Paris 2024 Olympic Events in Normandy

Excitement is building for the 2024 Olympic Games. Easily accessible and so close to Paris, Normandy will welcome many athletes and events before the competitions begin and during the fifteen days of frenzy, from 26 July to 11 August.

THE OLYMPIC TORCH RELAY

The Olympic Torch Relay is an outstanding tradition that takes us back to the roots of the Games. From the Peloponnese, the Olympic Flame will head to France on 8 May 2024, arriving in Marseille before 68 days of travel across the French territories, including Normandy. You can watch the Relay in the following villages, towns and cities:

• Thursday 30 May 2024: Omaha Beach – Lisieux – Cabourg/Dives/Houlgate – Honfleur – Bayeux – Falaise – Caen
  
• Friday 31 May 2024: Saint-Vaast-La-Hougue – Cherbourg-en-Cotentin – Sainte-Mère-Eglise – Saint-Lô – Granville – Villedieu-les-Poêles-Rouffigny – The Mont-Saint-Michel
  
• Friday 5 July 2024: Rouen – Dieppe – Yvetot – Jumièges – Etretat – Le Havre 
  
• Saturday 6 July 2024: Pont-Audemer – Bernay – Val-de-Reuil – Verneuil-d’Avre-et-d’Iton – Evreux – Gisors – Vernon 

Pierre de Coubertin’s home

Pierre de Coubertin was a French educator and historian, co-founder of the International Olympic Committee, and internationally known as the father of the modern Olympic Games. His mother, Marie-Marcelle Gigault de Crisenoy, inherited the family château in Mirville, halfway between Rouen and Le Havre, where Pierre de Coubertin spent most of his childhood when not travelling around Europe with his family. The Château de Mirville is where Pierre de Coubertin developed a love of sports that would eventually inspire him to revive the ancient Olympic Games. On Friday 5th July, the Olympic Torch Relay will stop at the Château de Mirville to honour Pierre de Coubertin.

International delegations

Hosting delegations from around the world for their preparations or as a base camp during the Games means offering them optimum conditions to train, adjust to any time zone differences, acclimatise and effectively prepare for the best possible performance at the Games. The opportunity to be part of the future success of tomorrow’s champions has been offered to several local and regional Normandy authorities that were awarded the Terre de Jeux 2024 Label and who applied to be approved as Games Preparation Centres. A few weeks before the Olympic Games, several international sports delegations will come to Normandy to refine their preparation. Forty sites and sports complexes are concerned throughout the region and are qualified as “rear bases” of the Games. Saudia Arabia for example will train its athletes in Val-de-Reuil, Louviers, Léry-Poses, Grand-Couronne and  Argentan. Caen and Bayeux will host the Olympic refugee delegation. The French judo team is announced at the Centre Sportif de Normandie in Houlgate, while the French fencers will hone their skills at the Dojo in Forges-les-Eaux.

tHE ‘terre de jeux’ label

From the bid phase, the Paris 2024 organisation team made it clear – these Games would be for the whole of France. With the Terre de Jeux 2024 label, the promise has been honoured. This initiative, the only one of its kind in the history of the Games, recognises local authorities taking action to promote more developed and inclusive participation in sport, at town and regional levels, and engages with various stakeholders in the sporting movement.

This label has already been awarded to 58 towns and cities in Normandy, highlighting their commitment to increasing the reach of sport in France. The organisations that receive this label are committed to developing actions to promote sport and the Games with local residents.