Paris is preparing to hold the Olympics this summer, exactly 100 years on from when the French capital last hosted the Games in 1924. France 24’s FRANCE 24’s Stéphanie Trouillard and Claire Paccalin have been taking a look back at what those early Olympic Games were like and finding out what’s left of the 1924 Olympic stadiums, some of which will be used again in the Games this year.
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Well Paris is preparing to hold the Olympics this summer but you might not know that the last time the French Capital hosted the games was exactly 100 years ago much has been forgotten about the 1924 Olympics but CLA packan joins me on set now to tell us all about it
Claire you and Stephanie twar have put together a short documentary called the Paris Olympics then and now so what were the Olympics like in 1924 they were a really big deal in France so the founder of the modern era of Olympics Baron Pier Kuan was French and in 1924 he was the
President of the international Olympic Committee and there was a really strong desire to show the world that France had moved on from the first world war that had ended only six years earlier and France wanted to show that it was stronger and it was modernized and the
Games were were a way to do this internationally and there were a lot of Firsts the first ever athletes Village was built in Paris in 1924 it no longer exists because it was just a series of wooden Huts um but there were shared toilets but there was running water and
There were restaurants there was a hairdresser the first ever athletes Village was built in the Paris Olympics 100 years ago and there were stadiums which were built and the first ever 50 meter Olympic pool was built in the north of Paris and we can watch now a little extract from that documentary
Which should give you an idea of what the games were like in 1924 Paris is preparing to hold the Olympics exactly 100 years since the French Capital last hosted the Games much has been forgotten of the 1924 Olympics but records were broken Champions were made and more women athletes took part than ever Before so what’s left of the 1924 stadiums and will any of them be used again in the 2024 Games that looks so great that documentary by CLA pekan who’s with me on the set CLA how do you go about making that kind of a documentary what did you do well the first thing we did is we tried to find out which of the 1924 buildings are still standing today and honestly
There’s not much left um but there’s a little first of all the Kum stadium is still standing and you can see there we visited it with a group of high school students local high school students who actually knew nothing of the history and it’s the only Stadium which will be used
Again so it’s going to be used later this year the field hockey matches are going to take place there and that’s where back in 1924 that really was the big Stadium the opening ceremony took place there um Athletics was there football rugby there was a huge fight at
The end of the final rugby match which became known as the bagar general um so a lot took place at the colum stadium and A lot’s going to happen this summer as well there was also the beautiful Vel Drome um it’s called lassal uh it’s in
The banen on the of the Eastern edge of Paris absolutely stunning the stands there it is the stands are are still there and they were actually designed by gav eel so of the Eiffel Tower we say the toel in French he designed those beautiful stands that you can see there
And they’re still there today and honestly this was a real find because it’s empty half the time we saw some local school children who were doing a kind of um cycling proficiency lesson there there was a very kind elderly gentleman there’s a veteran’s Club there an 89-year-old older called Raymond he
Showed us round but it’s basically it’s not being used in the games this year because it’s too old um it doesn’t meet the standards necessary but it’s it’s this beautiful find in the middle of the wood in the edge of Paris where no one really goes um and it’s still standing
And the fun part that the B that I enjoyed the most was Stephanie Tria was looking at the archive footage so P French film company um they filmed many of the events um including the opening ceremony at the stad of colum the colum stadium and we used some of the
Documentary the images in our documentary but I can’t actually show you these videos now because we don’t have the rights the rights we have over them are very restricted so if you want to see the actual moving footage the video from 1924 you’ll need to either
Watch the show which is on in an hour and a half’s time at 3:15 Paris time or it’s already on our website on the France INF Focus web page that’s what I call a good teaser Claire thank you for that now another thing that’s interesting is more women actually took
Part in the 1924 Olympics than in any ones before that what kind of events did they compete in so they had tennis fencing and swimming um in swimming women competed in the 400 meter freestyle event for the first time that was the longest it had been in previous
Olympics they’ve been allowed to swim in freestyle but shorter races so 300 MERS 200 MERS three Americans won Gold uh this here this is cibil bower she actually won uh she came first in the backstroke event uh that was the first time that women were allowed to swim
Anything other than freestyle so it’s the first backstroke event in Olympic history for women she won 20 well she she actually set 23 World Records in women’s swimming she was an absolute Champion but she died very very young she died when she was 23 of cancer the
Three there you can see in the picture the ones we just saw those were the three Americans who won gold silver and bronze in that 400 meter freestyle and there they are the the the the pioneers of women swimming in the 1924 Paris Olympics and the pool actually um where
The swimming events took place still exists there it is it’s being renovated right now is going to be a training pool in the 1924 game so it won’t actually be used for any of the events but 2024 the 20124 I’m get confused now um and so it
Will be used again but only for training because it doesn’t quite meet modern Olympic standards for it to be actually used as a as a race pool um but it will be used again so the the memory of the 1924 Olympics is is definitely living on
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fantastic