'Once the closing ceremony ends, the problems return': an expert's take on Olympic legacy
On Sunday evening the closing ceremony at the Stade de France brought the curtain down on the Paris Olympics, an event which has been widely praised both in France and abroad. President Emmanuel Macon claimed it showed the “true face of France”. However, in an interview with Mediapart, Sandrine Lemaire, the co-curator of a major Paris exhibition on Olympic history, places this “magical interlude” of the Paris Games in the context of the long history of the Olympiads, and against a backdrop of geopolitical conflicts, nationalism, and sporting achievements. Interview by François Bougon.
WhoWho remembers that the first Olympic Games were open to individual athletes? That a Haitian, Constantin Henriquez, won a gold medal with the French rugby team at the 1900 Paris Olympics? Or that one could watch events such as tug-of-war, angling or even live pigeon shooting?
