A century on, records set to tumble as Paris welcomes the Games for a third time

Scottish athlete Eric Liddell wins the then one-mile relay at an athletics meeting between England and the US in Stamford Bridge, England, on 19 July 1924. (Photo: EPA-EFE)

By Craig Ray

28 Jul 2024

The first Olympics in the city in 1900 were a forgettable affair, but the 1924 event made up for that. This year promises to be a cracker because of great venues and many prospects for records to fall.

It’s been exactly 100 years since Paris last hosted the Olympics and eight years since the global showpiece had full stadiums because the Covid-plagued 2020 Tokyo Games, staged in 2021, played out in empty arenas. France, and Paris in particular, is already putting on a good show, with sold-out crowds at the Stade de France for rugby sevens, which unofficially started the Olympics on 24 July.

The world has changed beyond recognition in many respects since the 1924 Games in Paris, although the city itself and its many landmarks were there a century ago and will again feature.

In 2024, beach volleyball will take place under the Eiffel Tower, open-water swimmers will risk their health in the River Seine, and the equestrian events will take place in the gardens of Versailles.

From a viewing perspective, Paris’s many beautiful and iconic landmarks will provide a spectacular backdrop, and the competition in most of the disciplines could see world records fall.

Third-time hosts

Paris joins London as the only city to host the event three times in the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad. No African city has yet had the honour (or not, given the cost of these mega events).

The founder of the modern Olympic Games, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, personally asked that the city host the Games for a second time in 1924, after a less-than-stellar attempt at hosting in 1900.

The 1900 Games were reduced to a sideshow in the shadow of the Paris Exposition, or World Fair, that year. There was internal politics at play between De Coubertin, who had spent years promoting and selling the idea and ideals of the Olympics, and members of the French Athletics Union. The 1900 Olympics were an unmitigated disaster, which prompted De Coubertin to concede later: “It is a miracle that the Olympic movement survived this celebration.”

Read more: Olympic Games Paris 2024

The story was different 20 years later, although the 1924 Olympics had its problems too. American teams and athletes were jeered by the French crowds, stoked by an anti-American press. Although the official opening date was 5 July, the Games started in May with soccer and rugby.

It was the last time rugby was played until 2016. The US won the gold medal, beating France in a bad-tempered final, and thus remained Olympic champions for 92 years.

There were disputes in fencing and boxing amid accusations of cheating and match-fixing.

But there were also uplifting stories of triumph over adversity, none more so than that of Scotsman Eric Liddell, who won the 400m gold medal. His story has been immortalised in the movie Chariots of Fire.

Liddell, who was one of the favourites for 1oom gold, refused to run on a Sunday because of his religious beliefs. The 1924 athletics schedule had the 100m set for a Sunday, so Liddell switched to the 400m, forsaking his best chance of a medal, rather than compromising his values. He went on to win the event.

Paris Olympics Liddell Scottish athlete Eric Liddell wins the then one-mile relay at an athletics meeting between England and the US in Stamford Bridge, England, on 19 July 1924. (Photo: EPA-EFE)

He later died in a Japanese concentration camp in China during World War 2, where he had been working as a missionary.

At the Stade Yves-du-Manoir de Colombes, where he won his Olympic 400m gold, and which will stage this year’s field hockey tournament, there is a plaque that reads: “This plaque is in honour of Eric Liddell, the ‘Flying Scotsman’. A sporting and human example which remains a symbol of friendship between France, Scotland and the United Kingdom. A legend. A heritage. A source of inspiration.” Hopefully, some of the hockey players will take a moment to read the inscription before they take the field.

Modern greats

A century on, and in the spirit of Liddell, the one-lap race at this year’s Olympics promises to be the highlight of the athletics programme. Not the 400m flat, though, but the 400m hurdles, in which the world records are under threat in both the men’s and women’s races.

In the women’s race the showdown between America’s Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and the Netherlands’ Femke Bol is the most anticipated in years.

McLaughlin-Levrone holds the 400m hurdles world record at 50.65 seconds, and Bol has a personal best of 50.95 seconds. They have not raced against each other this year, which makes it even more of a prospect to salivate over.

In the men’s 400m hurdles, Norway’s Karsten Warholm will come under pressure from the US’ Rai Benjamin and Brazil’s Alison dos Santos. The trio hold the three fastest times ever and they have posted 24 of the 25 fastest times in the history of the event.

The final race in the men’s 400m hurdles in Tokyo in 2021 was one of the greatest in Olympic history. Warholm broke his own world record with a time of 45.94 seconds, Benjamin also broke that record and finished second in 46.17 seconds, and Dos Santos came home in 46.72 seconds.

On the Stade de France’s brand-new superfast purple track by Italian manufacturer Mondo, which has made tracks for the Olympics since 1976, times are set to tumble.

“A Mondo track is made in a climate-controlled factory, processed from the raw rubber to the finished product. So, every square inch of Mondo is the same – same durometer, same thickness, everything is the same,” Georgia Tech track coach Grover Hinsdale told the university’s website.

“All other rubberised track surfaces are poured on-site, so variables like temperature and humidity affect the result, and you may end up with lanes that don’t set uniformly.

“When your foot strikes down on an asphalt surface or you’re running down a sidewalk, there’s virtually no give other than what’s taking place in the muscles and joints of your body. The surface is giving nothing back.

“When your foot strikes a Mondo surface, it’ll sink in slightly, and the surface gives energy back. This pushes your foot back off that track quicker, putting the foot back into the cycle to complete another stride.”

Swimming scandal

A doping row involving Chinese athletes may prove a tinderbox at the Olympic swimming meet, where the US face the biggest challenge to their reign in decades.

Some of the world’s best in the sport have criticised anti-doping authorities and raised concerns about the competition’s integrity after revelations in April that 23 Chinese swimmers were allowed to compete at the Tokyo Games despite testing positive for the banned heart medication trimetazidine.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) accepted the findings of a Chinese investigation that the test results were due to contamination from a hotel kitchen where the team were staying. An independent investigation backed Wada’s handling of the case in its findings this month – but, for a number of China’s rivals, questions remain.

American seven-times Olympic champion Caeleb Dressel put it bluntly when asked on 25 July whether he felt confident of a level playing field.

“No. I don’t,” he said. “I don’t really think they’ve given us enough evidence to support them with how this case was handled.”

A whiff of scandal, anger, patriotism, competition. Let the Games begin. DM

Additional reporting by Reuters.

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.

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