Discovery and France Télévisions will present complementary coverage of the Olympic Games in France, including for Beijing 2022 and Paris 2024.

Through creating an Olympic Games offering from France Télévisions and Eurosport, Discovery’s leading sports brand, viewers in France will enjoy the broadest possible access to the Games and availability of more coverage than ever before.

Under the partnership announced today, France Télévisions will sub-license (from Discovery) exclusive free-to-air audio-visual rights to the 2022 and 2024 Olympic Games.

As Home of the Olympics in Europe, Eurosport – Discovery’s leading sports brand – will offer fans every moment of the Olympics, featuring dedicated streams covering every sport, every event and every gold medal, available on all screens through to the Olympic Games Paris 2024.

The announcement confirms that France Télévisions will continue to be the free-to-air destination for extensive coverage of the best action from the Olympic Games until 2024, sharing every special national moment on TV.

JB Perrette, President and CEO, Discovery International, said: “Discovery is all about powering people’s passions and Olympic Games are the pinnacle of passion. Our ground-breaking agreement with the International Olympic Committee has already seen us deliver records at the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018. This new partnership provides the perfect opportunity to build on this achievement in France for Beijing 2022 and Paris 2024, as Home of the Olympics in Europe.

“Our Olympic Games partnership with France Télévisions is a big win for viewers as we can guarantee the access to free-to-air coverage that can inspire the nation, alongside Eurosport super-serving fans with every minute of the Games and unrivalled sports expertise across all screens. The Games also continue to exceed our expectations from a strategic and commercial perspective,” he added.

Delphine Ernotte-Cunci, President, France Télévisions, said: “This is an important moment for the public service broadcaster. France Télévisions will be able to offer the Olympics Games to all audiences and all the French people. I am happy that they will watch and be thrilled by the Olympics.”

Timo Lumme, Managing Director of IOC Television and Marketing Services, said: “This collaboration between our partners Discovery and France Télévisions brings together the strengths of an international media company and a leading national broadcaster and means Olympic fans in France will have innovative, comprehensive coverage across their media platform of choice. This is particularly exciting as we look towards the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024.”

Tony Estanguet, President of the Paris 2024 Organizing Committee, said: “When we think about the Games, it’s often magical television memories that come to our mind. Achievements, emotions, victories, sometimes failures. All these moments, we lived them with France Télévisions since the Moscow 1980 Olympic Games and we are glad that the history keeps being written with a public service broadcaster in 2024, as our country hosts the Games after having waited for 100 years.

“France Télévisions and Eurosport are committed stakeholders who share the passion of sports as we do. Together, we’ll make the Paris 2024 Olympic Games a unique opportunity to highlight the role of sport in our society, promote all disciplines and value the athletes,” he concluded.

Discovery, Eurosport and France Télévisions have committed to working closely with the Paris 2024 Organising Committee and its leadership to support the delivery and promotion of the Games, helping to engage the country and offer platforms to bring to life its #MadeForSharing vision.

The sub-licensing arrangements follows Discovery’s long-term partnership with the IOC announced in June 2015, which included exclusive multimedia rights for 50 countries and territories in Europe (excluding Russia) and began for Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018 and runs through to Olympic Games Paris 2024. The rights awarded to Discovery in France included 2022 and 2024, given 2018 and 2020 had already been secured by France Télévisions.

All of the 1,000 Paris Saint-Germain shirts with a large image of the Notre-Dame in place of the sponsor’s logo on the front sold out within half an hour and the profit has been given to emergency services, the club said yesterday.

AFP reports:

The jerseys were replicas of those which the French champions wore in their Ligue 1 victory over Monaco on Sunday.

“Notre-Dame” replaced the player names on the back of the shirts.

PSG tweeted that it sold: 500 on the internet, 250 in the megastore, 250 in the Champs-Elysees.

Each shirt cost €100 (US$122). The club would not say how much money had been given to the charities associated with the fire service in the French capital.

François-Henri Pinault, the owner of Ligue 1 club Stade Rennais FC, has pledged to donate €100 million to help rebuild the cathedral in Paris.

National Olympic Committees should take the lead in helping athletes win more freedom to promote their personal sponsors during Games, according to the head of the Global Athlete movement.

Rule 40 of the Olympic charter states that participants in the Olympic Games cannot allow their “person, name, picture or sports performances to be used for advertising purposes during the Olympic Games.”

Global Athlete launched in February as  a movement by athletes, for athletes aiming to collectively address the balance of power between athletes and sporting leaders, and enable athletes an opportunity for meaningful input into how sport is run.

Reuters reports:

The German Cartel Office ruled in February, however, that the IOC and German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) were subject to competition laws and must grant more rights for promotional activities ahead of and during the Games.

The ruling only applies in Germany and IOC President Thomas Bach was quoted as saying at the weekend that other athletes should talk directly to their National Olympic Committee (NOC) or federation.

“We welcome the fact that the IOC is now starting to raise this issue, which has long been on the minds of the overwhelming majority of Olympic athletes,” said Global Athlete Director General Rob Koehler (in photo).

“This is a first step to recognizing the growing mood among the athlete community to have their marketing and commercial rights liberated at an Olympic Games.”

Koehler told Reuters that he would have preferred the IOC to put the onus on NOCs rather than leaving it up to athletes who lacked the staff and time.

“I would have liked to see it flipped around a little bit saying ‘responsibility on the NOCs to see what we can do to help you athletes’,” he said.

The insidethegames.biz website quoted Bach on Sunday as telling the International Athletes’ Forum in Lausanne that there was no one-size-fits-all solution.

“What we are doing now is actively contacting NOCs and starting talks advising them of what we agreed after the DOSB negotiated this with the Cartel Office in Germany. We will find out what it means for them,” he said.

“My recommendation to you as athlete representatives is that you approach your NOCs or federations and enter into a binding agreement of what are the rights and responsibilities of an athlete.”

Rule 40 is aimed at protecting the rights of the IOC’s own Olympic sponsors who contribute billions of dollars to the organization of the Games.

Koehler, a former deputy director general of the Montreal-based World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), also replied to Bach telling athletes they did not need those “who pretend to speak on your behalf.”

“Based on what I’ve heard from the athletes, they really want people to stand up for them and to represent their rights,” he said.

Global Athlete is being funded by independent foundation FairSport along with individual donors who have no part in the decision making or operations of the movement.

The organization, set up after a Russian doping crisis and USA Gymnastics sexual abuse scandal, aims to empower Olympic athletes.

Two-time Olympian and World Championships 10,000 Metres Silver Medallist, Kara Goucher has spoken out on the recent surge of athletes speaking up for change in sport.

The American long-distance runner and three-time NCAA Champion was speaking to the leading members of the anti-doping community at this week’s Partnership for Clean Competition Conference at King’s College London.

Ben Nichols of Ben Nichols Communications, who attended the event, reports:

“What we are now witnessing for the first time [across many different countries and many different sports] is athletes really believe they have the power to create change by speaking up as a collective,” Goucher said.

“There is a shift in athletes really now coming together, and a prevailing feeling that we, the athlete community, have the opportunity to really take over and effect change for how anti-doping is run. It’s safety in numbers because when athletes [who may previously have been afraid to speak out] see others speak out, they feel that they should voice their opinions too. Ultimately, we want to meaningfully contribute and have our voice heard – until now, it hasn’t been.

Goucher also spoke firmly about the athlete community’s frustration at the recent leniency with anti-doping decisions taken by WADA. “We as athletes are rightly held accountable to rules and deadlines. We could never say to a tester when they arrive ‘Oh you’re here to test me, I’ll be back in half an hour, we just can’t do that as it’s a missed test.”

“And if they, the administrators [at WADA, the IOC] want our trust – and they need to understand that athletes want to be able to trust them – they have to play by the rules, too. When WADA takes a decision by drawing a line in the sand and then they shift the goal line, then we can’t trust them. It’s the poor message it sends.

“We are rightly held accountable to very strict rules as athletes, but when the powers that be do not, it makes us lose faith in the system. It’s about fairness.”

In LaLiga’s nine decades of existence, it’s been blessed with some of the best players in the world. Fans have witnessed footballing brilliance and above all else, passion, with extraordinary stories played out in stadiums across Spain.

There are emotion-packed, unforgettable matches and moments that will remain the memories of fans forever. Some of these will now be brought to the screen through a new 12-part series to celebrate the 90th anniversary of LaLiga.

The series was produced by The Mediapro Studio for LaLiga, with each of the 12 half-hour episodes to be released monthly. In each episode, illustrious figures who have participated in LaLiga will talk about their experiences and explain their contribution to the competition’s exciting 90-year history.

Players, clubs, coaches, referees, unforgettable matches, landmark goals, records and achievements that have made LaLiga the best league in the world will all be covered in this series.

The first episode, entitled “The Coach: Javier Irureta” (he is in the photo above), will be broadcast on free-to-air television by GOL, on LaLigaSportsTV, LaLigaTV and beIN LaLiga in Spain, and will also be shared with LaLiga’s international broadcasters.

Irureta is, after the deceased Luis Aragonés, the coach with the most First Division games under his belt. From 1984 to 2017 he managed CD Logroñés, Real Oviedo, Racing Santander, Athletic Club, Real Sociedad, RC Celta de Vigo, RC Deportivo, Real Betis and Real Zaragoza.

In upcoming episodes, LaLiga fans will be able to enjoy “The Goalkeeper: Abel Resino,” “The King of the Leagues: Paco Gento,” and “The One-Touch Wonder: Hugo Sanchez,” among others, with an overall message that, at 90 years of age, the competition is stronger than ever.