Paris Olympics 2024: Indian athletes reach Olympic Games Village; Indian athletes have fan moments with Rafael Nadal
With just three days to go for the 2024 Paris Olympics, Indian athletes have started checking-in at the Olympic Games Village in Paris.
Around 50 Indian athletes have made their way to the Games Village, including badminton stars PV Sindhu, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, Chirag Shetty, the archery team, the table tennis team and the Indian men’s hockey team, among others.
Ten shooters of the 21 Indian shooting contingent have also reached their base in Chateauroux, around 270 km away from Paris. The shooting discipline will be held at the National Shooting Centre in Chateauroux starting July 27.
The 21-member strong shooting team is the largest Indian contingent at the Paris Olympics 2024 followed by the Indian men’s hockey team with 19 members.
The 2024 Paris Olympics Games Village is located in Saint-Denis, which is close to eight km north of Paris. Saint-Denis is popular for the Stade de France – the home ground of the French football team.
The Olympic Games Village has five residential areas named Abbesses, Bastille, Dauphine, Etoile and Fetes. The names are popular areas in Paris.
Electric cars will transport the athletes from one place to another in the Games Village and to the competition venues.
The Indian athletes were well received by the Indian Olympic Association officers, liaison officers and the Chef-de-Mission Gagan Narang.
Meanwhile, India’s top badminton player Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and table tennis player Ayhika Mukherjee had their fan moments when they bumped into Spain and world tennis’ legend Rafael Nadal at the Games Village.
The duo met Nadal and shared their photos on social media. Ayhika said she was honoured to meet Nadal. “An absolute legend on and off the field. Honoured to meet Rafael Nadal at the Athletes’ Village. Always in awe of the Olympic Games that continues to bring the world together,” she posted with a heart emoticon.
Satwiksairaj posted a photo with Nadal and captioned it, “With the beast.”
The Indian contingent for the Paris Olympics comprises 117 athletes and 140-member support staff. Indian athletes will take part in 16 sports and in 69 events and have a chance to win 95 medals in total, if they triumph in every event they participate.
India’s best ever performance came at the Tokyo Olympics 2020 when the nation’s athletes won a total of seven medals, including the historic gold medal from Neeraj Chopra.