After years of preparation, and as more than 10,000 athletes are getting ready for their shot at one of the 329 gold medals that will be up for grabs in 19 days of competition, the first two events of the Paris Games kicked off.
Spain’s men’s team faced Uzbekistan at a less than full Parc des Princes in Paris while Argentina, who won the title in 2004 and 2008, were booed by spectators as they played Morocco in the eastern city of Saint-Etienne.
A video posted by Argentina international Enzo Fernandez after his team won the Copa America earlier this month featured a song sung by some members of the Argentina squad about France’s players of African descent.
The French Football Federation (FFF) said the video was ” racist and discriminatory “.
At halftime, Morocco were leading 1-0.
Meanwhile, the start of the Games was marred by a scandal over video footage that led to Britain’s joint-most decorated female Olympian Charlotte Dujardin pulling out of the Paris Games.
The video shows Dujardin whipping a horse’s legs multiple times.
“What is shown in this video is first of all completely unacceptable at any point, any time in a horse’s training,” International Equestrian Federation (FEI) Veterinarian Director Goran Akerstrom told Reuters.
Paris 2024 is meant to be the first post-pandemic summer Olympics, after the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, postponed by a year due to COVID, were held largely without spectators.
But three more Australian women’s water polo players have tested positive for COVID, the country’s Olympic team chief Anna Meares said on Wednesday, taking the total number of confirmed cases to five.
Author: Mujuni Henry
JUNIITV
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