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International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach on Monday in Paris promised a “spectacular” Olympic Games in the coming weeks.
Bach said the sports event was a symbol of hope for people around the world.
“For billions, the Olympic Games are the only event that still brings the whole world together in peaceful competition,” Bach said at the opening of the IOC General Assembly in the private museum of the Louis Vuitton Foundation.
Bach somehow referred to the difficult times in which the Paris Games are taking place.
“Whenever you talk to people, everyone is fed up. People are fed up with all the hatred, aggression, killing, war and confrontation,” the IOC President said.
Olympic values such as solidarity, equality and human dignity for all are therefore more important than ever, Bach underscored.
The Summer Games in Paris open on Friday, and athletes from 206 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) will be competing, as well as another IOC refugee team.
Bach added that it was going to be a spectacular Olympic Games, saying the future of the Olympic Movement was secured.
With the help of sponsors and media partners, the IOC can already count on revenue totalling 7.3 billion dollars for the period from 2025 to the next Summer Games in Los Angeles in 2028.
A further 6.2 billion dollars can be expected for the following four years.
Earlier on Monday, a cross-section of Olympic athletes made a call for peace at the inauguration of the Olympic Truce mural for the Paris Games.
The athletes from all of the NOCs and the IOC refugee team wore scarfs and held flags with the slogan “Give peace a chance” at the event in the Olympic village.
“The athletes were the peace ambassadors of our time,” Bach later told the international gathering.
“You, the Olympic athletes, will show us how our world would be, if we all lived in the same Olympic spirit of peaceful co-existence,” he said.
“You will compete fiercely against each other. At the same time, you are living peacefully together under one roof, here in the Olympic Village.
“You are respecting the same rules and most importantly you are respecting each other. In this way, you are sending a resounding message of peace from Paris to the world.”
The IOC president wished that their united call should “inspire all the political leaders of the world to take action for peace.”
The Olympic Truce mural has been present in athletes’ villages since the 2006 Winter Games in Turin and has been signed by thousands of athletes.
The Olympic Truce was originally in place for the Games in ancient Greece to allow safe passage for athletes and spectators.
It was re-established in the 1990s, with a first United Nations-endorsed Olympic Truce in 1993 under the name “Building a peaceful and better world through sports and the Olympic ideal.”
The truce for the Paris Games and Paralympics was adopted last November.
