(ATR) Paris 2024 President Tony Estanguet says establishing a qualified team to deliver the Olympics and Paralympics is priority number one in 2018.
"We have many things to do at the moment, we have to recruit people and definitely that’s the top priority for me is to build the team around me and Etienne Thobois the CEO," Estanguet tells Around the Rings on a conference call with select reporters. "We will spend a lot of time to build the team."
Estanguet and Thobois are the sole members of the Paris 2024 Organizing Committee that officially began operations on Jan. 18. Estanguet tells ATR the next members of the team will be hired after the Olympics in PyeongChang that begin next week.
"We have also to select a recruitment agency that will be in charge of future hires," Estanguet says. "We have received applications so that’s also why we are not ready now to choose those applications. But I hope it's possible for the beginning of March."
The March hires will include the chief financial officer, human resources director and international relations director. Applications for these positions closed on Jan. 15. However, the need for a recruitment agency for consultation and Estanguet’s three-week trip in South Korea for the Olympics has pushed the hiring to March.
Once more members of the team are finalized the OCOG will begin to lay out its plans for delivering the Games in six years.
"The second priority is definitely to work on the vision and the identity of Paris 2024 to make sure that all of our actions and next programs will fulfill this vision and will be very effective," he says.
Included in this vision is ensuring the next generation of athletes and citizens in France live and compete by the Olympic and Paralympic values. Paris 2024 began its second annual Olympic and Paralympic week across 450 schools in France on Jan. 27 to jump start this process.
Estanguet and many of the athletes involved in Paris 2024’s bid for the Games are visiting schools throughout the week
"The message is about making sure that sport will be more practiced by this generation," he tells ATR. "I think this Olympic and Paralympic week in school is a good vehicle to promote the development of the practice of sport and make sure sport is part of their daily life and we know there is a good margin to improve for this society to have more sport practiced by the kids at this stage."
The Olympic and Paralympic week in schools will conclude on Feb. 3.
Written by Kevin Nutley
Forgeneral comments or questions, click here.
25 Years at #1: Your best source of news about theOlympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribersonly.
Últimas Noticias
Utah’s Olympic venues an integral part of the equation as Salt Lake City seeks a Winter Games encore
Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation chief of sport development Luke Bodensteiner says there is a “real urgency to make this happen in 2030”. He discusses the mission of the non-profit organization, the legacy from the 2002 Winter Games and future ambitions.
IOC president tells Olympic Movement “we will again have safe and secure Olympic Games” in Beijing
Thomas Bach, in an open letter on Friday, also thanked stakeholders for their “unprecedented” efforts to make Tokyo 2020 a success despite the pandemic.
Boxing’s place in the Olympics remains in peril as IOC still unhappy with the state of AIBA’s reform efforts
The IOC says issues concerning governance, finance, and refereeing and judging must be sorted out to its satisfaction. AIBA says it’s confident that will happen and the federation will be reinstated.
IOC president details Olympic community efforts to get Afghans out of danger after Taliban return to power
Thomas Bach says the Afghanistan NOC remains under IOC recognition, noting that the current leadership was democratically elected in 2019. But he says the IOC will be monitoring what happens in the future. The story had been revealed on August 31 in an article by Miguel Hernandez in Around the Rings
North Korea suspended by IOC for failing to participate in Tokyo though its athletes could still take part in Beijing 2022
Playbooks for Beijing 2022 will ”most likely” be released in October, according to IOC President Thomas Bach.
