Olympic Flag arrives in France from Tokyo for Paris 2024
Olympic Flag arrived in France from Japan, symbolising the handover from the Tokyo 2020 Games to Paris 2024, as the remaining athletes from the country returned home.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo led the delegation off the plane at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport near Paris.
There are less than three years until the Paris 2024 Games, one less than the usual Olympic cycle after Tokyo 2020 was postponed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Hidalgo formally received the flag yesterday from International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach during the Closing Ceremony of Tokyo 2020.
She told reporters the flag “is the symbol that now, really, the Paris Games are coming and it will go very fast,” according to the Washington Post.
Hidalgo added that the Paris 2024 Organising Committee would stay in touch with the Tokyo 2020 organisers to aid preparations for the Games, including on security issues.
The Olympic Flag will now be at Paris City Hall, after it was raised there earlier this evening.
A celebration event is set to take place at Place du Trocadéro, near the Eiffel Tower, to welcome the French medallists back from the Olympics.
France finished eighth on the medal table at Tokyo 2020, winning 10 golds, 12 silvers and 11 bronzes.
The Paris 2024 Olympics are scheduled to take place from July 26 to August 11 2024, set to be followed by the Paralympic Games from August 28 to September 8.