A century after the last Olympic Games in 1924, the sporting event with roots in ancient Greece, revived by the French Baron Coubertain, is returning to Paris for the third time in history.
For two weeks, billions of people from all five continents will follow the exploits of the world's best athletes against the backdrop of the city's major monuments.
It will be an occasion for Paris to assert its place as a city of culture and art, and for France to assert its place as host and global powerhouse.
A sporting event, yes, but also a commercial and geopolitical one.
Although universalism is one of the values of the Olympic movement, the 33 summer editions of the modern Olympic Games have never been held in Africa.
The first ones were concentrated mainly in Europe, then in the Americas and more recently in Asia.
Will it be in the next decade, the 2040s, that Africa finally hosts the Olympic flame?
Multi-million dollar investment
Organising the Olympic Games is not cheap. And calculating exactly how much it costs a city or a country is no easy task.
This is evidenced by the fact that it is not easy to find a concrete figure for the cost of organising past editions, as different figures are given for the same edition.
There is a logical explanation for this.
The organisation of the Olympic Games involves two major types of investment: on the one hand, those specifically earmarked for stadiums, sports centres, Olympic villages and competitions.
On the other hand, those earmarked for the urban transformation projects that usually accompany the organisation, such as new airports, metros, water treatment plants or improvements to parks and gardens, which every host city usually undertakes to take advantage of the opportunity.
What is clear is that it is an expensive project, costing billions of dollars and getting more expensive all the time.
Although figures vary depending on the source, the Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics cost $20 billion, the Tokyo Olympics $13 billion and the London Olympics $18 billion.
In addition to the high cost of organising the world's sporting event par excellence, there are often other problems such as cases of corruption surrounding this lucrative business or cost overruns.
In some recent cases, the final cost of the Games has been more than double the original budget.
An Olympic Games Africa 2040?
Given the rapid growth of African cities and the general lack of sports infrastructure, the money spent on building infrastructure for a hypothetical new Games in Africa could be seen as an investment rather than an expense.
Especially if the opportunity is used to provide other types of facilities such as efficient public transport, metro, airport and the regeneration of run-down neighbourhoods.
From an external image point of view, both from a political and branding point of view, and even from a more specific point of view of attracting tourism and investment, the potential of the Games could also be seen as a long-term investment for some African cities, which are generally not very well known to tourists and investors outside the continent.
South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria the countries with the most potential, but not the only ones.
The fact that no African city has hosted the Olympic Games in modern times does not mean that there have not been attempts in the past.
Alexandria in Egypt was a candidate in 1916 and 1936, more recently Cape Town was an official candidate for the 2004 Games and Cairo tried again in 2008.
These two cities and two countries, Egypt and South Africa, are two of the most likely venues to host an Olympic Games in Africa in the not too distant future.
Six Moroccan cities will host the 2030 World Cup, co-hosted with Spain and Portugal, in a bid to demonstrate the country's ability to organise a world-class sporting event.
At the start of the last decade, the Casablanca City Council expressed interest in hosting the 2024 Olympic Games, but the proposal did not go ahead.
Casablanca's economic, rail and hotel development, as well as its increased international role in recent times, will undoubtedly boost Morocco's chances of a successful bid.
Former Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga also announced at the time that Nairobi would bid for the 2024 Games, although little progress was made.
Can this be a project that unites the country and transforms the vibrant East African capital?
Egypt, the political and economic centre of its region for millennia, is one of the most populous countries and one of the largest economies (in terms of GDP) on the continent.
African, Arab and Mediterranean, it is a bridge between sub-Saharan Africa, the Persian Gulf and Europe.
And it is building its New Administrative Capital near Cairo, partly with foreign funding.
Regional political instability and internal situations may not help.
But wisely spent, Olympic money invested in Cairo and its new neighbour could kick-start the urban, environmental and social regeneration needed in one of the continent's oldest and most populous cities.
It would be a major challenge with a potentially very high return. It would also be a window for tourism investment and modernisation.
The key here is what image does Egypt and Cairo want to project to the world?
At the other end of the world, South Africa, the country that overcame apartheid, and Cape Town, considered one of the most beautiful cities in the world, has already tried to become an Olympic city.
The first African country to host a Football World Cup, and to do so successfully despite initial doubts from the international community, it has been one of the continent's most important economies since the 20th century, even if it is not experiencing its best times.
And its major cities, including Cape Town, need a boost and a transformation that could well come from an event like the one that brings together athletes from five continents.
The country has the money to organise it, and has demonstrated its ability to unite and come up with exciting projects that unite its diverse population.
Nigeria, the country that has become the demographic and economic giant of the continent in the last fifty years, is gradually, and not without problems, moving towards stability and international projection.
Given its numbers, it could be a candidate in the future.
Although the current situation (economy, security) makes this seem like a dream, the Koreans must have thought the same when they started talking about 'Seoul 88'
From 1970 until the sporting event in the Korean capital, the country underwent one of the greatest transformations of the 20th century.
Few cities managed to win over the IOC at the first attempt, but even those that did were able to make progress and share a common project to inspire their people.
Madrid's current Metropolitano stadium, which is home to the Spanish football club Atlético Futbol Club de La Lega, has its origins in the Spanish capital's unsuccessful attempts to host the Olympic Games.
Morocco, Kenya and others
After Los Angeles (USA) in 2028 and Brisbane (Australia) in 2032, strong contenders have already been confirmed for the 2036 Olympics, such as Istanbul, which would be making its seventh attempt, or Nasantara, the new Indonesian capital under construction, which would be appearing on the world map for the first time.
India, without a confirmed city, has already announced its intention to host this year's edition, and Santiago de Chile in South America is also on the list.
Qatar and Saudi Arabia are other names that always sound like Olympic hopefuls.
With such strong contenders already confirmed, it is likely that we will have to wait until the 2040s to see an Olympic cauldron lit in an African city.
By that decade, the continent will have more than 2050 million souls, up from 850 million in 2000, the youngest population on the planet, and the size of the economy will have more than doubled, various reports, although future projections are always uncertain.
Other factors in favour of an African Games include the IOC's need to reach out to a continent that is increasingly important in the international community but has never hosted the Games.
Also paving the way are recent changes to the rules for selecting cities, which now rely more on an ongoing dialogue between the Olympic body and local cities, countries and private companies interested in the Olympic goal.
