“CHINADA will actively cooperate with the coming audit by WADA, and provide assistance where needed,” the China Anti-Doping Agency said in a statement.

WADA said on Thursday it would send a compliance audit team to China to “assess the current state of the country’s anti-doping program” run by CHINADA.

In its statement, CHINADA said it “will work for the rights and interests of clean athletes and the integrity in sport”.

WADA has faced criticism since media reports that the swimmers tested positive for trimetazidine (TMZ) — which can enhance performance — ahead of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 but were not sanctioned after WADA accepted the argument of Chinese authorities that the case was caused by food contamination.

On Thursday, WADA said it had asked for an independent review, calling on Swiss public prosecutor Eric Cottier to look into its handling of the case of the Chinese swimmers.

CHINADA said the world body’s request for an independent review was “a clear demonstration of fairness, openness and transparency of WADA”.

The head of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), Travis Tygart, has called the situation with the positive tests a “potential cover-up” and USADA on Thursday branded WADA’s announcement of an independent investigation “self-serving.”

CHINADA maintained however that “there have been false accusations and misleading defamatory reports from some organizations and media, including the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA)”, which it said chose “to ignore China’s firm attitude in the fight against doping”.

– ‘Misinformation’ claims –

It added that USADA and the media had worked to “manipulate public opinion by spreading misinformation in order to attack WADA and CHINADA, and shake the well-functioning global anti-doping system.”

Beijing meanwhile has called reports about the case “fake news”.

“The relevant reports are fake news and not factual,” foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Monday.

Cottier, the Swiss prosecutor reviewing the case, has been asked to evaluate if there was any bias shown towards China or “any undue interference or other impropriety” in the handling of the case.

The lawyer will also be asked to determine if the decision not to challenge or appeal against the verdict of CHINADA, that the cases involved food contamination, was reasonable.

The team which will travel to China will additionally include “independent auditors from the broader anti-doping community”.

WADA said the visit was part of its regular compliance monitoring program.

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OLBG sourced numerous online sites including The Athletic, The Southern Blueprint, and more to examine the Kentucky Derby’s fascinating traditions and the details behind them.

The origins of the pomp and circumstance began in the late 19th century, thanks to Col. Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr., the grandson of famous American explorer William Clark. On an 1872 European trip that involved stops in England and France, Clark Jr. witnessed various esteemed horse races and became inspired to enhance the sport within the United States. Soon after returning home, he founded the Louisville Jockey Club, a site that would later be named Churchill Downs. The inaugural race took place in 1875 in front of 10,000 spectators, who watched Aristides prevail over 14 other horses in the 12-furlong (around 1.5 miles) running.

In the decades since, the Kentucky Derby has grown from a simple race into a global phenomenon, attracting all kinds of celebrities and bigwigs, dressed in decorative attire with a signature cocktail in hand. These are just a couple of the traditions that have emerged around Derby weekend, which has spawned an entire month of festivities throughout the Louisville area, including fireworks and air shows, along with steamboat races, marathons, and parades. Outside of the majesty of galloping horses, Churchill Downs supplies plenty of iconography—the venue’s twin spires, grandstands, and flower-filled infield—that makes it an experience to remember forever.

As we approach the 150th running of the Kentucky Derby, here’s a list and more background about the event’s signature staples that you’ll be able to see throughout race day.

Michael Reaves // Getty Images

The fashion

If it’s not the biggest talking point at the Kentucky Derby, then it’s at least the most colorful. Though the dress code at Churchill Downs “encourages guests to wear upscale attire,” patrons tend to go all out when they enter the stands, suites, or inner circle. Typically, men will wear suits or bright blazers—often seersucker patterns—while the women often break out floral-colored dresses, ideally ones that accent and complement their hats, which some believe provide good luck.

In a light nod to England’s Royal Ascot races, the tradition stems back to 1875, when Clark Jr. recruited upper-class customers to the race track with elegant-looking women, often wearing their Sunday best. You can expect the majority of those attending—from celebrities to athletes to high society members—to lean into the assignment and strut in their best Southern styles.

Dylan Buell // Getty Images

Mint juleps

Like most big parties, weddings, and special events, the Kentucky Derby has its own special drink. The mint julep—a delightful concoction of bourbon, mint, sugar, simple syrup, and crushed ice—has become synonymous with the “Run for the Roses” ever since becoming the event’s staple drink in 1938. Though the julep was originally used for medicinal purposes to aid with upset stomachs and sore throats, legend says that Clark Jr. planted mint leaves upon founding the track in 1875. Now served in a collectible glass, the drink has become a must-have for anyone attending the festivities at Churchill Downs. You can expect more than 100,000 juleps to be served throughout the Derby weekend.

Joe Robbins/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

The walkover

There are 14 races throughout Derby Day, but there’s nothing like the esteemed walkover for the evening’s main event. In what functions like the quiet before the storm, the 20 runners make their way from the barn to the paddock, flanked by owners and trainers hoping they’ll be crowned champions.

Once all the horses are gathered, they make a quarter-mile walk along the track to the tunnel, basking in the adoration and adulation of broadcasters and the iconic venue’s 150,000 packed-in fans. It’s something of a red-carpet experience, a chance for the horse’s connections to take everything in after their prized thoroughbred has gone through months of training and preparation. Not long after, they’re off to the races.

Sheridan Libraries/Levy/Gado // Getty Images

‘My Old Kentucky Home’

As the colorfully decorated horses march to the starting gates, they’ll do so to “My Old Kentucky Home,” the Derby’s traditional song performed ahead of the race. The singing of the 1850s Stephen Foster tune dates back to 1921, but it has come under more scrutiny recently based on the song’s lyrics and cultural connotations.

Originally written as an anti-slavery song based on Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” the song emphasizes the poor conditions of slavery and the humanity of the people who are enslaved. But at the turn of the century, after slavery had been outlawed, “My Old Kentucky Home” took on new meaning within the white population, becoming a Kentucky tourist anthem and eventually, in 1928, the state’s official song. The lyrics don’t include slurs anymore, but the misinterpretations and connotations have made for consistent debate about its place at the Derby and American culture at large.

Bettmann // Getty Images

The winner’s circle

What happens after the lead horse crosses the finish line? It heads to the Winner’s Circle, the decorated area inside the infield where the Kentucky Derby trophy is handed out to the winning owner, trainer, and jockey. Between 1875 and 1929, this area was delineated by a small circle outlined in chalk. Over the next seven years, the presentation took place in the adjoining clubhouse before a more established zone with presentation stands and an electronic odds board was built in 1938. Every winning presentation—including for legendary Triple Crown winners like Seattle Slew, Secretariat, and American Pharoah—has been held there ever since.

Andy Lyons // Getty Images

The presentation of roses

The Kentucky Derby might be considered “The Greatest Two Minutes in Sports,” but its more prominent moniker is the “Run for the Roses.” The term stems from the wreath of roses given to the winning horse, a tradition whose origins began in 1896 when Derby winner Ben Brush received pink and white roses upon his victory. The garland idea may have emerged after the 1883 Derby, in which socialite E. Berry Wall gave roses to all the women at his Louisville party, inspiring Clark Jr. to make the rose the official flower of the race the next year.

Almost 50 years later, a 400-rose garland adorned winner Burgoo King for the first time and has remained a ceremonial staple. Today, a winning horse is draped in a blanket of 554 roses, while the winning jockey receives a 60-rose Jockey’s Bouquet fastened together with 10 yards of ribbon. It’s the ultimate reward that every owner wants to see their horse wearing.

Story editing by Carren Jao. Copy editing by Robert Wickwire.

This story originally appeared on OLBG and was produced and
distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio.

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City are bidding to win a fourth successive Premier League title this season, which would be their second triumph in the competition since being hit with 115 charges of breaching financial rules in February 2023.

The allegations relate to City’s conduct in nine seasons starting in 2009 until 2018, when the Premier League opened an investigation into the club. 

Asked on Friday whether another City title success while the charges remain unresolved would damage the credibility of European football, Masters said: “It’s not for the football authorities to start being selective about who they would like to win the league.

“The key point is that you’ve got that jeopardy until the final day. Who knows where we will be on May 19?”

Masters, speaking at the European Leagues general assembly, added: “Obviously we can’t comment on the case, the date has been set and the case will resolve itself at some point in the near future, and I cannot make any further comment on it.”

An independent commission is set to hear the case later this year, but not before the current campaign ends.

Second-placed City are one point behind leaders Arsenal but have a game in hand and will clinch the title if they win their last five matches. 

City said at the time the charges were made that they welcomed a review by an independent commission “to impartially consider the comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence that exists in support of our position”.

“As such we look forward to this matter being put to rest once and for all,” the club added.

The wait for a verdict on City comes in a season in which Everton and Nottingham Forest were hit with points deductions for breaching the league’s profitability and sustainability rules (PSR).

Everton’s initial 10-point penalty was reduced to six on appeal, but they were then given another two-point punishment for similar offences, which they are also appealing.

Relegation-threatened Forest have appealed after being handed a four-point deduction for their own PSR breaches.

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“As a result of an agreement with his insolvency administrators, Boris Becker’s bankruptcy, which began in 2017, was legally terminated by a decision by the High Court in London yesterday,” Becker’s Berlin-based lawyer said in a statement sent to AFP.

“Becker is released from any further liability arising from the insolvency debts.”

Becker’s lawyer said the former tennis player had come to an agreement with insolvency administrators but that the details of the agreement would remain confidential “at this time”.

The three-time Wimbledon winner was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison in April 2022 for concealing £2.5 million ($3.1 million) in assets and loans to avoid paying debts.

Becker was released in December of the same year under a UK regulation for foreign prisoners and subsequently deported to Germany. 

He had been declared bankrupt in June 2017, owing creditors £50 million over an unpaid loan of more than £3 million on his estate on the Spanish island of Majorca.

At just 17, the dynamic redhead became the youngest male Wimbledon winner. 

Nicknamed “Boom Boom” Becker for his powerful serve, he repeated the feat the following year and won a third title in 1989.

Becker finished his career with six grand slams, adding two Australian Open crowns and a US Open title.

After his playing career, Becker moved into punditry including with the BBC, before coaching Novak Djokovic to six grand slam titles between 2014 and 2016. 

During his retirement however, his achievements were often overshadowed by his colourful and controversial private life, both during his playing career and afterwards.  

He released his first autobiography, The Player, in 2003, which made headlines with booze-soaked tales of luxury hotels and a string of female conquests. 

Becker conceived a daughter in a brief but now famous encounter with a Russian woman at a London restaurant in 1999 while his then wife, Barbara, was pregnant.

Despite estimated career earnings of £40 million as a player, Becker — who received a suspended sentence by a Munich court in 2002 for tax evasion — was declared bankrupt in 2017.

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The three-time world champion was again in a league of his own as Formula One returned to the Shanghai International Circuit for the first time since 2019.

He finished 13.7 seconds ahead of Lando Norris with Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez third, a further six seconds back.

It looked odds-on that Red Bull would repeat their one-two in Japan a fortnight ago until two safety cars in quick succession mid-race.

After multiple pit stops Perez emerged behind behind McLaren’s Norris and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

Verstappen was only denied a maximum 34 points for the weekend when Fernando Alonso pipped him to the fastest lap after a late tyre change.

It was another masterful display from Verstappen, who was winning his fourth grand prix out of five in 2024 and the 58th of his career as he marches towards a fourth consecutive world title.

– ‘It felt amazing’ –

“It felt amazing. The whole weekend we were incredibly quick,” said Verstappen.

“We survived the restarts well and the car was basically on rails and I could do whatever I wanted with it.”

He increased his lead over Perez at the top of the world championship to 25 points, with Red Bull now 44 points clear of Ferrari in the constructors’ fight.

“Those kind of weekends are amazing to feel and to achieve what we did this weekend is fantastic,” added Verstappen, who won for the first time in China.

Norris was delighted to finish second, his best result in 2024, having started from fourth on the grid.

“Things came alive today. I don’t know why, it was not the race I was expecting, but just got comfortable,” said the Englishman.

The consistent Perez finished on the podium for the fourth time in five rounds this season but said the safety car denied him a place.

“It really cost us quite a bit. Fighting like that, the life of the tyre goes off dramatically,” said Perez.

“But at least we got onto the podium. But it would have been good to be one and two. We were definitely lacking some pace.”

The Ferrari pair of Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were only fourth and fifth after a disappointing weekend where they had hoped to be closer to Red Bull.

“I think it was the best we could have done,” said Leclerc, who started from sixth on the grid.

Sainz, the only driver other than Verstappen to win a race this season, said: “It was a tough race, we had an issue at the start going wide. Then we had to stop very early and I had to nurse the tyres home.”

George Russell came sixth for Mercedes with Alonso finishing seventh after a spectacular late charge through the field from 12th after a final tyre stop 13 laps form the end.

– ‘I drove my heart out’ –

“It was important to score some points and a bonus to get the fastest lap too,” said Alonso. “We didn’t have any more hard tyres available, so that’s why we made a switch to the soft.”

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was eighth, chased home by Lewis Hamilton who clawed his way up to ninth from 18th on the grid and Nico Hulkenberg in 10th for Haas.

China’s first Formula One driver Zhou Guanyu was an enormous draw over the weekend as he made his home grand prix debut.

He was allowed to park his car on the grid in front the grandstands after finishing 14th in the race and exited the cockpit in floods of tears to an ovation from the capacity crowd.

“I drove my heart out today, unfortunately not enough for the points but we go again next time,” said an emotional Zhou.

“I am just so happy to see the whole crowd. No words. A mixture of emotions and a day to remember. Hopefully in the future more drivers from my country will be stepping in here.”

Seven-time world champion Hamilton won the last time a race was staged in Shanghai in 2019, one of a record six wins at the circuit, but was just “grateful to get into the points” on Sunday after starting from 18th.

“It was a tough race. Ultimately, I made a bad set-up change to the car yesterday and I paid the price for it,” said Hamilton.

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AI will be used at the 2024 Paris Olympics and the Paralympics to protect competitors from abuse.

The retired Vonn, speaking to AFP at the International Olympic Committee’s AI Agenda launch at London’s Olympic Park on Friday, recounted her painful experiences when she was competing.

“Social media can be a very positive experience but unfortunately I’ve experienced the other side of it, specifically before the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang,” she said.

“I was wildly harassed, and people were sending me death threats and that was really hard for me.

“You have enough, as an athlete trying to perform at the Olympics, than to deal with people that you know want you to ski off a cliff.

“So the fact that AI will be able to in real time take these comments down and not only that but be able to help them prosecute people, that is huge because that will, I think, change the dynamics of social media.”

Vonn, 39, who won Olympic women’s downhill gold at the 2010 Games in Vancouver, said she wished she had had access to the technology that will be used in Paris.

“It would have saved me a lot of anxiety and emotional trauma,” she told the conference in London.

“It’s part of being in the public eye and of course we have to deal with that but if there’s a way to minimise that type of hate speech, that’s wildly beneficial to the athletes.”

– ‘Online violence’ –

Kirsty Burrows, head of the IOC’s Safe Sport Unit, said she was anticipating around half a billion social media posts in Paris.

“We know that social media and sport are inextricably linked and they present such fantastic opportunities for engagement but unfortunately we also know in this digital age that online violence is something that is pervasive and it’s also inescapable,” she said.

Burrows said the IOC was working with a technology provider to use AI to “create and foster digitally safe environments” in Paris.

“The opportunity is available for 15,000 athletes at both the Olympic and Paralympic Games and 2,000 officials and coaches to utilise AI to capture millions of data points to be able to detect at scale, at pace in real time, targeted online abuse towards athletes and officials,” she said.

The AI system will identify threats, with the aim to remove hateful content before athletes see it.

It is also integrated with safeguarding services at the Games, including mental health and wellbeing officers.

“It’s the first time where this AI solution will be used to cover so many people in so many sports,” said Burrows.

“I think it’s really essential to better understand the prevalence of online abuse. We know it’s happening but unfortunately we hear so many times people just know they have to get used to it, they have to try and ignore it but that isn’t good enough when it’s not fair or right… we want athletes to be able to thrive in sport.”

She added: “By utilising this AI we’ll also be able to better understand online violence in sport, the typologies of violence and develop data-driven policies and interventions to help create physically and psychologically safe environments for athletes.”

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In the shadow of the 330-metre (1,082-foot) monument, workers are already building the temporary stadium that will host the beach volleyball during the Games, which start on July 26.

The opening ceremony along the river Seine will also finish in front of the attraction, while judo and wrestling will take place in a semi-permanent exhibition space at the far end of its park.

Although the sport will look spectacular in the TV coverage, behind the scenes the area has become a lightning rod for complaints about the management of public space in the capital and the pressures of mass tourism.

“It’s very dirty and it’s getting worse and worse,” local resident Frederic Mabilon, 78, told AFP as she walked her dog in the Champ-de-Mars park beneath the iron monument known as the “Iron Lady”.

Mabilon remembers visiting the area as a child, enjoying the merry-go-rounds and play areas that have been closed ahead of the Olympics — much to the anger of their operators.

“Look there,” she said, pointing to a man urinating on the fence of one of the homes that line the park. “It happens all the time. There aren’t enough toilets.”

Mikael Dalle, a 53-year-old local out with his son, said he was bothered by the illegal hawkers who shout out to passers-by, offering unlicensed food and drinks, trinkets and berets.

“It’s definitely got worse and we’ve lived around here for the last eight years,” he said.

– Street crime –

Around seven million people ascend the Eiffel Tower each year and many more pose for photos, eat picnics, or play ballgames in the Champ-de-Mars.

With so many visitors, the park’s lawns are often rubbed bare, while at night they are left strewn with rubbish by revellers.

“You should see it at 6 o’clock in the morning. It’s catastrophic,” complained another local dog walker, Louis, 53, who preferred not to give his surname.

Left-over food and overflowing bins are a delight for the flourishing local rat population.

And while low-level street crime such as pick-pocketing and scams have long been a feature of Paris’s tourist hotspots, two alleged rapes took place on the Champ-de-Mars at night last year, shocking locals.

“I’ve told my eldest daughter not to walk through here in the dark,” Louis explained.

The right-wing opponents of Socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo blame her for the problems, with local senator Agnes Evren claiming the area has turned into “the far-west”.

Even the tower’s workers are unhappy, launching a five-day strike in February to protest against its state of disrepair and demanding the city spend more on painting and anti-rust protection.

– ‘Paris will shine’ –

Hidalgo, an eco-minded left-winger re-elected for a second term in 2020, is admired by many for her policies to restrict cars and promote cycling.

But she has also been dogged by complaints about cleanliness, with a survey in 2021 suggesting eight out of ten Parisians found their city “dirty”.

An online campaign in 2021 called #saccageParis (#TrashedParis), in which residents shared pictures of filth or ugliness, struck a chord in a city that prides itself on its elegance.

To tackle the security problems, police announced a major operation for the Eiffel Tower area last June, leading to several dozen police officers on the ground per day.

“We’ve had excellent results in this area as well as other tourist zones in Paris,” Paris police chief Laurent Nunez told AFP last week.

“But we need to continue. The Olympics are coming,” he added.

The number of reported physical assaults fell by 58 percent to 21 incidents in the first quarter of the year compared with the same period of 2023, while property crimes were down 18 percent, he said.

Much of the Champ-de-Mars now stands behind steel fencing, its protected lawns growing back, its gardeners busy preparing it for hundreds of thousands of foreign sports fans.

“Paris will shine, Paris will be beautiful, Paris will be ready to welcome the world,” deputy mayor Emmanuel Gregoire promised last week.

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Born and raised in Harare, Zimbabwe, Mufaro Martina Hungwe has been involved in the world of sports since she was five years old. She has played everything from basketball to field hockey, tennis, track and field, and even ran cross country. She competed for the Zimbabwean National Field Hockey Team and the Zimbabwean Track & Field National Team, where they competed on the world stage at track meets like the Penn Relays in 2010. In 2014, she came to the United States on a track and field scholarship to attend Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri, an NCAA DII school, and then transferred to the University of Nevada in Las Vegas, where she competed as an NCAA DI track and field athlete for four years.

However, the world of sports would take its toll on Hungwe’s body, and after suffering multiple sports injuries, she developed an appreciation for Kinesiology. She later pursued her Master’s in Biomechanics and attended the University of Oregon’s Sports Product Management Program — the only one of its kind in the U.S. Since then, she’s had the opportunity to work on multiple projects, such as developing new Biomechanical testing methods at the Brooks Sports Inc. (also known as Brooks Running), new Haptic Testing Protocols at Wilson Sporting Goods, and new foot and footwear sensor testing methodologies at Heeluxe Lab, LLC.

“I have a unique perspective in that I can understand the athletes’ pain points easier than someone who has never been directly involved or participated in sports,” she states.

Hungwe notes that once she broke into the industry, gaining respect for her ideas was also challenging. However, she claims that her work spoke for itself, and her coworkers had no option but to respect and value what she brought to the table. Her passion for adding more women and women of color into STEM industries is part of what drives her and her work ethic.

When asked about the lessons she’s learned, Hungwe speaks about the power of perseverance, as well as “channeling grit and leaning into the difficult times despite whatever challenges and setbacks you may face.”

Leaving home and coming to the United States to pursue her dreams was something she challenged relentlessly, no matter what obstacles presented themselves to her.

When speaking about future aspirations, Hungwe says she wants to be at the forefront of the Sports Product Innovation industry. She could potentially be the head of innovation at a top sportswear brand or even one day own her own.

“There is so much talent on the African continent but no one to invest in it,” she says. “I believe by gaining the skills and experience in this industry by learning from the best who have done it. I will be able to mirror and better the world of sports by increasing accessibility to innovative athletic products, therefore lowering barriers of entry into the world of sports and innovation.”

Through hard work, perseverance, and sheer determination to pursue her dreams, Mufaro Martina Hungwe has become a thought leader in her industry. With her future aspirations high, she can only go up from this point forward.

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The total is currently approaching 9.0 billion euros ($9.66 billion dollars), but is likely to pass 10 billion euros, forcing additional contributions from the government for an Olympics planned under the mantra “the Games finance the Games”.

With 100 days to go before the flame is lit in the opening ceremony, “the risk zone is now”, a government source told AFP.

What is included in the cost of Olympics can lead to wildly different calculations of their costs.

The Tokyo Olympics, delayed a year and held in 2021 during the Covid crisis, cost 12 billion euros according to Japan’s national auditors, almost twice as much as the estimate in their original bid.

For Rio in 2016, beset by corruption, the local organisers estimated a total cost of 11.8bn euros, more than half of that on infrastructure.

Estimates for London in 2012 range between 12 and 15 billion euros. For Beijing in 2008 calculations from outside experts run as high as 40 billion euros at current exchange rates. Athens in 2004, which added to the Greek government’s crippling debts, cost 13 billion euros.

For Paris, the responsibility for spending the money is divided between the Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (Cojo), which is running the competition, and the Olympic Delivery Company (Solideo) which built the facilities. Both have had issues compounded by higher-than-anticipated inflation.

Cojo is already on course to raise more money from private sources, 4.4 billion euros, than the original estimate of 3.2 billion euros. In fact the original budget foresaw perfect financial balance — a goal which has been abandoned.

Cojo is raising 1.24 billion euros from sponsors, 1.4 billion euros from ticket sales and it receives 1.2 billion euros in funding from the International Olympic Committee.

Among Cojo’s costs are renting the Stade de France, equipping the Olympic Village for the athletes, paying private security guards, for temporary stands and for the dancers at the opening ceremony.

At the end of 2022, Cojo hiked its budget 10 percent, blaming inflation. By then, it had received an additional 111 million euros in public funding from the French government and local authorities, in particular for the organisation of the Paralympics, which take place after the Olympics.

The French Court of Audit said Cojo had committed the traditional Olympic error of underestimating its initial budget.

In a sign that times are hard, Cojo recently asked the regional government to contribute to the cost of bus transport for accredited participants, a 10-million-euro expense. The region refused.

The French government is keeping a close eye on the Cojo’s finances. The government has given a 3bn-euro guarantee to cover shortfalls.

“For the moment, there is no reason to believe that there will be a deficit,” Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera said.

Solideo, with a total budget of 4.4 billion euros, has received almost 1.8 billion euros from national, regional and local governments. That includes 542 million euros towards the total 646-million-euro cost of building the Olympic Village, which will become apartments after the Games.

– No hidden costs –

Other legacy items include the newly-built Olympic aquatics centre, which will host diving, water polo and artistic swimming events, and a footbridge over the motorway that separates the pool from the Stade de France, where athletics and rugby sevens will take place.

Yet not all the costs are known, including the exact price tag of security, including the 1,900-euro Olympic bonuses for police officers and other promised public service bonuses.

By 2023, budget documents indicated that the public Olympic contribution had reached 2.44 billion euros (including 1.3 billion euros from national government and 260 million euros from the city of Paris).

The President of the Court of Audit, Pierre Moscovici, recently upped his estimate of the final public contribution to “three, four or five billion euros”, saying the final figure would only be known “after the Olympics”.

Oudea-Castera disagreed.

“There’s no reason why it should be five billion euros,” she said, adding there was no “budgetary drift or hidden costs”.

Oudea-Castera also argued that compared to the other Summer Olympics this millennium, even a final total bill close to 10 billion euros would be cheap.

“These budgets are probably the most scrutinised in the history of the Olympics” and “the most restrained (in terms of organisation) in 20 years”, she said.

The final score will not be known until long after the final competition ends.

The Court of Audit has been asked to produce a report by autumn 2025.

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Across and around Paris, plans that have been on the drawing board for seven years since the city won the right to host the 2024 Olympics are turning into reality, 100 days from the start of the world’s biggest sporting event.

The flurry of activity, including the hoisting of giant Olympic rings onto the Eiffel Tower, is giving Parisians the chance to glimpse for the first time how the 17-day extravaganza will transform the city.

“You can see them putting the infrastructure up,” sports fan and Paris resident Valentin Fargier, 27, told AFP. “The city’s being tidied up and the monuments are clean. It’s going to be great.”

Unlike in previous Olympics, only two new permanent sports venues have been built for Paris 2024 in a deliberate change of strategy to make the Games cheaper and more “sober.”

An 8,000-seat arena that will host the badminton and rhythmic gymnastics was inaugurated in a deprived part of northern Paris in February, while President Emmanuel Macron cut the ribbon at a new aquatics centre in a nearby suburb on April 4.

Elsewhere, 95 percent of the sport is set to take place in existing venues, or in the temporary stands that are sprouting like mushrooms ahead of the start of the Games on July 26 and the Paralympics on August 28.

Beach volleyball will be played in front of the Eiffel Tower, with archery at the Invalides monument. Skateboarding will take place at Place de la Concorde and the Chateau de Versailles will host the equestrian events.

In total, 200,000 seats are being installed in temporary venues.

The river Seine will host the open-water swimming — pollution permitting — as well as the spectacular opening ceremony that will see teams sail down it in a flotilla of boats in front of up to half a million spectators.

– Terror threat –

Organisers insist that everything from the infrastructure to their budget is under control.

“We’re ready for this final straight,” chief organiser Tony Estanguet told reporters at a press conference to mark the 100-day countdown last week. “We’ve built up a lot of confidence and peace of mind.”

He noted that construction work was often “the biggest challenge that poses problems for the organisation of the Games.”

“The timetable has been perfectly respected, which is a relief for us,” he said.

The main doubts concern the extravagant water-borne opening ceremony — the first time an Olympics has opened outside the main athletics stadium.

The security challenge is immense, with 45,000 French forces set to be mobilised, a no-fly zone installed, and large parts of central Paris off-limits to everyone except residents and essential workers a week in advance.

“We want to organise major Games, spectacular Games,” Estanguet explained. “We’ve never backed away from this. We’ve always showed audacity.”

Some security experts see those ambitions as naive, given a recent resurgence in the Islamic State group and international tensions caused by Israel’s assault on Gaza.

French authorities also believe Russia is a threat through either disinformation or a cyberattack.

Asked earlier this month if the Kremlin would target the Olympics, French President Emmanuel Macron said he had “no doubt.”

– ‘Ephemeral’ –

While the world-renowned architecture of the French capital will serve as a stunning backdrop to the sport, the city’s often hard-to-please residents appear in no mood for a party yet.

Media coverage has been dominated in recent months by ongoing grumbling about high ticket prices, the cost to taxpayers, strike threats, as well as the planned increase in fares on the creaking Paris metro system during the Games.

Many wealthier Parisians plan to be on holiday for the duration of the event, often to cash in on the riches being offered on apartment-renting websites such as Airbnb.

Will it be a case of the city and nation finding collective pride once a global TV audience of billions begins admiring the landmarks, the shimmering water of the Seine, or the newly rebuilt spire of the fire-damaged Notre-Dame cathedral?

“If everything goes well at this difficult moment, if the organisation is good, if French athletes win medals, it might create a moment of national pride,” French sports historian Paul Ditschy from the university of Bourgogne-Franche-Comte told AFP.

But he warned it would be “ephemeral, like the sport itself.”

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