Olympic Day 2021: Run a 2024-m race in Paris

How about an original race in Paris? This Wednesday June 23, 2021 take part in a 2024-m race in the streets of Paris to celebrate Olympic sport. Together, Parisians and everyone feeling like doing it are invited to the Pont d'Iéna for a symbolic race: 2024 meters towards the Temporary Grand Palais.

Far from being a genuine sporting challenge, this never-before-seen race is yet a fantastic occasion to celebrate sport for World Olympic Day, reminding the meaning of this event that will take place in 3 years in Paris. A symbolical race likely to "remotivate Parisians and the entire French audience for the Olympics that are coming", Paris City Hall deputy Mayor for Sports Pierre Rabadan told our peers from Le Parisien. "Paris Olympics will start in the Fall, after Tokyo Paralympics. We wished to aim at a public as wide as possible, adults, children...", the former rugby player says.

What is the route of the Olympic Day race? Depart from the Pont d'Iéna, run to the Temporary Grand Palais set on the Champ de Mars. The 2024-meter distance can be completed by foot or bicycle.

• To be read
• The ephemeral Grand Palais, the new temporary space on the Champ-de-Mars
• Paris 2024: Tony Estanguet is still confident about the calendar
• Paris 2024 Summer Olympics: first pictures of the Olympic venue of the Place de la Concorde

To take part in the race, you have to register on the Paris 2024 OCOG  website as soon as possible! Because of the health crisis, health guidelines will remain and limit the depart and the organization of the race. As for departures, six waves of 500 runners will go in turns, from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. All along the route, 4sqm of distance per runner must be complied with, it seems. Masks are mandatory at the departure and the arrival.

But, the idea of the race during the Olympic Day is to remotivate people to practice sports, as they are tired by long months in lockdown and restrictions. The race "will mark - I hope - the return of events in the public space in Paris", the deputy mayor hopes.

Furthermore, Rabadan announces the installation of a new site in the heart of the French capital. "Moreover, starting from this summer, at the Trocadero, with a location dedicated to basketball, Olympics and Paralympics", Parisians will resume their preparation to the Olympics, the sportsman claims. "We are extremely requested by sporting event promoters. Talks resumed with the prefecture. But we need to stay moderate. We will monitor the evolution of the epidemic. And hope that with vaccination, there is no going back after the summer", he adds.