Macron promotes Paris 2024 Olympic bid playing tennis
Posted June 24, 2017 7:00 am
PARIS (AP) - French President Emmanuel Macron exchanged hits with tennis players on an outdoor court set up on a Paris bridge to promote the capital's bid for the 2024 Olympics.
Macron visited tennis players practicing on the Alexandre III bridge on Saturday and, at one point, grabbed a racket to play a few points in a suit. Then he took off his jacket and sat on a wheelchair to play para-tennis.
He also went to a floating boxing ring set up on the Seine River. In shirt sleeves, he put on blue gloves and exchanged friendly punches with a young boxer.
Paris is competing against Los Angeles to host the games, and bid organizers have turned some of the city's famous landmarks over to sports during a two-day Olympic festival.
French President Emmanuel Macron returns the ball while sitting in a wheelchair as he plays tennis on the Pont Alexandre III in Paris, Saturday June 24, 2017. The French capital is transformed into a giant Olympic park to celebrate International Olympic Day with a variety of sporting events for the public across the city during two days as the city bids to host the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. (Jean Paul Pelissier, Pool Photo via AP)
The Associated Press
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