Princess Anne arrives in Paris ahead of 2024 Olympics after Zara Tindall heartbreak
The princess is President of the British Olympic Association
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Princess Anne has arrived in Paris ahead of the start of the 2024 Olympic Games.
The Princess Royal, a former Olympian herself, is in the French capital for the 142nd International Olympic Committee (IOC) session, which is convening to select the 2030 and 2034 Winter Olympics.
Having left Heathrow Airport yesterday evening, Anne was greeted by the British Ambassador to France, Dame Menna Rawlings, at Paris's Charles De Gaulle Airport.
The princess is President of the British Olympic Association, as well as a Member of the IOC - and she has competed in previous games, becoming the first royal to do so in 1976.
Anne became the first royal to compete in an Olympic Games in 1976
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Anne rode the Queen's horse, Goodwill, in the equestrian three-day event at the Montreal Games - and while she missed out on an Olympic medal, she was able to present silver to her daughter Zara at London 2012.
Zara Tindall, then Phillips, competed in the 2012 Games on her horse, High Kingdom, coming second in the Team Eventing.
Though heartbreakingly, Zara will not be making an appearance at this summer's event - set to kick off in just three days' time - having not been selected for Rio 2016 and not entering at Tokyo 2020.
She had told Vogue in 2022 that she had returned to training in an attempt to make a stunning return to Team GB, all the while trying to balance her equestrian career with her role as a mother-of-three.
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Just three days remain until the Paris games are underway
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She said: "When you finish around here you definitely know if you've got a good horse, a good combination.
"So it is one of the best events in the world where you can really find out where you're at in your training and the horse's future."
Anne's appearance in Paris for the IOC summit comes as she returns to public duties following her horror run-in with a horse at her Gatcombe Park estate exactly one month ago.
She was rushed to Southmead Hospital in Bristol on June 23, staying for five nights after being injured while out walking on her sprawling estate in Gloucestershire.
Zara Tindall won a silver medal at the 2012 Olympics
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At the time, the Princess Royal's medical team said her head injuries were consistent with a potential impact from a horse’s head or legs but her concussion meant precise details of how the incident came about are not clear.
Both Zara and her brother, Peter Phillips, were on the estate when Anne was injured, though it is not known who raised the alarm.
And during her stay in hospital, it emerged that Anne would only listen to three family members in a sensational reveal by a medical worker who treated her Aberdeen Royal Infirmary when she sustained a chest infection in 2016.
"The best advice is to keep her husband, Sir Tim Laurence, or one of the children [Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall] on hand... They're the only people who can tell her to behave," the staff member told the Daily Mail.