The Paris Olympics will provide a moment to celebrate modern Britain and bring the nation together, Gabby Logan has said.
Speaking before the opening of the 33rd summer Olympic Games in Paris on Friday, the presenter said the Games could be a time to appreciate the “steadier” nature of British politics, which had not had to face down the far right as France did in elections held weeks before the Olympics.
“The election has shown us that we’re not going in the same direction as a lot of countries in Europe at the moment. And I think for all of us [in the UK, it’s] a moment where we go: ‘OK, we’re perhaps taking this a bit steadier than some countries are.’”
Logan, who will lead the BBC’s presenting team in Paris with Clare Balding and Mark Chapman, added: “When the GB team walks into the stadium, it will reflect modern Britain and it will look like our towns and cities and I think that’s really important … In our team, we see a unifying of our country, so hopefully France will enjoy that moment of unity too.”
Asked if the Olympics could mark a period of more constructive discourse, Logan said: “I just feel like we’re coming into calmer waters and people can hopefully put big differences aside and work together.”
Logan said she was looking forward to going to Paris, which is hosting the event for the first time since 1924, adding that the backdrop to the events was likely to be “one of the stars”. She also praised organisers for attempting to produce the “greenest ever Games”, with half the carbon footprint of London 2012, comparing the decision to host most of the events in existing venues with Qatar’s decision to build seven new stadiums for the 2022 World Cup.
“The worst example of [building for the sake of it] was the Qatar World Cup, I just felt quite sick the whole time looking around at all these stadiums thinking ‘what are you going to do with all these stadiums?’,” she said.
Asked if the way stadiums were constructed – the Guardian revealed that more than 6,500 migrant workers had died in Qatar since it won the right to host the World Cup in 2011 – was also in her thoughts, she said: “There was a whole other backdrop there as well. But I think from an environmental point of view, we’re going have to think about sustainability and I think Paris is using a lot of it’s old buildings brilliantly.”
With the Games happening in a similar time zone to the UK for the first time since London 2012 and an estimated 500,000 tickets sold in the UK – the second largest behind France – Logan said the Olympics would “bring the summer” to people at home and in the host country.
“It will bring emotion. It will make us smile, it will make us cry,” she said. “It’ll make us laugh hopefully as well and inspire us so, yeah, bring it on.”
