It's official: the Olympic rings will stay on the Eiffel Tower. They will keep their place until 2028 and maybe later, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo announced.
The Eiffel Tower will keep the Olympic spirit. The Olympic rings, installed on France's most famous monument, will remain hanging until the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, and “maybe” beyond, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has announced.
“The proposal we made is that until 2028, that is until the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, we leave the rings from the Eiffel Tower and the Agitos (Paralympic symbol, NDLR) on the Champs-Élysées,” he declared. Anne Hidalgo during a press conference. “And if we still can't do without these major symbols that will remind us that the Games were not just a bracket, maybe after 2028 they will stay, maybe not, we'll see.”
Anne Hidalgo had already announced that the rings would “remain on the Eiffel Tower” after the Paralympic Games, with the agreement of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), but without specifying how long.
The IOC is conducting a feasibility study to replace the current rings with new, equally large but lighter rings so as not to damage the structure.
The five rings representing the five continents have been enthroned since June on the emblematic monument of the French capital, on the banks of the Seine.