Paris 2024 Reports to IOC Session

(ATR) Paris 2024 has reduced its venue footprint and moved into a new headquarters while balancing its budget at 3.9 billion Euros.

In its report to the 137th IOC Session, organizers stressed that iconic venues such as the Eiffel Tower and the Place de la Concorde remain integral to the plan, but two existing venues and two major temporary venues have been removed. The number of football host cities also has been reduced to six from eight.

Smarter programming will allow more sports to share venues and three additional venues will host the same Olympic and Paralympic sports. For example, the Defense Arena will now stage aquatics swimming and para swimming and one of the football stadiums will also act as an arena. Lack of a post-Games legacy was a key reason for eliminating the temporary venues.

Paris 2024 President Tony Estanguet said the revised master plan was approved by the board and the IOC last December "to keep the same level of ambition and to integrate new costs identified since the bid phase without increasing the budgets."

Last month the organizing committee moved into its new headquarters, the Pulse building in Seine-Saint-Denis, from previous offices on Boulevard Haussmann. The first non-competition venue in service, it is "at the heart of the action," said CEO Etienne Thobois, since it is a few kilometers from the Stade de France and the future Olympic and Paralympic Village.

The wooden-based structure embodies the Paris 2024 sustainability and legacy commitments with a reduced carbon footprint and features solar panels on the roof contributing to a 100 percent clean energy supply. The building is fully accessible.

With the Games still 41 months in the future, the first temporary competition venue is nearing completion. The Champ de Mars Arena, which will stage judo and wrestling during the Olympic Games, will be inaugurated next month.

Estanguet and Thobois, sitting behind a temporary table in a very spare conference room, said the three key pillars for Paris 2024 are celebration, legacy and sustainability and maximum engagement with the public.

"In the end we did not simply adapt our project," Estanguet said, "we have made it stronger. In a challenging year by working together we always managed to find solutions and we want to continue this way until 2024."

Thobois added that "it was essential for us to preserve the DNA and identity of our concept."

He said the first full budget review reflected an increased contribution from the IOC and the updated ticketing revenue target due to the new master plan. The revised cost estimates, a 2.5 percent increase, took into account the additional sports, increased security and cybersecurity costs and a higher contingency (raised by 8 percent).

"We looked for mitigating our risks as much as we can this early into the project and we revisited all our financial assumptions against our new concept," Thobois said. "We are now happy with a budget that is completely aligned with our ambition and balanced at 3.9 billion."

Paris 2024 is actively engaging with the public across 1,400 communities in France and is working on its volunteer strategy. The Paris 2024 Club already has 100,000 members since starting last summer. An initiative to fight sedentariness among young people has encouraged 30 minutes of daily physical activity, reaching 500,000 kids with 3,000 establishments participating and 200 athletes engaged.

"The idea is to put more sports in people’s lives and have them live unique experiences with Paris 2024," said Estanguet.

Organizers hope to build on the Tokyo 2020 Games and are working on the handover ceremonies at the close of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which will bring Paris 2024 its first real moment of international exposure.

"I can’t say anything more now, but just make sure you will watch on Aug. 8 and Sept. 5," Estanguet said.

The chair of the Paris 2024 coordination commission, Pierre-Olivier Beckers-Vieujant, said these are a "Games fit for the society we want to see emerging from this crisis with sport serving as a key role in this recovery process," emphasizing "a fitter more engaged society."

Beckers-Vieujant, an IOC member from Belgium, added that the 2024 Games continue to attract commercial partners.

There were no questions from IOC members and IOC President Thomas Bach congratulated Paris 2024 for "fantastic, great progress made over the past few months".

Homepage photo: IOC

Written and reported by Karen Rosen

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