Records fell on the track, in the pool and all across Paris during the Olympic Games. But history was made even before athletes entered the Olympic Village.

Here are the historic firsts from the Paris Olympics from both on and off the competition grounds:

Early on in its preparation for hosting the Summer Olympics, Paris decided that it would use existing or temporary structures for 95 percent of the sporting venues.

This choice was partly made due to the abundance of sports grounds in and around Paris, but it also served as one of the ways in which Paris planned for another ambitious goal: making the Summer Games more environmentally friendly.

According to the official Paris Olympic website, the goal for Paris was “to halve the carbon footprint of the Games compared with the average for London 2012 and Rio 2016” in order to reduce the carbon footprint of major sporting events. So in addition to using existing venues, Paris also planned to reduce carbon emissions by prioritizing renewable energy sources to power the venues and funding carbon capture and........

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