(ATR) A new public opinion poll finds strong French support for a 2024 Olympic bid.
A total of 67.2 percent of respondents said they are very or somewhat in favor of France organizing the 2024 Games, in an online survey of 1,000 people conducted by Sportlab in late September and early October.
Sportlab’s results showed that 64 percent of these respondents said they wanted the Olympics to be held in Paris.
There was plenty of support for the Games among younger respondents as well.
A total of 84.4 percent of 15- to 24-year-olds were in favor of the Olympic project, according to Sportlab’s results first reported on the French website FrancsJeux.com. Parisians prove even more enthusiastic than the rest of the French, with 68.2 percent backing a 2024 Olympic bid.
Last month, IOC president Thomas Bach made encouraging remarks about an Olympic bid from Paris. He met with French President Francois Hollande and told France 3 television that the country "would be a very, very strong candidate".
Since France’s disastrous Annecy bid for the 2018 Winter Games which drew just seven IOC votes – and the failed 2012 bid by Paris – the French government and the nation’s sports authorities have gone through a period of soul-searching to examine how to deliver a credible Olympic bid.
An in-depth consultation phase involving the government, sports federations and the National Olympic Committee is well underway.
French sports minister Valerie Fourneyron is seriously exploring the feasibility of a bid for the 2024 or 2028 Games after sounding out French IOC members Jean-Claude Killy, Guy Drut and Tony Estanguet as well as French National Olympic Committee chief Denis Masseglia and French Committee for International Sport (CFSI) Bernard Lapasset, chairman of the International Rugby Board.
The consultation period with stakeholders in a possible Paris bid is expected to be completed in the first half of next year. Among the key issues is how a 2024 concept would be organized and financed.
Written by Mark Bisson
20 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.
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