Aya Nakamura thanks fans for support over Olympics racism as she wins awards

French singer dedicates top prizes at Les Flammes ‘to all black women’ after backlash over rumoured Paris show

The French pop star Aya Nakamura, who found herself at the centre of a racist row after rumours she was going to sing at the Paris Olympics opening ceremony, has thanked fans for their support after winning three big prizes at France’s Les Flammes awards for rap, R&B and pop.

“I’m very honoured because being a black artist and coming from the banlieue is very difficult,” Nakamura told the audience at the ceremony, which she opened with a medley of her songs. She dedicated her awards – female artist of the year, pop album of the year, and international star of the year – “to all black women”.

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The 1924 Paris Olympics saved the Games. Can this year’s event repeat that success? | David Goldblatt

Faced with competition from rival sporting events, the future of the Games hung in the balance. A century on, new hurdles are looming

Paris 1924 was the sixth and last Olympics presided over by Baron de Coubertin, the modern movement’s founder. He had good reason to be pleased with his work. The French government had enthusiastically backed the enterprise, providing a budget of 20m francs and a new stadium. The Olympic rituals – the parade of nations, the rings, the oath, gold, silver and bronze medals – had been established.

Above all, the Games remained the preserve of amateur athletic gentlemen – aristocrats, college kids and military officers – performing what the baron eulogised as “a display of manly virtue”.

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‘A message of peace’: Olympic flame begins its journey to Paris

Torch lit in ruins of ancient Olympia, Greek birthplace of Games, starting 3,100-mile relay that will end in July

A taste of the drama and beauty of this summer’s Paris Olympics has unfolded in the foothills of Greece with the lighting of the flame that will illuminate the world’s biggest sports event.

In a ceremony held amid the ruins of ancient Olympia, the birthplace of the Games 2,800 years ago, the flame was kindled by performers dressed as priestesses, though this year because of weather conditions the torch was not ignited as usual in a parabolic mirror – which focuses the sun’s rays – but from a flame lit during a rehearsal.

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Paris Olympics opening ceremony could move if threat detected, says Macron

French president says location of spectacle, due to take place on Seine, could change if there is serious risk of terror attack

France has backup plans to move the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games from the Seine if there is a serious risk of a terrorist attack, Emmanuel Macron has said.

Speaking in a television interview on Monday, the French president said organisers “could and would” continue to plan for a “world first” opening ceremony for 26 July, when more than 300,000 people are expected to watch a flotilla of boats carrying national teams down the river.

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France assesses Paris Olympics terrorist threat in light of Moscow attack

Minister and intelligence services meet to discuss security for Games that includes opening ceremony on the Seine

The French interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, has met intelligence services to assess the terrorist threat to the country, after the Moscow concert hall attack claimed by Islamic State raised fresh security fears over the Paris Olympics.

One of the biggest security challenges facing the organisers of the Games in the French capital is to protect the opening ceremony on 26 July. It is planned to be an unprecedented, open-air extravaganza, which for the first time in Olympic history will not take place within the confines of a stadium, but instead involve a flotilla of 94 boats carrying thousands of waving athletes down a 6km (3.7-mile) stretch of the Seine, followed by a further 80 boats carrying media and security, while an estimated 222,000 people gather along the river’s edge and 200,000 more watch from buildings.

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‘Sport is never just sport’: Olympics exhibition in Paris reflects 20th century’s highs and lows

Les Jeux Olympiques: Miroir des Sociétés opens ahead of Paris Olympics and puts previous games in context of conflicts and injustices

From the Nazi stadium propaganda in 1936 Berlin to the 1968 Mexico City podium protest of medal-winners Tommie Smith and John Carlos, who were expelled from the competition after raising their gloved fists in a Black Power salute against racial injustice, the Olympic Games have held a mirror up to some of the darkest moments of 20th-century history.

Now, as the Paris Olympics prepares to open this summer against a backdrop of war from Ukraine to the Middle East – with Emmanuel Macron saying Russia will be asked to observe a ceasefire in Ukraine during the Games – a new exhibition in Paris takes an unflinching look at the social and geopolitical impact of the Games over the last century.

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No new stadium to be built for 2032 Olympics as Queensland opposition leader reveals plan

David Crisafulli’s stance means the multi-billion dollar Victoria Park plan recommended by Graham Quirk on Monday is dead

Queensland’s 2032 Olympics will not be held in a brand-new stadium, with both major parties now ruling out the Victoria Park and Gabba rebuild options.

The opposition leader, David Crisafulli, broke his four-day silence on Thursday, promising there will be no new stadium. The LNP leader also ruled out cancelling the Games.

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Aya Nakamura, the pop superstar at the centre of a Paris Olympic racism storm

Outrage from the far right over rumours of a performance at the opening ceremony has exposed deep divisions in France

She is the most listened-to French singer in the world, whose relentlessly catchy hits about love and betrayal have been streamed 7bn times and who made history last year when she sold out three Paris gigs in 15 minutes.

But Aya Nakamura, France’s biggest pop superstar who is known for her unique French style influenced by Afrobeats and Caribbean zouk, called out racism and ignorance this week after far-right politicians expressed outrage over the possibility that she could sing at the Paris Olympics.

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Bag containing security plans for Paris Olympics stolen from French train

City hall engineer had put bag with sensitive data in overhead luggage rack on train at Gare du Nord

A bag containing a computer and two USB memory sticks holding police security plans for the Paris Olympic Games has been stolen from a train at the capital’s Gare du Nord station.

The bag belonged to an engineer from Paris city hall, the police said late on Tuesday, confirming a report by BFM television, adding that he had put the bag in the luggage compartment above his seat.

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Mary Lou Retton released from hospital but has ‘long road ahead’ in recovery

  • Gymnast became hero of Team USA at 1984 Olympics
  • 55-year-old was seriously ill with pneumonia

Olympic gymnastics champion Mary Lou Retton has returned home after a lengthy hospital stay because of pneumonia, her daughter said on Monday.

Shaley Kelley Schrepfer, the oldest of Retton’s four daughters, posted an update on Retton’s condition on Instagram nearly two weeks after the family disclosed that the former Olympic all-around champion was in intensive care.

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Russian, South African and US athletes get rushed Australian citizenships ahead of 2024 Olympics

Exclusive: Government fast-tracked applications of canoeist, wrestler and water polo player backed by AOC

The Australian government has fast-tracked the citizenship of three athletes from South Africa, Russia and the US, in an effort to boost the nation’s chances of winning gold medals at the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

With the support of the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC), South African canoeist Pierre Van der Westhuyzen, Russian wrestler Georgii Okorokov and US water polo player Sam Slobodien, will receive citizenships ahead of the games after having their applications fast-tracked.

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Champs-Élysées to be given makeover before Paris Olympic Games

‘World’s most beautiful avenue’ in French capital will undergo urgent cosmetic changes after years of decline

On paper and in urban legend, the Champs-Élysées is the most beautiful avenue in the world. For the last 30 years, however, Parisians have lamented the slow decline of the capital’s famous street.

The pavements flanking what is now an eight-lane highway used by an average 3,000 vehicles an hour have become an obstacle course of uneven paving stones and electricity cables and a hotchpotch of restaurant, bar, cafe and brasserie terraces of all shapes, sizes and colours.

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Anger over plan to persuade homeless people to leave Paris before Olympics

Moving people including asylum seekers to temporary regional centres would free up accommodation

Local politicians and charities in France have expressed concerns about a French government plan to encourage thousands of homeless people and asylum seekers to leave the Paris area before next year’s Olympic Games and move to other regions of the country to free up accommodation in the capital.

The news agency Agence France-Presse reported that since mid-March, the government has asked local prefects to create temporary reception centres in every French region except the north and Corsica, which would free up space in hotels normally used as emergency accommodation centres in and around Paris.

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Japan’s top ad agency indicted over Olympics bid-rigging scandal

Dentsu Group charged after arrest of Tokyo 2020 committee official accused of rigging Games-related tenders

Japan’s biggest advertising agency and five other companies have been indicted for allegedly violating an anti-monopoly law, in a corruption scandal over allegations of bid-rigging during the Tokyo Olympics.

The indictment followed the arrest this month of a senior Tokyo 2020 organising committee official and three others who were accused of rigging a string of Olympic Games-related tenders.

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‘Wrong side of history’: Ukraine athletes accuse IOC of ‘kowtowing’ to Russia

  • Letter says ‘IOC must choose a side in this war’
  • Ukraine would boycott 2024 Olympics if Russia take part

Ukraine’s athletes have accused the International Olympic Committee of rewarding Vladimir Putin’s aggression and being “on the wrong side of history” in an escalating war of words over whether Russians should compete at the Paris 2024 Games. The IOC recently moved away from having an outright ban on athletes from Russia and Belarus and is investigating ways they can qualify for the Olympics under a neutral flag.

In a letter to Ukraine’s National Olympic Committee, sent last week, the IOC president, Thomas Bach, criticised Ukraine’s threat to boycott the Games, saying it would violate the Olympic charter. That stance has angered Ukraine’s athletes, who have hit back by suggesting the IOC is “kowtowing” to Russia.

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France under fire over fast-track plan for AI video surveillance at Paris Olympics

Ministers say exceptional security needed but rights groups warn new law could extend police powers permanently

The French government is fast-tracking special legislation for the 2024 Paris Olympics that would allow the use of video surveillance assisted by artificial intelligence (AI) systems.

Ministers have argued that certain exceptional security measures are needed to ensure the smooth running of the events that will attract 13 million spectators, but rights groups have warned France is seeking to use the Games as a pretext to extend police surveillance powers, which could then become permanent.

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Government has broken pledge to get UK fitter after 2012 Olympics, says report

Cross-party committee has also accused Sport England of not knowing the destination of millions of pounds in grants

It was supposed to “inspire a generation” and leave a legacy of a healthier, more active population. Yet the promises that the 2012 London Olympics would boost sporting participation have not been kept, according to a new parliamentary report.

A lasting legacy of participation was a key part of the government’s pitch for the £8.8bn Olympic and Paralympic Games, including pledges to increase the number of adults participating in sporting activities. However, the cross-party public accounts committee said the promised benefits had failed to occur, with the proportion of adults participating in sport at least once a week actually falling in the first three years after the Games.

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Tokyo Olympics bribery scandal threatens to derail Winter Games bid

Japanese official says corruption claims could damage Sapporo’s chances of hosting 2030 event

More than a year after the Tokyo Olympics were held in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, their legacy has been overshadowed by a bribery scandal that threatens to derail a bid by another Japanese city to host the Winter Games.

This summer, as officials in Sapporo, on Japan’s northernmost main island of Hokkaido, promoted their bid for the 2030 Games, police arrested Haruyuki Takahashi, a former Tokyo Olympics executive, on suspicion of taking bribes in return for helping companies become official sponsors for last year’s event.

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Olympic organisers for Paris 2024 ‘in a cold sweat’ as problems mount

Fears over financing, security and staffing threaten to take the shine off a showcase event and a national triumph for Emmanuel Macron’s presidency

Two years almost to the day before the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, organisers are reportedly “in a cold sweat” over security, financial, venue and staffing concerns that could take the shine off Emmanuel Macron’s promised “national triumph”.

The reformist French president, who holds a meeting with key ministers on Monday for a progress report, has personally invested in the success of the Games, having energetically backed the city’s successful bid to host them for the first time in a century as an opportunity to showcase the best of modern France.

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Sydney Olympics were bought ‘to a large extent’, said Australian official John Coates

  • Comments by leading IOC official made in 2008 interview
  • Payments were permitted under Olympic rules at the time

John Coates, the vice-president of the International Olympic Committee and outgoing president of the Australian National Olympic Committee, said “to a large extent” that Sydney was awarded the summer Olympic Games in 2000 because it “bought the Games”.

In extracts from a recently discovered hour-long interview in 2008, Coates revealed that he offered payments to two African National Olympic Committees who were represented on the IOC panel in exchange for their votes in 1993.

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