50 Days Until Start Of Olympics In Paris
[Written by Stephen Wright]
It is just 50 days until Bermuda’s athletes join more than 10,000 competitors from more than 200 nations at the Olympic Games in Paris – the largest sporting event organised in France.
The opening ceremony for the 30th edition of the Summer Games promises to be an extravagant affair and the first to take place outside a stadium, with athletes floating down the Seine on boats.
Crowds will also be back for the first time since the Rio Games in 2016 after the 2020 Tokyo Olympics was postponed by a year because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Dame Flora Duffy made history in the Japanese capital in 2021 by becoming the first Bermudian to win an Olympic gold medal after claiming victory in the women’s triathlon. The four-times world champion will be hoping to retain her title in Paris.
Joining Duffy in Paris will be triathletes Erica Hawley and Tyler Smith, rower Dara Alizadeh, and sailor Adriana Penruddocke.
Swimming siblings Emma and Jack Harvey have met the qualifying standard to be considered by the Bermuda Olympic Association.
There will be 329 medal events across 32 sports and 45 disciplines, with the first medal to be awarded in shooting on July 27, and the final medal event will be the women’s basketball on August 11.
The only new sport at the Games will be breaking – an athletic style of street dance.
The estimated cost of the Paris Games is $10 billion, which is believed to be $3 billion less than the Tokyo Olympics.
