President Barzani will attend the ceremony following a formal invitation from French President Emmanuel Macron and is scheduled to be at the Elysee Palace at 3:30 pm local time.
The grand opening ceremony is set to commence at 7:30 pm local time, though official competitions began on Wednesday with events including football and rugby.
On Wednesday, the Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid arrived in Paris to attend the opening ceremony.
A total of 22 athletes will represent Iraq in the Paris Olympics, with the men’s football team accounting for 18 of them. Iraq will also compete in judo, swimming, weightlifting, and athletics, with one athlete representing the country in each sport.
On Monday, Shilan Shamal, a Kurdish woman from Diyala province, became the first Kurdish athlete to carry the Olympic torch.
The 2024 Games mark Iraq’s sixteenth appearance since its debut in 1948. The country’s best achievement in the competition came in the 1960 Rome Olympics when Abdul Wahid Aziz won the bronze medal in weightlifting.
The Iraqi Olympic football team triumphed over Ukraine in the men’s football tournament on Wednesday. Two Kurdish players, Bilind Azad and Yousif Amin, were among the players who were called up to be a part of the team.
Despite ongoing political instability and disunity, the Iraqi population’s special connection to sports, especially football, has managed to unify the people at times of major regional and international tournaments, coming to the support of the national team regardless of their humble results.
