9 days left for Olympics, 90 lakh tickets sold: 6 lakh fans expected at opening, 117 athletes from India, 140 support staff

The Paris Olympics are from July 26 to August 11.

There are 9 days left for the Paris Olympics to begin. Paris will be the second city to host 3 Olympics. Before this, 3 Olympics have been held in London. Before this, Olympics were held in Paris in the years 1900 and 1924 while London hosted in 1908, 1948, 2012.

Summer Games are being held in Paris after 100 years, whose motto is- “Games Wide Open”. That means the games are bigger, different and more open. The opening ceremony will be held on the river bank instead of the stadium. 6 lakh fans are expected to attend the ceremony, out of which 2 lakh 22 thousand tickets have been distributed for free. About 150 crore people will watch the opening ceremony alone on TV across the world. The organizers issued 1 crore tickets for the 17-day event, out of which 90 lakh tickets have been sold.

There are 256 members in the Indian team
The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has announced a 256-member Indian contingent. 117 players from India will participate in Paris. There will be 140 support staff.

Shot putter Abha Khatua’s name is not in this team. She had qualified for the Olympics through the world ranking quota, but her name was not in the World Athletes List of Olympics. After this, she was dropped from the Indian team.

In the last Olympics, Tokyo Olympics, India had sent a team of 119 members. In this Olympics, India had won the highest number of medals till date, i.e. 7. One of these was Neeraj Chopra’s gold.

The torch will travel for 68 days and will cover a distance of 12 thousand km
The Olympic torch relay began on April 16. After the Olympic flame was lit in Olympia, Greece, it arrived in Athens on April 26. It then reached Marseille on May 9. It then stopped briefly in Monaco before heading to France. It will light the Olympic Cauldron during the Opening Ceremony on July 26.

During the tour, the torch will be carried by 10,000 people, including athletes and celebrities. K-pop icon and BTS band member Jin held it on Sunday. During the tour, it will also visit 30 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. In the 68-day journey, the Olympic flame will cover a distance of 12,000 km in France.

Luxury firm makes medals using Eiffel Tower metal
A luxury jewellery firm from Paris has made 5084 medals for the games. 18 grams of metal from the Eiffel Tower has also been added to each medal. The medals feature Greek goddess Nike, the stadium that hosted the first Olympics in 1896, and the Eiffel Tower. The weight of these medals ranges from 455 to 529 grams.

Games in 16 cities including Paris, surfing is 15 thousand km away
Olympic 2024 will also be the largest Olympics in terms of area. Its games will be played in 16 other cities including Paris. Some of its venues are 10 km to 700 km away from the host city Paris. Olympic surfing will be organized in the overseas territory of France. This will be the first time in Olympic history. Teahupo’o Beach in Tahiti, located in French Polynesia, is a surfing venue, which is 15,716 km and 12 time zones away from Paris. Surfing in Tahiti is the longest distance between an event and the host city in any Olympics.

The organizers have 3 plans for the opening ceremony
For the first time in the history of Summer Olympics, the opening ceremony will not be held in a stadium but on the banks of a river. 3 thousand artists will perform in the nearly 3-hour ceremony. Paris will start the games with a boat parade on the Seine River on July 26. Covering a distance of about 6 km from the center of Paris, about 11 thousand players, coaches, leaders, staff will start from Austerlitz Bridge near Jardin des Plantes and end the parade at Ina Bridge in front of the Eiffel Tower at Trocadero. Keeping security in mind, there is also a Plan B, in which the opening can also take place in front of the Eiffel Tower (Trocadero). Under Plan C, the ceremony can also be shifted to the largest stadium Stade de France.

Debut of breaking, three new mixed events also included
There are four such sports which are new in the Olympics. Breaking (break dancing) will make its debut in it while skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing will be there for only the second time. These were included for the first time in Tokyo. Four events have been removed from weightlifting. Two sprint events have been included in canoeing instead of two slaloms. Two new categories have been added in sailing. This time three new mixed events have been included – 35 km walking mixed relay in athletics, skeet mixed team event in shooting, mixed dinghy in sailing.

The traditional hat is the mascot
The mascot of the Paris Olympics, ‘Freeze’, is a traditional hat, which was once worn by French revolutionaries. This hat has been a symbol of France’s freedom.

113 players are participating from India
113 players from India will participate, 7 less than the previous games: 66 male and 47 female players from India will participate in the Paris Olympics. This is 7 less than the Tokyo Olympics to be held in 2021. This will be the first time when our players will participate in all the events in shooting.