When I embarked upon my journey towards Paris on 23 July 2024, I had a number of questions on my mind. Would France be able to successfully hold the 33rd Summer Olympics? Would there be any security issue? Would there be any language barriers? Would Pakistan be able to end their 32-year medal drought? Despite controversial opening, food and water complaints by athletes, lack of air-conditioning, language barriers and lack of volunteers, France was able to hold the Olympics in a successful manner as there were no major security issues. And of course, Pakistan won first athletics gold medal in their 75 years of Olympic history, bringing the tally to 11 Olympic medals since 1948.
Having previously hosted in 1900 and 1924, Paris become the second city ever to host the Summer Olympics three times, after London which hosted the 1908, 1948 and 2012 Games. More than ten thousand athletes from more than 200 countries across the globe attended the extravaganza in France’s capital city. And for the first time ever, the split was 50% men and 50% women.
Those 10,500 athletes competed in 32 different sports and 339 events. The event was celebrated enthusiastically across the French capital for those who couldn’t see it in person. Nearly 850 medals were won, 42 records broken (10 world records and 32 Olympic records) and thousands of people from 222 countries gathered across 39 venues for this historic edition of the Olympic Games.
The event attracted millions of visitors to Paris and t.