Inside Paris' long history with the Olympic Games

More than 100 years on, traces of the 1900 and 1924 Olympics remain across the French capital.

British Broadcasting CorporationWatchHomeNewsSportBusinessInnovationCultureTravelEarthVideoLiveHomeNewsIsrael-Gaza WarWar in UkraineUS & CanadaUKUK PoliticsEnglandN. IrelandN. Ireland PoliticsScotlandScotland PoliticsWalesWales PoliticsAfricaAsiaChinaIndiaAustraliaEuropeLatin AmericaMiddle EastIn PicturesBBC VerifySportBusinessExecutive LoungeTechnology of BusinessWomen at the HelmFuture of BusinessInnovationTechnologyScience & HealthArtificial IntelligenceAI v the MindCultureFilm & TVMusicArt & DesignStyleBooksEntertainment NewsTravelDestinationsAfricaAntarcticaAsiaAustralia and PacificCaribbean & BermudaCentral AmericaEuropeMiddle EastNorth AmericaSouth AmericaWorld’s TableCulture & ExperiencesAdventuresThe SpeciaListEarthNatural WondersWeather & ScienceClimate SolutionsSustainable BusinessGreen LivingVideoLiveLive NewsLive SportHomeNewsSportBusinessInnovationCultureTravelEarthVideoLiveAudioWeatherNewslettersGhosts of Olympics past leave their mark in Paris2 days agoBy Hugh Schofield, Paris CorrespondentShareGetty ImagesParis has hosted the Summer Olympics twice before - in 1900 and 1924 (pictured)“If Greece is the cradle of the Olympics, Paris represents its home.”

So begins a somewhat partisan account of the city’s long association with the Games, published ahead of its failed bid (to London) for 2012.

Paris, wrote the author hopefully, is where the Olympic movement “rediscovered its vigour after an interminable historical amnesia,” and where there took place “so many important steps in its modern-day growth.”

Step one was the founding congress of the International Olympic Committee, chaired by the French aristocrat Pierre de Coubertin at Sorbonne university in June 1894.

And then came steps two and three: the second and eighth Olympic Games, both organised in the French capital.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cerv1142mmvo

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