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As with each edition of the Olympic Games, the athletes will live together in the Paris 2024 Olympic Village, a symbol of universalism and fraternity on paper. As the event approaches, conflicts between countries cast a shadow over these Olympic precepts, forcing athletes to rub shoulders with those from the rival country.
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The Cité du cinéma in Saint-Denis will be used as a restaurant in the Olympic village during the Paris Games, a meeting place for athletes. | PHOTO: THOMAS SAMSON / AFP
Only a few months before the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, global conflicts will not be paused for the duration of the Olympic fortnight, as the ideal of Pierre de Coubertin and his universalist vision of the Games would have it. For ten years now, Ukraine and Russia have been mired in a war which reached its climax two years ago during the Russian invasion of Ukrainian lands. If Russia is officially excluded from these Olympics, its athletes will nevertheless be able to compete under a neutral banner, provoking the anger and incomprehension of the Ukrainian delegation. Then comes the thorny subject of the Olympic village or how to coexist with someone against whom we would normally be at war.
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