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This Happened

This Happened — September 5: Terror At Munich Olympic Games

Updated Sept. 5, 2024 at 09:40 a.m The Munich Olympics terrorist attack happened on this day in in 1972. What was the Munich Olympics terrorist attack? The Munich Olympics terrorist attack was a tragic event that began in the early morning hours of September 5, 1972, when eight Palestinian militants entered the Olympic Village in […]

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Future Society

Paralympics Tech: How Airbus Applies Aeronautic Expertise To Equip Disabled Champions

Since 2021, engineers at the aerospace group Airbus have been working with the French National Sports Agency to build better equipment for disabled athletes. Their high-lying expertise will be in full display at the Paralympics Games Paris 2024.

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Ideas

What Makes France Special? The Answer Was In The Olympic Opening Ceremony

For years, France has been searching for what makes it truly stand out in the modern world, beyond its eternal critical sense and Gallic quarrels. The creativity of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games was the beginning of the answer.

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Society

Psyched For The Olympics? How Therapy For Top Athletes Went Mainstream

Thanks to athletes like Simone Biles, Naomi Osaka and Teddy Riner, who have opened the conversation, psychological counseling is no longer a taboo in the world of high-level sports. The Paris Olympics will be a showcase of champions who are doing the hard work.

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Geopolitics Society

Paris Olympics Security: Unprecedented AI Surveillance Creates Another Risk

The Olympic Games in Paris will be the first in history with a video surveillance system linked to massive databases, algorithms developed by artificial intelligence and facial recognition. With bonafide security fears, as shown by Friday’s attack on rail lines, this new form of individual and collective control also raises real civil liberty concerns.

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In The News

Worldcrunch Magazine #92 — Olympic Truce?

July 29 – August 4, 2024

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Geopolitics Ideas

The Paris Olympics Will Be Extra Charged With Politics — Just Like Always

With wars around the world arousing political strife and affecting the personal lives of many athletes, it seems the Paris 2024 Games could be overrun by geopolitics. Polish journalist Radoslaw Leniarski, an 11-time Olympic Games correspondent, explains what is, and isn’t, different this time.

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climate change Green Paris Calling Society

Seine Swim? Car Free? Paris Mayor Uses Olympics To Showcase Her Ecological City Vision

Mayor Anne Hidalgo made waves last week for swimming in the Seine following a historic effort to clean up the Parisian river. But her biggest environmental footprint is in trying to reshape Paris for a more pedestrian future.

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Society

At The Paris 2024 Olympics, Timekeeping Under The Gun

At the Paris Olympic Games, Omega, the official timekeeper of the competition, promises unprecedented precision timekeeping. The science of sports timekeeping is undergoing an unprecedented acceleration. Victory must be fair.

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Green special series

Post-Leather, Post-Plastic? Kicking The Carbon Footprint Out Of Soccer Balls

While Paris aims to host the greenest Olympics this summer, the French company Rebond is working to make soccer balls, typically pumped up with petrochemicals, more environmentally friendly by using bio-sourced and recyclable materials.

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Food / Travel

Gùsto! How · What · Where Locals Eat (And Drink) In Marseille

France’s second largest city and the namesake to its national anthem, Marseille is a place where food is sacred, from Michelin-star restaurants to neighborhood bistros. Here’s a quick guide on where to go for drinks, food and cultural enrichment in the Phocean City.

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Society

Inside Nike’s Research Lab: A Final Sprint To Paris

On the road to the 2024 Olympic Games, the global leader of sport has launched a major offensive to regain ground lost in recent years in the athletic gear market, and is preparing a flurry of innovations to rekindle the flame of fuel-starved global sales.

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Geopolitics Russia-Ukraine War

Are Rising France-Russia Tensions A Security Threat For The Paris Olympics?

A telephone call between French and Russian defense ministers on Wednesday gave rise to Russian accusations and threats against France. The terrorist risk shared by the two countries did not allow the slightest progress to be made: this is worrying just a few months before the Paris Olympic Games.

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This Happened

This Happened – April 6: The Olympics Return

Updated April 6, 2024 at 10:10 a.m. The first modern Olympic Games took place on this day 1896, in Athens, Greece. Why were the first modern Olympic Games held? The first modern Olympic Games were held to revive the ancient Greek tradition of athletic competition and promote international understanding and goodwill. How many countries participated […]

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Migrant Lives

Paris Is Relying On Exploitation Of Migrant Workers To Prepare For The Olympics

Paris promised to be a socially responsible host for the 2024 Summer Games, yet multiple testimonies from undocumented migrant workers have revealed mistreatment and workers’ rights violations by the companies charged with building the Olympic infrastructure.

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Society

Bronx To Paris: Breakdancing Prepares To Make Its Olympic Debut, With A French Twist

Breakdancing will make its debut as an Olympic sport at this summer’s Paris Games. Les Echos meets with French dancers of various styles and from different generations, all passionate about this hip-hop dance form.

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In The News

This Happened — August 3: A Historic Gold Medal At Hitler’s Olympics

Jesse Owens won his first gold medal at the Summer Olympics held in Berlin, Germany on this day in 1936. The American athlete was the first to cross the line of the 100-meter dash — one of the marquee track and field events at the Olympics. What was significant about Jesse Owens’ victory? Jesse Owens’ […]

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In The News

Cannes v. Paris 2024: On The Difference Between Banning Russian Athletes Or Artists

While the IOC decides whether to let Moscow’s athletes compete in the 2024 Summer Games, Russian film directors will again be fighting for the right to show their films.

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Future Geopolitics

Beyond Ukraine, How To Defend Against Drones As A Weapon-Of-Choice For Terrorists

The war in Ukraine has shown how civilian drones can be effectively used as weapons. Meanwhile in Paris, with preparations on to host the Olympics in 2024, the city is testing some unlikely solutions to make sure the devices can’t be employed by terrorists.

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Geopolitics Society

How The War In Ukraine Turned The World Of Sport Upside Down

The Russian invasion of Ukraine forced the sport world to abandon its long-held political neutrality, including the Olympics and FIFA. Is this a one-off event or a sign of a fundamental shift in sport?

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In The News

After Tokyo Olympic Golds, Uganda Guns To Become Africa’s Next Sports Powerhouse

Success at the Tokyo Olympics inspired Uganda to step up its efforts to become a long-distance running powerhouse.

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In The News

Games Of The Absurd: Beijing’s Olympics Of Politics And Pandemic

With both fans and diplomatic dignitaries missing, it’s an Olympics that recalls politically combustible Games of the past. COVID-19, like it did for the Summer Games in Tokyo, will also help haunt the premises. The good news is that the athletes will most likely take over our attention as soon as they hit the ice and snow.

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Geopolitics Ideas

​Why The Budding Xi-Putin Alliance Is Bound To Implode

Joined in their respective confrontations with the West, both the Chinese and Russian leaders are boasting about their burgeoning partnership. Yet there are fundamental reasons the love affair is unlikely to last.

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LGBTQ Plus Society

Transgender Athletes: The Fairness V. Inclusion Debate

In a majority of U.S. states, bills aiming to restrict who can compete in women’s sports at public institutions have either been signed into law or are working their way through state legislatures. Caught up in this political point-scoring are real people – both trans athletes who want to participate in competitive sports and those competing against them. As a professor of ethics and public policy, I spend much of my time thinking about the role of the law in protecting the rights of individuals, especially when the rights of some people appear to conflict with the rights of others. […]

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Society

China’s Olympic Flop, “Planned Economy” Sports System To Blame

-Analysis- BEIJING — As the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro come to an end, the Chinese delegation’s “failure” seems to be a foregone conclusion. Even in gymnastics, where it had excelled in the past, China won only two bronze medals, making it the worst performance of the past decade. The first reaction of the […]

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Ideas Rue Amelot Society

The Other Rio — Maria: I Do Not Accept Violence

The third of a three-part series of oral histories from the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, so close and yet so far away from the Olympic spotlight.

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blog

Olympic Paradox And Patriotism

The Olympic ideal is free of political conflict. But from Jesse Owens in Berlin to this year’s refugee team, some of the Games’ most striking images have sprung when sports and world affairs collide. So much so that the temptation is always great to think of the Olympics as a jersey-wearing reflection of current events. […]

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Ideas Rue Amelot

The Other Rio — Glaucio: I’ve Saved Some Kids, Lost Some Too

The first of a three-part series of oral histories from the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, so close and yet so far away from the Olympic spotlight.

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blog

Lost In Brazil, Dilma Can Wait

SPOTLIGHT: LOST IN BRAZIL, DILMA CAN WAIT Brazil has won its first gold medal in Rio (courtesy of judoka Rafaela Silva), and other national athletes — especially soccer players after the 2014 World Cup fiasco — will obviously be looking to add to that tally. But one area where the hosts certainly won’t be claiming […]

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blog

How Low Will Trump Go?

SPOTLIGHT: HOW LOW WILL TRUMP GO? Waking up in European Central Time to the morning headlines means two things right now: Rio Olympic results and Donald Trump’s new low. We’ve been trying to digest the latest installment of the latter after the Republican nominee in his inimitable, er, offhanded way, said yesterday in North Carolina […]

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Geopolitics Society

The Olympics May Just Be The Only Thing That Works In Brazil

Rio de Janeiro may have pulled off its Olympic feat, but Brazil’s everyday problems remain unaddressed.

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blog

Olympic Athletes Trade Doping Accusations

After Friday’s smoothly executed opening ceremony and the first batch of inspiring gold medals, the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro are once again mired in controversy. But rather than Brazil’s own local battles with corruption and Zika, it’s the athletes themselves undermining the Games. Sparks flew poolside as Rio’s Olympic swimmers traded insults and […]

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Society

Take 5: Olympic Underdogs To Watch In Rio Games

With the Olympic Games finally upon us, many spectators are focused on living legends like Brazilian soccer superstar Neymar, Jamaica’s record-holding sprinter Usain Bolt or Michael Phelps, the American swimmer who’s won more Olympic hardware than any athlete in history. And that’s just to name a few. The mega-event certainly doesn’t lack star power. But […]

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blog

Rio Fights Phony Olympic Souvenirs With Official Knockoffs

Organizers of the Olympic Games in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro are taking a novel, fight-fire-with-fire approach to tackle counterfeit merchandise, a local newspaper reports. As is often the case at international sporting events, prices of souvenirs at official stores in Rio are high — a pocket replica of the Olympic torch costs […]

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blog

The Most Striking Number At Rio 2016

Among all the big numbers we’ll hear broadcast at the lavish ceremony for the opening of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, whether it’s the 5,000 people volunteering at the event or the 10,500 athletes competing in it, the number 10 will perhaps resonate most deeply with the world. That’s the number of members who comprise […]

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blog

August 1

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blog

Rio Woes, Clinton History, Massive Gift

SPOTLIGHT: RIO IN TROUBLE, ONE WEEK FROM OLYMPICS Just seven days from the opening of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is still reeling from a succession of emergencies that tarnish the country’s image as it prepares to play host to the world’s top athletes. A long-running political and economic crisis continues […]

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blog

One Week Before The Olympics

Correio Braziliense, July 29th Friday’s edition of the Correio Braziliense daily features images of final preparations for the Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics, which are now just one week away. As the Games near, concerns about security and logistics are rising. The country is still reeling from a series of political and economic crises, and […]

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Economy Society

Good News Finally For Brazil: New Train On Time For Rio Olympics

RIO DE JANEIRO — Authorities in Rio de Janeiro have inaugurated the first part of a light city railway designed to ferry about hundreds of thousands of visitors and sports players arriving in the Brazilian city for the Olympic games due to start in August. The new VLT network, a multinational project involving firms like […]

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blog

Alleged Olympic Terrorists Arrested In Brazil

O Globo, July 22 Two weeks before the Summer Olympics begin in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is on high alert for risk of terrorist attacks aimed at the games. Friday’s edition of Brazilian daily O Globo is dominated by the articles and photographs of the dismantling of a group allegedly linked to the terror group […]

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