Half of the French athletes will be absent from the opening ceremony on Friday, July 26. Either they are recovering for the upcoming events or they are outside Paris.
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The opening ceremony will begin on Friday, July 26, at 7:30 p.m. It promises to be spectacular in many historical aspects. But on the French side, not all the athletes will participate, either because they are not in Paris, or because their competition… begins the next day.
According to the latest count, 50% of the 571 French athletes will not participate in the ceremony. Inevitably, there is frustration, that of missing a moment presented as “unique” and grandiose by the organizers.
But more importantly, it’s the competition: it’s important to be in shape on the big day and not lose momentum in a long and grueling ceremony. Tennis player Ugo Humbert is staying at Roland Garros and will be playing the next day. So it was reluctantly that he reasonably decided to forgo the parade on the Seine.
“We have to leave the National Training Center at noon, we have to go for fittings… Then we have to wait three hours standing, the ceremony lasts two and a half hours, then we come back at midnight… I don’t want to arrive the next day and be tired.”
Ugo Humbertto franceinfo
Same speech for the Rugby Sevens players. They, moreover, started the competition on Wednesday July 24. They continue on Thursday July 25 and whatever happens, they will play on Saturday.
Paulin Riva is the captain of the French team and he clearly shows his colours: “It’s not necessarily the best day to recover in order to potentially start a semi-final and a final the next day, underlines the captain of the Blues. So the choice was simple, natural and accepted by everyone. Now, I think the important thing is to bring back a gold medal to our country.”
In total, 23 sports will be on the programme the day after the opening ceremony. Eight of them will already offer finals, including shooting, road cycling, swimming, fencing and judo.