Team GB cyclist Neah Evans has explained why she intends to snub the opening ceremony for the Paris Olympics.
Millions worldwide will turn their attention to Paris on Friday night as a somewhat different opening ceremony marks the start of the 2024 Games.
Generally held in huge stadiums, the upcoming opening ceremony will instead take place on Paris’ famous River Seine.
Instead of being paraded on an athletics track in the middle of a stadium, the Olympians will travel along a 6km route on nearly 100 boats, sailing past Notre Dame and the Louvre before finishing by the Eiffel Tower.
After the Olympic cauldron is lit, French president Emmanuel Macron will declare the Paris Games officially open.
Featuring in the opening ceremony is generally a source of great pride and excitement for athletes, who get the chance to represent their country and walk alongside fellow Olympians all dreaming of taking home coveted medals.
But Team GB star Evans has no plans to attend and says her decision is ultimately for ‘performance reasons’.
‘This will be my fourth major championships and I haven’t yet been to a single opening ceremony,’ Evans, 29, told BBC’s Sportshour.
‘So far I’ve always come away with a good result. So for me it’s a no brainer.
‘Some people, they get to the Olympics and that’s their target. They’ve got to the Olympics and they can just relax, enjoy it and they just get involved with all the stuff around it.
‘Whereas I guess I’ve been very privileged and always been a situation where I can challenge for medals so it’s very performance-based.
‘And that then means you go, “no” [to the opening ceremony]. Because, obviously there’s a lot of standing about and a lot of waiting. Sorry to burst the bubble.
‘You’re standing for like hours and hours and hours to get in the right place so they can parade you in at exactly the right moment and that’s not good for performance, basically.’
Asked what she plans to do on Friday night instead, Evans added: ‘I think we’re going to do something on the evening, we’ll probably go for dinner in the [opening ceremony] kit as like a nod to it, if you like.’
Scottish cyclist Evans has won Olympic and Commonwealth Games medals in track endurance events. She became a world champion for the first time in 2022.
The Paris medal hopeful won a silver in the team pursuit at the Tokyo Games in 2020 and has over 30 podium finishes across her career.
When is the Paris Olympics opening ceremony?
The opening ceremony for the Paris 2024 Olympics will start at 7.30pm local time (6.30pm UK time) on Friday 26 July.
‘We are ready and we will be ready throughout the Games,’ president Macron said during a visit of the athletes’ village this week.
‘We have been working on these Games for years now and we are at the start of a decisive week which on Friday will see the opening ceremony and then the Olympiad which will be held in Paris, 100 years since the last one.’
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