Hashtag Hopes for French Olympic Bid

(ATR) Just days after doubts about a new bid from France for the Olympics, the French Olympic committee steps forward to keep the ambition alive.

The push includes a Twitter hashtag #ambitionolympique, revealed Friday as part of a social media campaign to show public support for a French bid.

The hashtag debut came with word that the team researching a new bid from France will step forward to talk about the work they have undertaken. November 4 is the date of the briefing at the headquarters of the CNOSF in Paris.

Appearing will be Bernard Lapasset, president of the French Committee on International Sport, the organization created to explore the feasibility of the next Olympic bid. He’ll be joined by CNOSF President Denis Masseglia and Patrick Kanner, the minister of youth and sport for the city of Paris.

The briefing on the Olympic bid research and the social media hashtag come days after French Prime Minister Manuel Valls declared public support for a bid from Paris for the world Expo of 2025. The declaration, which did not mention French Olympic ambitions, was reported as a blow or outright rejection of a new bid for the Games.

Since then Lapasset and other French sport leaders have been quick to point out that the government still supports the work being done to determine the feasibility of a bid and has not rejected going for the Olympics again.After a string of defeats for summer and winter Olympics, the CNOSF formed the committee, headed by Lapasset, to determine the reasons for those losses and what France would need to do to succeed.

The findings of the committee are not due until early next year.

Announcement of the November 4 briefing was received late on Friday and French Olympic officials were not available for immediate comment on what to expect at the event.

The looming question for France is whether to launch a campaign for 2024, a race which begins in mid-2015 with the IOC vote scheduled in 2017. So far bids are possible from Hamburg or Berlin, Rome, a US city and possibly one from the Middle East.

Prospective bidders all say they are waiting to firm up their plans based on what happens at the extraordinary IOC session scheduled in December in Monaco. The meeting is been called to review changes to the IOC organization as well as the Olympics under an initiative launched by IOC Pres. Thomas Bach, known as Olympic Agenda 2020. Changes to both the bidding process and the way the Olympic Games are organized are expected to influence the decision facing cities on whether to bid.

Reported by Ed Hula.

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