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Paris to open 55km of new cycling lanes for 2024 Olympics

Paris visitors will be able to cycle all the way from the city centre to 2024 Olympics sports sites on its outskirts next summer, local officials said on Tuesday.

Paris to open 55km of new cycling lanes for 2024 Olympics
Paris' network of cycle paths will be expanded for the Olympics. Photo by AFP

The French capital is to open up 55 kilometres of new bike paths to link venues in Paris to those in the northeastern suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis by July 2024, they said.

They include 30 kilometres of cycling routes inside the capital that have been completed or are about to be finished, said David Belliard of the city mayor’s office.

Another 30 kilometres of bike lanes already planned as part of the capital’s urban development would also be finished faster in time for the Games.

In Seine-Saint-Denis, another 25 kilometres of lanes would appear before the Olympics kick off, local official Stephane Troussel said, on top of 130 kilometres that already exist.

Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo said the bike paths – which the city has dubbed “Olympilanes” – would be a great legacy for the city.

City hall is also in overdrive to green Paris and ensure the River Seine is clean enough to swim in by next summer.

Camille Hanuise, a campaigner for more bicycles in Paris, welcomed the news.

“Just two years ago, the idea of cycling up to the Olympic sites was unthinkable,” she said.

Electric scooters and bikes are popular in Paris, with many zapping up and down existing bike lanes across the capital.

Belliard said all new cycling paths for the Olympics would be made durable afterwards.

To accommodate all visitors, some 10,000 bike racks would be placed outside key sport sites such as the Roland-Garros stadium on the southwestern edge of the capital and the Champ de Mars arena near the Eiffel Tower.

Another 3,000 lasting parking spots would be added near the Stade de France in Seine-Saint-Denis, regional authorities said.

The capital’s bike rental scheme Velib’, which has been around since 2007, would add at least 3,000 bikes to its fleet.

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PARIS 2024 OLYMPICS

Paris Olympics organisers deny athletes’ beds are ‘anti-sex’

They may be made of cardboard, but the beds at the athletes' village for this year's Paris Olympics have been chosen for their environmental credentials, not to prevent competitors having sex, organisers said.

Paris Olympics organisers deny athletes' beds are 'anti-sex'

The clarification came after fresh reports that the beds, manufactured by Japanese company Airweave and already used during the Tokyo 2020 Games, were to deter athletes from jumping under the covers together in the City of Love.

“We know the media has had a lot of fun with this story since Tokyo 2020, but for Paris 2024 the choice of these beds for the Olympic and Paralympic Village is primarily linked to a wider ambition to ensure minimal environmental impact and a second life for all equipment,” a spokesman for the Paris Games told AFP.

The bed bases are made from recycled cardboard, but during a demonstration in July last year Airweave founder Motokuni Takaoka jumped on one of them and stressed that they “can support several people on top”.

The Paris Games spokesman underlined that “the quality of the furniture has been rigorously tested to ensure it is robust, comfortable and appropriate for all the athletes who will use it, and who span a very broad range of body types – from gymnasts to judokas”.

The fully modular Airweave beds can be customised to accommodate long and large body sizes, with the mattresses — made out of resin fibre — available with different firmness levels.

After the Games, the bed frames will be recycled while the mattresses and pillows will be donated to schools or associations.

Athletes will sleep in single beds, two or three to a room, in the village, a newly built complex close to the main athletics stadium in a northern suburb of the capital.

A report this week in the New York Post tabloid entitled “‘Anti-sex’ beds have arrived at Paris Olympics” was reported by other media and widely circulated on social media.

Similar claims went viral before the Tokyo Olympics, sometimes fanned by athletes themselves.

To debunk them, Irish gymnast Rhys McClenaghan filmed a video of himself jumping repeatedly on a bed to demonstrate their solidity.

At those Games, during the coronavirus pandemic, organisers, however, urged athletes to “avoid unnecessary forms of physical contact”.

In March, Laurent Dalard, in charge of first aid and health services at Paris 2024, said around 200,000 condoms for men and 20,000 for women will be made available at the athletes’ village during the Games.

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