Alexis de la Fléchère / Photo credits: DIMITAR DILKOFF / AFP 11:44 a.m., March 6, 2024

The official poster for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, unveiled on Tuesday, is far from unanimous.

For good reason, in this large drawing composed of a giant arena where numerous Parisian monuments and sports venues intermingle, several symbolic elements are missing.

Just unveiled, the official poster for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games is under fire from criticism.

For what ?

Particularly because of the absence of the French flag and the disappearance of the cross at the top of the Invalides dome.

The work of Ugo Gattoni, exhibited under the nave of the Musée d'Orsay until Sunday, has attracted a lot of attention and appeals to some visitors.

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“If Christian history is part of the country’s history, why remove it?”

The poster for the Olympic Games sits on an XXL panel measuring five by four meters.

The disappearance of the cross at the top of the Invalides dome shocks Thomas, a 25-year-old student.

“If Christian history is part of the country's history, why remove it? It becomes voluntary, we remove things from buildings, I am really opposed to it,” he says.

The absence of this cross also questions Patrick, in his fifties.

“It’s not an oversight, it’s deliberate. They should have left it since it’s there. I don’t see who it could bother, there are churches all over France,” he wonders. he.

Same observation for Pierrette, a Lille resident passing through Paris.

“I am not shocked as a believer, but we put things in their reality, so in reality, there is the cross,” she slips.

The Olympics charter prohibits any political, religious or racial demonstration or propaganda.

A picture is worth a thousand words, here are the 2 official posters for our Games: an Olympic and a Paralympic.


Together, they form one big story, that of #Paris2024 ️ pic.twitter.com/7oxay5uSz2

— Paris 2024 (@Paris2024) March 4, 2024

“I wasn’t even paying attention.”

A cross that disappears and a French flag that is missing for Pauline: "The colors of France don't stand out, they could have put one but it's not something that bothered me, I hadn't even done be careful,” she admits.

Troubled, sometimes saddened visitors who understand that the subject is controversial.

The Japanese, Brazilian or British flag did not appear on old Olympic posters either.

Please note that according to Article 50 of the Olympic Charter, no kind of political, religious or racial demonstration or propaganda is permitted in an Olympic venue, site or other location.

The Japanese flag did not appear on the poster for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, any more than the Brazilian banner appeared on that of the Rio Olympics in 2016. Same thing for the London Olympics four years earlier.