From swimming in the Seine to volleyball at the Eiffel Tower, here's what we know about the 2024 Paris Olympic Games
By Velvet WinterThe countdown is on to the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
In just over a year, thousands of athletes will descend on Paris to compete in dozens of events around the city of love.
Paris 2024 will mark the 100th anniversary of France hosting the Games way back in 1924.
Here's what we know so far.
The Seine will be back in action
Paris's River Seine is a lot like most other inner city bodies of water — lovely to look at, not so lovely to swim in.
Though immortalised in art, literature and song, the Seine is too toxic for most fish and for swimmers.
For the past 100 years, swimming in its waters has been against the law. Its main use has been as a waterway for goods and people or as a watery grave for discarded bicycles and other trash.
But all that is going to change following a 500,000-euro overhaul for the 2024 Games.
Paris 2024 officials intend to use the river as the playground for triathlon, para-triathlon and open swimming events.
Before they can let athletes slip into its murky depths, first comes the mother of all clean ups, which includes convincing house boat owners not to dump their sewage in the Seine.
An Olympic law adopted in 2018 gave moored boats two years to hook up to Paris's sewage network.
Huge storage basins are being constructed that will reduce the need to spill bacteria-laden untreated wastewater into the Seine when it rains.
One storage facility is being dug next to Paris's Austerlitz train station.
The giant hole will hold the equivalent of 20 Olympic swimming pools of dirty water that will now be treated rather than running raw through storm drains in the river.
French triathlete Thibaut Rigaudeau will be one of the first to test out the Seine's new cleanse next year.
"We will be the testers," he said. "I hope we don’t get sick."
The Seine will also function as the backdrop of the official opening ceremony.
For the first time in Olympic history, it will take place not in a stadium setting but along the river and its banks.
Volleyball at the Eiffel Tower, horses at Versailles
The Seine isn't the only iconic Parisian location that's going to be turned into a sports arena for the 2024 Games.
A 12,000-seat stadium is to be constructed in front of the Eiffel Tower.
The stadium will host beach volleyball during the Olympics and the men's blind football during the para-Olympics.
Meanwhile the Palace of Versailles, once the playground of French royalty, will be overrun with horses during the Games.
The palace gardens will be temporarily fitted out to stage several equestrian and modern pentathlon events. A temporary outdoor arena, flanked by several stands will house thousands of spectators.
For those after more high-octane sports, the central Palace de la Concord will transform to host BMX, skateboarding and breakdancing during the Games.
An environmentally friendly torch
Before the Games begin, the Olympic torch must make its way around France.
The torch's tour will take in 65 French territories, passing through the hands of 10,000 torchbearers.
But this year's torch has the green stamp of approval.
Organisers said 2,000 torches — five times fewer than for some previous editions of the Olympics — are being produced from recycled steel.
Paris organisers unveiled French designer Mathieu Lehanneur’s torch design yesterday as part of a week of activities that mark the year-to-go countdown to the July 26 opening.
Each torch weighs 1.5 kilograms and is 70 centimetres tall.
Paris is using the same torch design for both the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Once lit in Ancient Olympia, Greece, the flame will be transported by boat to the southern French city of Marseille.
When are the Paris Olympic Games?
The Paris Olympic Games will run from Friday July 26 to Sunday August 11.
When are the Paris Paralympic Games?
The Paralympic Games will pick up shortly after the Olympic Games - from Wednesday August 28, to Sunday September 8.
ABC/AP