As Paris begins its final warm-up ahead of the 2024 Summer Games kicking off on Friday, two new books will help set the pace.
Assouline is offering a dive into moments of sporting excellence from past Olympic and Paralympic Games while Louis Vuitton‘s latest city guide provides some of the best addresses to be a champion at navigating the French capital.
“City Guide Paris 2024, Sport Collector’s Boxed Set”
Rediscover the host city of this year’s Olympic Games with a sporty mindset thanks to this boxed set offering the 2024 edition of the Louis Vuitton City Guide and a special-edition “Paris Sport.”
For the occasion, the guide tapped French fencer and Olympic hopeful Enzo Lefort as a guest, giving his read on a city he discovered at age 16 when he came from his native Guadeloupe to join an elite training and education program for rising sporting stars.
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Along with its usual curated listings of places to explore, its Sport companion profiles each neighborhood to uncover its athletic culture and favorite disciplines, introduces local figures and even highlights gear preference.
In addition to practical information, this second volume is also packed with anecdotes, Olympic lingo and facts such as the reason why Japanese runner Shizō Kanakuri scored the record for the world’s slowest marathon, still standing at just over 54 years and eight months; the number of tennis balls used during the French Tennis Open Roland-Garros; the names of all the mascots of the Olympic Games, and the place where most sporting trophies handed out in France are crafted.
Available in French and English, the box set is available from Louis Vuitton boutiques as well as Paris department stores Le Bon Marché and La Samaritaine, also owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton. A digital version of the guide and special sports edition can be accessed for free via the Apple App Store.
368 pages, 55 euros
Published by Louis Vuitton
“The Last Heroes: 100 Moments of Olympics Legend”
Before a new generation of Olympians and Paralympians emerge from the Paris Games this summer, “The Last Heroes: 100 Moments of Olympics Legend” looks at the names and events that have marked the modern era of the multisport competition, from the first edition in Athens in 1896 to the 2020 Tokyo Games, postponed to 2021 due to the pandemic.
Written by Olivier Margot, who was editor in chief of French sports newspaper L’Équipe for 25 years, and Étienne Bonamy, a veteran journalist, the volume alights on snapshots that include the first opening ceremony in 1908 for the London Games; the moment American track and field star Jesse Owens made history by being the first to win four medals in a single Games in 1936 in Berlin — upsetting the Nazi regime; the 1968 raised fists protest of Tommie Smith and John Carlos; Rio de Janeiro’s welcome of the Refugee Olympic Team in 2016, and many more.
A throughline of the 204-page tome is the idea that the Olympic Games are as much about performance as they are a mirror of current events.
An Ultimate Collection special edition is also available, priced at $2,750. Each copy of this limited run of 100 comes in a clamshell case with a metal plaque representing the first medal of the modern Olympic Games.
204 pages, $120
Published by Assouline
