Paris 2024 Olympics: countdown to opening ceremony as travel network targeted – live | Paris Olympic Games 2024
Key events
Chinese swimmer says doping testers part of ‘European and American’ plot
Daniel Boffey
A world record holding Chinese swimmer has accused doping testers at the Olympic Games of being part of a “European and American” plot to unsettle China’s team.
Qin Haiyang, who holds the record for the men’s 200m breaststroke and is seen as one of Adam Peaty’s main obstacles to claim a three-peat in the 100m, claimed on social media that the vigorous testing of Chinese athletes at the Paris Games was an attempt to disturb their rhythm.
“Is anyone running a book on the viewing figures for the Opening Ceremony?” emails Gary Naylor. “Like Eurovision Song Contests, this metric only comes in billions. One feels a bit 20th century, three feels a bit Trumpian, so will M. Macron settle for a comfortable two billion? I suspect so.”
This sort of talk always reminds me of the superb opening to Simon Kuper’s 1994 book, “Football Against the Enemy”. (Figures right/wrong at time of writing):
“No one knows how many football fans there are. World Cup USA 1994, Inc has put out a booklet claiming the TV audience for the Italian World Cup was 25.6billion (five times the world’s population) and that 31 billion are expected to watch the American World Cup.”
Emma Hayes will lead the US women’s national football team into competitive action for the first time at the Games. The early signs are encouraging, writes Alexander Abnos:
Emma Hayes. Photograph: Brad Smith/ISI/Getty Images
Note, I mentioned the opening ceremony starts at 7pm BST: but it seems it’s actually 6.30pm. I wouldn’t want you to miss the start.
French rail network hit by arson attacks before Olympics opening ceremony
From Angelique Chrisafis in Paris: an updated story on the arson attacks on France’s high-speed rail network:
“France’s high-speed rail network has been hit by coordinated “malicious acts” including arson attacks that have brought major disruption to many of the country’s busiest rail lines hours before the Paris Olympics opening ceremony.”
“France is Édith Piaf, it’s also opera, it’s rap, it’s a whole range of musical styles,” said Thomas Jolly, creative director of the opening and closing ceremonies. “France is cheese, but it’s also the pretzel, and it’s also couscous.”
A snippet there from Simon Burnton’s day-by-day guide to the best bits in Paris in the coming days and weeks:
Thomas Jolly poses by the Seine with the L’Assemblée Nationale (Palais Bourbon) in the background. Photograph: Joel Saget/AFP/Getty Images
Cath Bishop
British rowing at the Olympics used to be all about the men’s coxless four who maintained an incredible winning streak across five Olympics over two decades. That chain was broken painfully at Tokyo in 2021. At the time, some interpreted this as symptomatic of a crisis in the British rowing team that won just two medals: one silver, one bronze. Yet just three years later that break seems to have liberated the team from a legacy that had become more of a burden than advantage and kickstarted some overdue modernisation. This summer, it’s genuinely difficult to say which is our “top boat” because there is a broader spread of talent across boat classes than there has ever been.
Here’s your regular reminder to bookmark the schedule, results, medal table, and even our 2024 Olympics homepage.
Meanwhile – from last month – here’s Barney Ronay on why contributing something for our efforts is a wonderful idea and will make you an all-round better person.
What’s occurring today?
Not very much until the opening ceremony, beginning at 6.30pm BST.
On the official Olympics website schedule, there are three events listed for this morning: 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team Pre-Event Training (8am), 10m Air Pistol Men’s Pre-Event Training (9am), and 10m Air Pistol Women’s Pre-Event Training (10.45am). All distinctly missable.
Fireworks at the Eiffel Tower on Bastille Day. Photograph: Olympia de Maismont/AFP/Getty
Tumaini Carayol
The last time Simone Biles attempted to vault in a competition arena at the Olympic Games, all hell broke loose. As Biles launched herself into her extremely difficult Amanar vault, she completely lost track of herself in the air, only managing one and a half twists instead of the planned two and a half. After withdrawing from the team final, Biles would spend most of her Olympic experience in the stands.
Three years on, Biles returned to the Olympic competition floor on Thursday morning as the women’s gymnastics teams worked their way through podium training, the one chance gymnasts will have to train inside the Bercy Arena before the gymnastics competitions begin with the men’s qualifications on Saturday.
Canada football coach removed from Games amid claims of ‘previous drone use’
The Canadian Olympic Committee has removed women’s national football head coach Bev Priestman for the remainder of the Paris Games following an alleged drone spying scandal.
The COC said in a statement released early Friday that assistant coach Andy Spence would lead the defending gold medallists for the remainder of the tournament.
Canada’s head coach Bev Priestman has been removed from duty. Canada Soccer CEO and general secretary Kevin Blue said ‘additional information has come to our attention regarding previous drone use’. Photograph: Visionhaus/Getty Images
Simone Biles is known for her high-flying, boundary-pushing gymnastics skills, but she can be just as impressive off the competition mat in support for fellow athletes.
Biles helped German gymnasts snag seats on a packed bus to the Bercy Arena on Thursday when non-athletes intended to remain in their seats for the 45-minute ride. The arena is where the Paris 2024 gymnastics events are being held.
“Not only standing up for herself and her mental health but also fighting for us to get a seat (on) the overly packed bus toward the arena,” German Sarah Voss, 24, posted on Instagram following Thursday’s podium practice.
The two-times Olympian Voss’s story showed a photo of a custom, heart-shaped pin adorned with Biles’ signature. Trading pins at the Olympic Games has become customary among athletes, volunteers and other participants as a gesture of friendship and camaraderie.
Simone Biles of the United States. Photograph: Naomi Baker/Getty Images
Voss’s teammate, the three-times Olympian Pauline Schaefer-Betz, also posted a story this week after receiving Biles’ pin. “This one is special,” wrote 27-year-old Schaefer-Betz, who with Voss has been setting gymnastics trends by wearing full-length unitards for comfort and modesty.
Biles may be the most decorated gymnast on the world stage, but has battled mental health issues and uses her experiences to inspire and support other athletes. The 27-year-old’s empathy was on display last month when the reigning Olympic all-around champion, Sunisa Lee, was producing a shaky performance at US national championships. Biles pulled Lee aside and gave her a pep talk.
“She understands more than anyone the pressure and has had to deal with the worst, so it really helped to have her in my corner,” Lee, 21, said of Biles after the competition. Reuters
Sarah Voss’s Instagram story featuring a pin signed by Simone Biles. Photograph: Sarah VossLaura Kenny is a Guardian columnist for Paris 2024. Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian
The five-times Olympic gold medal winner Laura Kenny – a Guardian columnist for Paris 2024 – answers your questions on how to get back into cycling, her favourite other sports, and when she realised she was the fastest in the world
(I guess that surreal image below, of the artwork reproduction in the river, is not part of the opening ceremony, otherwise organisers wouldn’t allow it to be photographed. But there it is anyway.)
No fewer than 288 hair and makeup artists will be on duty for tonight’s opening ceremony.
Here is David Hills with five things to look out for:
A technician drives in a cart by reproductions of artworks decorating the banks of the River Seine. Photograph: Vadim Ghirdă/AP
Vandals target France's high-speed rail network
Vandals targeted France’s high-speed TGV network with a series of coordinated actions that brought major disruption to some of the country’s busiest rail lines before the Paris Olympics opening ceremony.
The state-owned railway operator said arsonists had targeted installations along the lines connecting Paris with the country’s west, north and east and that traffic would be severely disrupted during the weekend.
“Last night, the SNCF was victim of several acts of vandalism on the Atlantic, Northern and Eastern high-speed lines. Fires were deliberately set to damage our installations,” the SNCF said in a statement.
Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra condemned the vandalism. “It’s completely appalling,” she told BFMTV. “To target the games is to target France.”. Reuters
“France’s live-action experiment in the great man theory of history is going to roll on into the semi-finals on Saturday, where they will play South Africa.”
Andy Bull was at the Stade de France last night to witness Antoine Dupont steering the hosts through to the semi-finals in rugby sevens:
Antoine Dupont scored a late try to clinch France’s place in the rugby sevens semi-finals. Photograph: Michael Steele/Getty Images
Preamble
Hello and welcome to Friday’s 2024 Olympics live blog.
It’s time for lift-off in Paris, as Angelique Chrisafis reports from the French capital:
“It is billed as the biggest open-air show on Earth – a spectacle so ambitious it will shut down a city centre and its airspace, mobilise 45,000 police and several army units and has taken two years to rehearse in secret.
When the Paris Olympics opening ceremony begins on Friday night, it will be the first time the theatrical curtain-raiser for the world’s biggest sporting event has taken place outside a stadium.”
