The Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Bid Committee has today shown its commitment to gender diversity by supporting the United Nation’s HeForShe movement at the iconic Paris Marathon, an event that offers a glimpse into Paris 2024’s vision for the most spectacular Games ever.
The HeForShe movement works to promote gender equality and accelerate the fight against gender discrimination. At the Paris Marathon Elizabeth Nyamayaro, head of HeForShe, met with Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo to discuss the work being done within Parisian sport to help gender equality and how it plays a central role to the bid’s legacy plans.
Central to these legacy plans is the Playdagogie initiative, an innovative programme developed alongside the French Olympic Committee (CNOSF), UNICEF and PLAY International that promotes Olympic values of inclusion and equality in children, aimed at deconstructing prejudices before they can begin.
Additionally, the bid has worked with the Higher Audio Visual Council to pledge increased broadcast coverage of women’s sport in the years and months leading up to the Games, while bid Official Partner AccorHotels already exists as a HeForShe corporate ambassador, selected for its commitment to pay equality and representation of women in management.
The marathon, where Paris 2024 showed its support for the HeForShe campaign, offered a glimpse into the bid’s vision for its Games, where iconic, city-centre backdrops will provide a spectacular setting for competitive sport in a city made for sharing. Around 57,000 runners from around the world took to the streets of Paris, celebrating sport and the city for the second most popular Marathon of the world.
Paris 2024 Bid co-Chair and three-time Olympic Champion, Tony Estanguet, said:
"I am convinced that men and women must have the same opportunities in sport. As Vice-President of the International Canoe and Kayak Federation, I have worked hard to ensure that there are just as many female as there are male events at Tokyo 2020.
"I commit myself to making gender parity in sport a reality. If Paris hosts the Games in 2024, we will work with the International Olympic Committee to achieve the ambitions of the Agenda 2020 and to promote diversity in sport. The Olympic values of friendship, inclusion, and acceptance are at the heart of everything we do."
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, added:
"I am happy to pledge my support for this brilliant initiative that will help to encourage the next generation of women in our city to fight inequality and challenge themselves to do more than ever before.
"The Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games can be a real vehicle for change in society, a tool to empower people. Social change is at the heart of our legacy plan, and together we can change our country, our city, for the better."
For more information, please contact:
Raphaël Leclerc
Paris 2024 Bid Committee
Email: rleclerc@paris2024.org
Phone: +336 73 16 88 06
Sujit Jasani
VERO Communications
Email: sjasani@verocom.co.uk
Phone: +44 (0)207 812 6589 / +44 (0)7940 375 282
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