wave of inspiration”. Her love for the game had been rising and, at 14, this was the second to spell out a plan for the longer term.
She ran to seek out her diary and began writing. “My title is Lola Anderson and I feel it could be my greatest dream in life to go to the Olympics and characterize Workforce GB in rowing and, if attainable, win a gold medal,” learn the entry. However instantly self-consciousness set in. Wanting again now it’s simply diagnosable. “Teenage women don’t essentially have probably the most perception in ourselves and I obtained very embarrassed,” she says. “I kinda thought ‘That was a extremely cocky, boastful factor to have written’. Again then, on a great day I wasn’t capsizing. I ripped the web page out and threw it within the bin.”
Chinese language swimmer says doping testers a part of ‘European and American’ plot
Daniel Boffey
A world file holding Chinese language swimmer has accused doping testers on the Olympic Video games of being a part of a “European and American” plot to unsettle China’s workforce.
Qin Haiyang, who holds the file for the boys’s 200m breaststroke and is seen as one in all Adam Peaty’s major obstacles to say a three-peat within the 100m, claimed on social media that the vigorous testing of Chinese language athletes on the Paris Video games was an try and disturb their rhythm.
“Is anybody operating a e book on the viewing figures for the Opening Ceremony?” emails Gary Naylor. “Like Eurovision Tune Contests, this metric solely is available in billions. One feels a bit twentieth century, three feels a bit Trumpian, so will M. Macron accept a cushty two billion? I believe so.”
This form of speak all the time jogs my memory of the excellent opening to Simon Kuper’s 1994 e book, “Football Against the Enemy”. (Figures proper/unsuitable at time of writing):
“Nobody is aware of what number of soccer followers there are. World Cup USA 1994, Inc has put out a booklet claiming the TV viewers for the Italian World Cup was 25.6billion (5 instances the world’s inhabitants) and that 31 billion are anticipated to observe the American World Cup.”
Emma Hayes will lead the US ladies’s nationwide soccer workforce into aggressive motion for the primary time on the Video games. The early indicators are encouraging, writes Alexander Abnos:
Notice, I discussed the opening ceremony begins at 7pm BST: nevertheless it appears it’s really 6.30pm. I wouldn’t need you to overlook the beginning.
French rail community hit by arson assaults earlier than Olympics opening ceremony
From Angelique Chrisafis in Paris: an up to date story on the arson assaults on France’s high-speed rail community:
“France’s high-speed rail community has been hit by coordinated “malicious acts” together with arson assaults which have introduced main disruption to most of the nation’s busiest rail strains hours earlier than the Paris Olympics opening ceremony.”
“France is Édith Piaf, it’s additionally opera, it’s rap, it’s an entire vary of musical kinds,” stated Thomas Jolly, inventive director of the opening and shutting ceremonies. “France is cheese, nevertheless it’s additionally the pretzel, and it’s additionally couscous.”
A snippet there from Simon Burnton’s day-by-day information to the perfect bits in Paris within the coming days and weeks:
Cath Bishop
British rowing on the Olympics was once all concerning the males’s coxless 4 who maintained an unimaginable profitable streak throughout 5 Olympics over 20 years. That chain was damaged painfully at Tokyo in 2021. On the time, some interpreted this as symptomatic of a disaster within the British rowing workforce that gained simply two medals: one silver, one bronze. But simply three years later that break appears to have liberated the workforce from a legacy that had grow to be extra of a burden than benefit and kickstarted some overdue modernisation. This summer time, it’s genuinely troublesome to say which is our “prime boat” as a result of there’s a broader unfold of expertise throughout boat lessons than there has ever been.
Right here’s your common reminder to bookmark the schedule, outcomes, medal desk, and even our 2024 Olympics homepage.
In the meantime – from final month – right here’s Barney Ronay on why contributing one thing for our efforts is an excellent concept and can make you an all-round higher individual.
What’s occurring in the present day?
Not very a lot till the opening ceremony, starting at 6.30pm BST.
On the official Olympics website schedule, there are three occasions listed for this morning: 10m Air Rifle Combined Workforce Pre-Occasion Coaching (8am), 10m Air Pistol Males’s Pre-Occasion Coaching (9am), and 10m Air Pistol Ladies’s Pre-Occasion Coaching (10.45am). All distinctly missable.
Tumaini Carayol
The final time Simone Biles tried to vault in a contest area on the Olympic Video games, all hell broke free. As Biles launched herself into her extraordinarily troublesome Amanar vault, she fully misplaced observe of herself within the air, solely managing one and a half twists as a substitute of the deliberate two and a half. After withdrawing from the workforce closing, Biles would spend most of her Olympic expertise within the stands.
Three years on, Biles returned to the Olympic competitors ground on Thursday morning as the ladies’s gymnastics groups labored their approach by means of podium coaching, the one likelihood gymnasts should practice contained in the Bercy Enviornment earlier than the gymnastics competitions start with the boys’s {qualifications} on Saturday.
Canada soccer coach faraway from Video games amid claims of ‘earlier drone use’
The Canadian Olympic Committee has eliminated ladies’s nationwide soccer head coach Bev Priestman for the rest of the Paris Video games following an alleged drone spying scandal.
The COC stated in an announcement launched early Friday that assistant coach Andy Spence would lead the defending gold medallists for the rest of the match.
Simone Biles is understood for her high-flying, boundary-pushing gymnastics abilities, however she may be simply as spectacular off the competitors mat in help for fellow athletes.
Biles helped German gymnasts snag seats on a packed bus to the Bercy Enviornment on Thursday when non-athletes meant to stay of their seats for the 45-minute trip. The sector is the place the Paris 2024 gymnastics occasions are being held.
“Not solely standing up for herself and her psychological well being but additionally preventing for us to get a seat (on) the overly packed bus towards the world,” German Sarah Voss, 24, posted on Instagram following Thursday’s podium apply.
The 2-times Olympian Voss’s story confirmed a photograph of a customized, heart-shaped pin adorned with Biles’ signature. Buying and selling pins on the Olympic Video games has grow to be customary amongst athletes, volunteers and different contributors as a gesture of friendship and camaraderie.
Voss’s teammate, the three-times Olympian Pauline Schaefer-Betz, additionally posted a narrative this week after receiving Biles’ pin. “This one is particular,” wrote 27-year-old Schaefer-Betz, who with Voss has been setting gymnastics tendencies by carrying full-length unitards for consolation and modesty.
Biles often is the most embellished gymnast on the world stage, however has battled psychological well being points and makes use of her experiences to encourage and help different athletes. The 27-year-old’s empathy was on show final month when the reigning Olympic all-around champion, Sunisa Lee, was producing a shaky efficiency at US nationwide championships. Biles pulled Lee apart and gave her a pep speak.
“She understands greater than anybody the strain and has needed to cope with the worst, so it actually helped to have her in my nook,” Lee, 21, stated of Biles after the competitors. Reuters
The five-times Olympic gold medal winner Laura Kenny – a Guardian columnist for Paris 2024 – solutions your questions on the best way to get again into biking, her favorite different sports activities, and when she realised she was the quickest on the earth
(I assume that surreal picture under, of the paintings copy within the river, shouldn’t be a part of the opening ceremony, in any other case organisers wouldn’t permit it to be photographed. However there it’s anyway.)
No fewer than 288 hair and make-up artists will probably be on responsibility for tonight’s opening ceremony.
Right here is David Hills with 5 issues to look out for:
Vandals goal France’s high-speed rail community
Vandals focused France’s high-speed TGV community with a sequence of coordinated actions that introduced main disruption to among the nation’s busiest rail strains earlier than the Paris Olympics opening ceremony.
The state-owned railway operator stated arsonists had focused installations alongside the strains connecting Paris with the nation’s west, north and east and that visitors can be severely disrupted in the course of the weekend.
“Final evening, the SNCF was sufferer of a number of acts of vandalism on the Atlantic, Northern and Jap high-speed strains. Fires had been intentionally set to break our installations,” the SNCF stated in an announcement.
Sports activities Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra condemned the vandalism. “It’s fully appalling,” she informed BFMTV. “To focus on the video games is to focus on France.”. Reuters
“France’s live-action experiment within the nice man principle of historical past goes to roll on into the semi-finals on Saturday, the place they’ll play South Africa.”
Andy Bull was on the Stade de France final evening to witness Antoine Dupont steering the hosts by means of to the semi-finals in rugby sevens:
Preamble
Howdy and welcome to Friday’s 2024 Olympics stay weblog.
It’s time for lift-off in Paris, as Angelique Chrisafis reviews from the French capital:
“It’s billed as the most important open-air present on Earth – a spectacle so formidable it would shut down a metropolis centre and its airspace, mobilise 45,000 police and several other military items and has taken two years to rehearse in secret.
When the Paris Olympics opening ceremony begins on Friday evening, will probably be the primary time the theatrical curtain-raiser for the world’s greatest sporting occasion has taken place exterior a stadium.”