Olympic Games awarded to Paris, Los Angeles: A look at last time these two cities hosted showpiece event

Paris was awarded the 2024 summer Olympics and Los Angeles the 2028 Games on Wednesday, as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) broke with decades of tradition to vote on a unique double allocation. Paris, which has hosted two previous Olympic Games, will stage the event 100 years after its last Games in 1924 while Los Angeles will also organise its third Games after 1932 and 1984. Paris, with a Games budget of $8.09 billion, had failed with previous attempts to land the 1992, 2008 and 2012 Olympics. The LA Games have a budget of $5.3 billion and will essentially follow the plan they had in place for 2024, including housing athletes at the UCLA campus. Here’s a look at the Olympic Games the last time these two cities hosted them. Paris 1924 Summer Olympics The selection process for the 1924 Summer Olympics consisted of six bids, with Paris being selected ahead of Amsterdam, Barcelona, Los Angeles, Prague, and Rome. The selection was made at the 20th IOC Session in Lausanne in 1921. [caption id=“attachment_4043807” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Stade de Colombes, one of the venues of the Paris Olympic Games, in 1924. Image courtesy: Wikimedia Commons[/caption] The number of participating nations rose from 29 to 44, which showed that the Olympic Games had been popularised as a major event with global appeal. Ecuador, Haiti, Ireland, Lithuania, and Uruguay attended the Olympic Games for the first time at this edition. Latvia and Poland attended the Summer Olympic Games for the first time after having participated earlier at the 1924 Winter Olympics in Chamonix. The Games were held from 4 May to 27 July in 1924, with 126 events in 23 disciplines, comprising of 17 sports. These were the first Games to be broadcast on live radio. These Games introduced the Closing Ceremony ritual, which involves the raising of three flags — the flag of the IOC, the flag of the host nation and the flag of the next host nation. The Olympic motto Citius, Altius, Fortius (Faster, Higher, Stronger) was used for the first time at the Games in Paris. This was also the first time that there was an Olympic Village for the athletes. These Games were represented on the silver screen in the movie “Chariots of Fire”, which charted the journey of two British runners Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell, who won the 100m and 400m events respectively. USA topped the medal tally with 99 medals, including 45 gold. Los Angeles 1984 Summer Olympics After the significant financial costs of the 1976 Olympic Games, there were very few cities who were willing to bid to host this sporting extravaganza. For 1984, only two formal bids were made — Los Angeles and Tehran. However, the Iranian city withdrew its bid due to political conflict in the country. As a result, the IOC awarded the Games to Los Angeles by default. This was the second occasion Los Angeles hosted the games, the first being in 1932. [caption id=“attachment_4043811” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Olympic Torch Tower of the Los Angeles Coliseum on the day of the opening ceremonies of the 1984 Summer Olympics. Image courtesy: Wikimedia Commons[/caption] In Los Angeles, 140 nations took part, which was a record at that time. However, the field was depleted due to a “revenge boycott” led by Soviet Union. Fourteen Eastern bloc countries retaliated for USA’s boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow over the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Los Angeles hosted the Games from 28 July to 12 August in 1984, and they featured 221 events in 21 sports. At this edition, the women’s marathon was held for the first time, which was won by Joan Benoit of USA. Rhythmic gymnastics, synchronised swimming and the women’s cycling road race also made their debuts. Archer Neroli Fairhall of New Zealand was the first paraplegic athlete to take part in a medal event, competing in a wheelchair. Carl Lewis, who made his debut in Los Angeles, entered history books by matching the Berlin 1936 achievement of fellow American Jesse Owens, winning gold medals in the same four events: 100m, 200m, 4x100m relay and long jump. To help finance the Games, the organising committee signed lucrative contracts for exclusive television rights. These were first Games that truly became a global television event, with 180 hours of action broadcast in different countries all over the world. USA, the host nation, won 83 gold medals and had an overall tally of 174 medals, which helped them top the table. With inputs from Reuters