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Paris 2024 to fly ‘biggest flag ever’ from Eiffel tower
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T
he Paris 2024 Olympics organizing committee will attempt a world record on Sunday when they unfurl from the Eiffel tower and fly what they hope will be the biggest flag ever flown, as part of the handover of the Olympics from Tokyo to the French capital.
The traditional handover of the Olympic flag takes place during the closing ceremony of a Games when it is handed to the mayor of the next host city.
When Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo receives the flag with the Olympic rings from IOC President Thomas Bach during the Tokyo 2020 Games closing ceremony on Sunday, another flag will be raised from the French capital's most recognizable monument.
"We waited an extra year for this moment [after Tokyo 2020 Games were postponed due to the pandemic]," Paris Games chief Tony Estanguet told a news conference on Friday, as quoted by Reuters.
"The excitement is very strong. We want to start with a world record. It's the biggest flag every raised, ever," he said.
"It's more or less the equivalent of a football field. So it's true that it will be big. It will be the first world record of Paris 2024 since it would be the biggest flag ever raised."
"We have this luck to have 'the most beautiful flag bearer in the world' with the Eiffel Tower. So our challenge is to be able to raise this flag, and fly this flag in Paris on the Eiffel Tower."
He did not say whether it will be the flag of France, that of the Olympic rings or one with the 2024 Games logo. "Suspense," he said.
Meanwhile, Estanguet has told AFP the 2024 Summer Games will be "spectacular" but admits coronavirus and environmental issues could pose a problem as he prepares to take the baton from Tokyo.
The postponed Games in Japan have been held almost completely without spectators and under the shadow of the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Estanguet, a triple Olympic gold medalist in canoeing, said the organizers of the Tokyo Games had shown a "capacity to adapt" — and that was a lesson his 2024 team would take away with them.
"We still don't know in what context the Games will be organized," he said.
"We are more or less sure that we will face difficulties, either linked to climate or health issues, and when the time comes we have to be able to take decisions.
"We know that we are going to have to get used to living with COVID and we can hope that the health situation improves by 2024," he added.
When the Olympics return to Paris a century after they were last held there, they will draw heavily on the attractions that make the French capital one of the most visited cities in the world.
French President Emmanuel Macron revealed at the start of the Tokyo Games that organizers would like the 2024 opening ceremony to take place on the River Seine.
Organizers will stage beach volleyball at the Trocadero, facing the Eiffel Tower, while equestrian events will be held at the Chateau de Versailles.
"We wanted to take the ceremony out of the stadium and put it in the heart of Paris," Estanguet said.
Athletics will be held in the Stade de France, the stadium in the gritty Saint Denis area to the north of Paris that was built to host the 1998 football World Cup.
