The 34-year-old won an Olympic bronze medal at London 2012 before stepping away from judo competition in 2015, a year before Rio 2016.

At the time he was 26 and said he no longer felt "capable of providing all these efforts daily", as reported by Le Monde.

"When I stopped judo, I was in a state of disgust.

"I no longer had any desire to train, nor to fight."

Legrand claimed he now has the desire to return in front of an adoring home crowd in the French capital, eager to "write history".

Although he has not competed on the professional stage since retirement, Legrand coaches the sport, sells judo equipment and works on a freelance basis for the L'Esprit du Judo magazine.

In addition to his Olympic and continental success, Legrand is a two-time World Championships medallist having sealed silver at Rio de Janeiro in 2013 and bronze at Paris in 2011.

At Paris 2024, he aims to compete in the under-73-kilograms discipline which he fought in for his entire professional career.

He has the likes of Benjamin Axus and Joan-Benjamin Gaba to go up against to be French number one in the weight class.

The number one will then secure the qualification spot for the Games.

Legrand is under no illusions, though, and understands the difficulty of his return to elite competition.

"You must not forget that I have been almost sedentary for eight years," he said.

"My body needs to get used to heavy training loads again."

Judo is set to take place at the Grand Palais Éphémère from July 27 to August 3, with the men's under-73kg tournament set for July 29.

The anticipation of a first Summer Olympic Games in France for 100 years has also prompted 2013 triple jump world champion Teddy Tamgho to announce his return.

The French 33-year-old has been retired for four years and currently coaches Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist Hugues Fabrice Zango of Burkina Faso, who is also targeting Paris 2024.

Tamgho, who also won the world indoor title in 2010, has never competed at the Olympics, having missed London 2012 due to a right ankle operation.

He also served a ban imposed by the French Athletics Federation for assaulting a female amateur athlete in 2011. 

Tamgho was suspended from March 18 in 2014 to March 17 in 2015 for anti-doping whereabouts failures between December 2012 and March 2014.

Last November he received a further one-year retroactive ban for competing during his year’s ban.