Paris 2024: a hundred years later, the legacy of the precursor Games of Paris 1924
Certain Olympic editions have left their mark on history through their sporting performances, their historical context or even their dramatic news stories. The 1924 Paris Olympic Games remain in posterity because several notable traditions were born there which have never disappeared since.
Today at the center of the organizers’ concerns, the concept of the Olympic village appeared at the 1924 Olympic Games. official report of this edition specifies that the executive board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) adopted in April 1923 the principle according to which the organizing committee (Cojo) must offer room and board to the athletes, the costs of which are borne by the participating nations.
“The Count of Clary, president of the French Cojo, initiated this idea, then accepted by the IOC, specifies Cyril Polycarpe, historian and lecturer at the University of Franche-Comté. It was a revolution because before the First World War, it was less nations present at the Olympic Games than individuals financially capable of traveling.” Previously, athletes lived “at the hotel or at private homes”, recalls Patrick Clastres, specialist in the history of sport and the Olympics and professor at the University of Lausanne.
In 1924, the French Cojo delegated the marketing of beds to a company which dealt directly with the delegations. The copious report indicates that a bed cost, per day and per person, 30 francs, and board (lingerie, food, showers, electricity, etc.) 25 francs.
Built on the edge of the Olympic grounds in Colombes, the Olympic village – with a short-lived lifespan, unlike today – was made up of around sixty wooden barracks. Each house consisted of furnished rooms with three beds. The village was also equipped with sinks with running water, showers and restaurant rooms where three daily meals were offered (red or white wine included!). But also a newspaper kiosk, a hairdressing salon, a currency exchange office, a laundry service…
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