Rugby Sevens, football kick off Paris 2024 Olympics

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00:00The opening ceremony of the Olympics is coming up here in Paris this Friday.

00:04It's still two days away, but some of the sporting events are already getting underway.

00:08Those very first ones include both football and rugby sevens group games.

00:13Now, in the men's sevens, France will play the US this afternoon at the Stade de France Stadium

00:18just outside Paris. That's where our Antonia Kerrigan is now. She joins me from there.

00:23Antonia, tell us a bit more about what's happening there today.

00:26Well, so, as you say, there are a number of rugby sevens matches scheduled today

00:30at the stadium behind me. There will be 12 today.

00:33Rugby sevens, of course, is a version of rugby union, but it's different.

00:36It's played in short seven-minute halves, so they're really cramming them in today.

00:40France will play the USA and then later on today, Uruguay.

00:44And those we've spoken to have mostly been here from France,

00:47as you can imagine, a strong blue presence in the stadium behind me.

00:52And with the global superstar, Antoine Dupont, global rugby union superstar,

00:57gracing the rugby sevens team, he's recently turned his hand to the sport

01:01and already somewhat proven himself from what everyone we've spoken to is saying.

01:05There's a huge amount of confidence in the idea of a French victory today.

01:09It is also one of the sports in which analysts do slate France,

01:14the French men's team and, in fact, the women's team, who will be playing in a few days.

01:19For the gold, the rugby sevens will be settled on Sunday with the medals distributed.

01:26And certainly this early on, a victory for France would, of course, massively help to set the tone

01:33and be part of a show of strength for the host nation going into these weeks of

01:38enormous, epic sporting challenges.

01:40Right, because France, of course, being the host country, but also just because it's France,

01:44is hoping to do as well as it can in as many sports as it can in these games.

01:49How are France's chances looking so far?

01:54Well, I mean, the estimates we've seen are fairly earth shattering.

01:59We've seen estimates saying 60 medals, 27 of which might be gold expected for France.

02:05Now, that would put them third place behind the US and China.

02:09Now, that would put them third place behind the US and China.

02:14And for a point of comparison, Tokyo was 33 medals total, only 10 of which were gold.

02:21So this will be an enormous improvement.

02:23Now, a part of that is, of course, the home advantage.

02:26Everyone I've spoken to today, and of course, I have been trying to do my job

02:29and speak to people from all kinds of countries,

02:31but I've spoken to a lot of French supporters today.

02:34There are huge presence here.

02:35That, of course, matters.

02:36It, of course, plays a part.

02:38But there's also a matter of investment.

02:40The whole point of these games has been to create a national legacy

02:43in French high-performance sport.

02:45And the budget for supporting high-performance athletes

02:49as part of the Gagner en France programme has gone up 68% since 2016.

02:54So France has really pulled out all the stops to capitalise on this home advantage.

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