By ESTEBAN GUERRA, Age 12
Sports, a big audience, and countries competing from all over the world: all coming soon in the 2024 Summer Olympics, located in Paris. The slogan for this year’s Olympics is “Games Wide Open.” France has big plans for the opening ceremony, including a 3.5-mile boat parade down the Seine with 325,000 people watching from the riverbanks. There will be 32 sports and 329 events, and 206 countries will compete. Russia and Belarus are banned from the Olympics this year because of Russia’s war in the Ukraine. Terror attacks are a security concern for the Paris games.
Breaking, a form of breakdancing, originated in the Bronx and will be a new Olympic sport this year.
The surfing competition will take place in Tahiti because there are better surfing conditions in Tahiti than in France. This is also a way to show the world France’s different territories. Some other changes this year are a men’s artistic swimming event, a new weight class added to women’s boxing, and a mixed marathon race walk that replaced the men’s 50-kilometer walk.
THE HISTORY OF THE OLYMPIC GAMES
The Olympic Games originated in ancient Greece about 2,000 years ago. One of the traditions from the Olympic Games that is still observed today is the Olympic truce.
In 393 A.D., the Olympics were banned by Roman Emperor Theodosius I, who claimed that they encouraged paganism. Then, in the late 1800s, the Olympics were revived by Baron Pierre de Coubertin, a French aristocrat. According to Olympics.com, some of the principles that guided him were “Educating young people through sport in a spirit of mutual understanding and friendship with a view to help build a better, more peaceful world” and “Bringing together athletes from all over the world for a major celebration of sport every four years.”
The first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens, Greece, in April 1896. The first Olympics with women athletes took place in Paris in 1900. The 1924 Olympic Games in France also had some significant firsts: It was the first time that the Olympics were held during the winter and the first time there was an Olympic Village.
THE HUMAN COST OF THE OLYMPIC GAMES
The Olympic Games can cause disasters to the communities around it. Due to the Olympic Games, people have been evicted from their homes. Some are told to leave, and some can’t afford rent after the Olympic Games, so they leave.
The main reason for this is that the host government wants the country to look incredible for the games. In the last 50 years, more than 2 million people have lost their homes due to gentrification and remodeling of communities and cities for the Olympics, such as building stadiums and the Olympic Village, according to the Washington Post.
In Los Angeles, the city prepared for the 1984 Olympic Games by criminalizing homelessness, which caused many arrests of African American men, according to the Washington Post.
In Atlanta, the city remodeled Techwood, a public housing complex, for the 1996 Olympics, causing 3,922 people to lose their homes. Before the Olympic Games, 4,000 people lived in Techwood. After, only 78 people were able to return. The Washington Post reported that a total of 6,000 people were evicted from their public housing in Atlanta for the games.
In the months leading up to the 2024 Olympics, Paris authorities have been evicting houseless people and migrants from the city and relocating them to other areas in France. Utopia 56, a nonprofit that helps unhoused people in France, called these evictions “social cleansing” in an interview with the Associated Press in April.
The French government’s housing department and Paris 2024 organizers claim the relocations are to reduce urban burden and provide better support for people in the provinces, and have said they are unrelated to the upcoming games.
Paris: the capital city of France
The Seine: a river that runs through the city of Paris
Tahiti: an island in the South Pacific that is a territory of France
Race walk: a race where instead of running, you walk
Truce: when enemies agree to stop fighting
Aristocrat: a member of an elite group of people, usually with a lot of wealth and special privileges
Olympic Village: where Olympic athletes and officials live during the Olympic Games
Evicted: when someone is forced to leave somewhere by law
Gentrification: when wealthier people move into poorer areas, which often results in the area becoming more expensive to live in
Criminalize: to make illegal
Public housing: places to live that are more affordable, run by the government
