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Row over plan to keep Olympic rings on Eiffel Tower

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The Olympic rings displayed on the Eiffel Tower last week before the start of the Paralympic Games. Photograph: Tullio M Puglia/Getty Images

Engineer’s descendants say French capital landmark ‘not intended as advertising platform

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has triggered a heated debate by saying she wants to keep the Olympic rings on the Eiffel Tower after the summer Games are over.

“The decision is up to me, and I have the agreement of the IOC [International Olympic Committee],” she told the Ouest-France newspaper over the weekend.

“So yes, they [the rings] will stay on the Eiffel Tower,” she added.

Some Parisians backed the move, but others – including heritage campaigners – said it was a bad idea and would “defile” the French capital’s iconic monument.

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Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has triggered a heated debate by saying she wants to keep the Olympic rings on the Eiffel Tower after the summer Games are over.

“The decision is up to me, and I have the agreement of the IOC [International Olympic Committee],” she told the Ouest-France newspaper over the weekend.

“So yes, they [the rings] will stay on the Eiffel Tower,” she added.

Some Parisians backed the move, but others – including heritage campaigners – said it was a bad idea and would “defile” the French capital’s iconic monument.

The five rings – 29m (95ft) wide, 15m high and weighing 30 tonnes – were installed on the Eiffel Tower before the Paris Olympics opened on 26 July, and were expected to be taken down after the Paralympics’ closing ceremony on 8 September.

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But Ms Hidalgo said she wanted to keep the interlaced rings of blue, yellow, black, green and red, symbolising the five continents.

She added that the current rings – each one measuring 9m in diameter – were too heavy and would be replaced by a lighter version at some point.

The Socialist mayor also claimed that “the French have fallen in love with Paris again” during the Games, and she wanted “this festive spirit to remain”.

Some Parisians as well as visitors to the French capital supported the mayor.

“The Eiffel Tower is very beautiful, the rings add colour. It’s very nice to see it like this,” a young woman, who identified herself as Solène, told the France Bleu website.

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But Manon, a local resident, said this was “a really bad idea”.

“It’s a historic monument, why defile it with rings? It was good for the Olympics but now it’s over, we can move on, maybe we should remove them and return the Eiffel Tower to how it was before,” he told France Bleu.

Social media user Christophe Robin said Ms Hidalgo should have consulted Parisians before going ahead with her plan.

In a post on X, he reminded that the Eiffel Tower featured a Citroën advert in 1925-36.

The Eiffel Tower was built in1889 for the World’s Fair. The wrought-iron lattice tower was initially heavily criticised by Parisian artists and intellectuals – but is now seen by many as the symbol of the “City of Light”.

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Ms Hidalgo, who has been running Paris since 2014, is known for her bold – and sometimes controversial – reforms.

Under her tenure, many city streets, including the banks of the river Seine, have been pedestrianised.

Last year, she won convincingly a city referendum to ban rental electric scooters. However, fewer than 8% of those eligible turned out to vote.

In February, Ms Hidalgo was again victorious after Parisians approved a steep rise in parking rates for sports utility vehicles (SUVs).

But both drivers’ groups and opposition figures attacked the scheme, saying the SUV classification was misleading as many family-size cars would be affected.

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France’s Environment Minister Christophe Béchu said at the time that the surcharge amounted to “punitive environmentalism”.

And just before the Paris Olympics, Ms Hidalgo and other officials went into the Seine to prove the river was safe to swim.

-BBC

Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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Olympic rings removed from Eiffel Tower

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The Eiffel Tower and the Olympic Rings

The Olympic rings installed on the Eiffel Tower since June to celebrate the upcoming Olympic Games were removed from the Parisian monument early on Friday morning, as confirmed by an AFP photographer. But the Paris City Hall intends to replace them with a more permanent structure until 2028.

The five-coloured rings, measuring 29 metres in length and 15 metres in height, were placed between the first and second levels of the iconic iron structure on 7 June. 

According to Inside the Games publication, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo  wants the Olympic symbol to continue decorating the monument until the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.

But the descendants of the tower’s creator, Gustave Eiffel are opposing the move. They are insisting that the Olympic rings are aesthetically in conflict with the concept and design of the Tower.

The 30-tonne rings initially installed on the Eiffel Tower were also not designed to withstand winter weather conditions.

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Despite Egypt winning 3 medals at Paris Olympics, President Al-Sisi orders sports system overhaul

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Ahmed El-Gendy won Egypt's only gold at the Paris Olympics

Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi ordered  a comprehensive evaluation of sports federations that  participatedat the Paris Olympic Games, following a mission report submitted by the country’s sports minister.

The mandate includes a thorough expenditure check and a performance review to better highlight areas of improvement and fund allocation in future Games.

Additionally, the president plans to take necessary measures against federations —such as limiting funds— that had negative results in the Paris Games.

Egypt’s participation in sports where it lacks a competitive advantage will also be limited, as the president aims to direct resources to promising athletes to ensure optimal results. The president also aims to reduce administrative and technical staff within Olympic delegations and task relevant ministries with preparing future Olympic athletes.

Al-Sisi’s Olympic overhaul is to be presented to the cabinet for approval and urged the government to prioritise amending the sports law for the House of Representatives for review. 

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Egypt took home a total of three medals in the Summer Games. Ahmed El-Gendy triumphed in modern pentathlon, Sara Samir claimed the silver in weightlifting, and 21-year-old fencer Mohamed El-Sayed earned the bronze.

-Insidethegames

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Paris 2024 Games break record ticket sales

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Beach Volleyball - Men's Gold Medal Match - Sweden vs Germany (Ahman/Hellvig vs Ehlers/Wickler) - Eiffel Tower Stadium, Paris, France - August 10, 2024. REUTERS/Esa Alexander/File Photo

Paris 2024 sold a record 12 million tickets for the Olympics and Paralympics, beating the Games record previously set by London 2012, organisers said on Sunday.

Some 9.5 million tickets were sold for the Olympics and 2.5 million for the Paralympics, which end on Sunday.

In 2012, London organisers set the record for the Paralympics with 2.7 million tickets sold but only 8.2 million were sold for the Olympics.

-Reuters

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