Since 13th September 2017, we knew that Paris would host the 2024 Games. For seven years, everyone has been preparing for the event. For two years in particular, thousands of athletes have participated in the qualifying events of the World Judo Tour. It still seemed somehow far away but now, here we are.
Some judoka have already arrived in France. This is the case, since yesterday, for the refugee team for example. They are not the only ones. In the coming days, little by little, all the Olympic competitors and their delegations will be continuing their hard at work in Paris, with the hope of performing between 27th July and 3rd August.
Since this weekend, the flame has also been in Paris and is currently spinning through the streets of the city, provoking a popular craze that we can't wait to feel in the stands of the Arena Champ-de-Mars, which will host the judo competition (Ask for the programme). Yesterday, Clarisse Agbegnenou carried the flame to the top of the Eiffel Tower; quite a symbol! She follows in the footsteps of many judoka torchbearers, from David Douillet, double Olympic champion, to Angelo Parisi, Olympic champion in 1980, and Romane Dicko, who is looking for her first Olympic title.
The Paris Olympic Games are announced as a great celebration of international sport. For judo, France is a very relevant country of choice. After Great Britain in 2012, a country where judo was introduced at the beginning of the 20th century, passing through Brazil, where we find one of the largest communities of judoka, and of course Japan in 2021, where judo was created by Jigoro Kano in 1882, the sport finds in France a fertile ground for its development.
The ten days that separate us from the start of the competition promise to be exciting and galvanising. Who will reach the summit of Olympus? We will know soon.