Paris adorns Eiffel Tower with Olympic rings

FROM LEFT: Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo, French President of the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics Organising Committee Tony Estanguet and France’s Minister for Sports and Olympics Amelie Oudea-Castera pose in front of the Eiffel Tower after the installation of the Olympic rings on the tower for the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympic Games. (Joel Saget/AFP)

• The countdown to the Paris 2024 Olympics passed the 50-day mark.
• The Eiffel Tower was adorned with the Olympic rings on Friday morning.
• The rings, which are each nine metres in diameter, will be illuminated every night. 

As the countdown to the Olympics passed the 50-day mark, Paris hoisted its rings on the Eiffel Tower overnight and showed them off on Friday.

Workers assembled the prefabricated steel rings and after dark on Thursday lifted the logo, weighing 30 tonnes, and 29 metres long, into place between two legs of the tower just above its first level.

Pierre Engel, an engineer at ArcelorMittal, the steel company that manufactured the rings from recycled material, said tests and studies had been carried out for many months to ensure the success of the operation.

The rings, each nine metres in diameter, will be illuminated every night.

“It will be one of the images of the Games,” predicted Thierry Reboul, Director of Events and Ceremonies at the Paris Organising Committee for the Olympic Games.

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Only two other buildings in Paris have the five rings attached to their facades.

Earlier in the week, the rings were also hoisted at the Paris La Defense Arena, in suburban Nanterre, where the Olympic and Paralympic swimming events will be held.

On the other side of Paris, the Georges-Vallerey pool, a training venue for these Games, has long displayed the rings because it hosted the swimming at the 1924 Games.