"I really would be happy if the Frenchmen and French women were to speak French and express themselves in French for the 2024 Games," Drut said.

"The great great, great grandchildren of Pierre de Coubertin would be very happy about this, and would look forward to welcoming you all to the Stade de France in 2024."

Drut, a one time Minister of Youth and Sport in France, won 110m hurdles gold at the same 1976 Montreal Games where IOC President Thomas Bach won gold in the team foil fencing event.

Bach described Drut as a fellow member of the "famous or infamous 1976 club" but did not react to his comment about language.

It does seem certain to rekindle debate about the prominence of French in the Olympic Movement ahead of the Paris 2024 Games.

These will be the first summer Games to be held in a French speaking city since 1976 in Montreal when the Queen used both languages in her opening declaration.

French was established as the official language of the Olympic Movement when the IOC was founded in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin, a French nobleman.

Early Olympic publications were published exclusively in French.

Rule 23 of the Olympic Charter stipulates that: "The official languages of the IOC are French and English.

"In the case of divergence between the French and English texts of the Olympic Charter and any other IOC document, the French text shall prevail unless expressly provided otherwise in writing."

In 2010, Vancouver Organising Committee chief executive John Furlong was criticised for using only a dozen words in French in his entire address at the Opening Ceremony. At the Closing Ceremony he made his opening remarks in French and used the language much more throughout his speech.

This week, Drut had joined fellow IOC member Estanguet at a ceremony to honour women’s athletics pioneer Alice Milliat, one hundred years after she established a women’s sporting event in Monte Carlo, but Drut has been critical of the Parisian Organising Committee before.

In April last year as the effect of the pandemic was felt, he insisted: "The beautiful project that we built and carried in the bid phase for Paris 2024 is now obsolete, outdated, out of touch with reality," and called for changes.

Estanguet told the IOC today that: "We have worked to adapt our project to the new context of COVID-19. We have challenged every aspect.

"We did not simply adapt our project we made it stronger."