(ATR) Paris Deputy Mayor Jean-Francois Martins tells Around the Rings the pollution and security issues facing the city will not diminish its 2024 Olympic bid or its hosting of three world championships.
Martins says the city ended its pollution alert and travel restrictions on Sunday following reports the city was facing its worst winter pollution in 10 years. In response, the city issued driving restrictions determined by license plates and also made all public transportation free.
"The air is clean since Sunday now," Martins tells ATR. "We are also in a long-term perspective of increasing the quality of air.
"We have a high quality public transportation system that was elected as the best performing public transport a few weeks ago," he says, urging people to leave their personal vehicle at home to help ease pollution rates.
Despite the mix of pollution and a continued state of emergency following terrorist attacks in 2015, Martins says Parisians are still upbeat and living life as normal.
"We are not going to take a knee, we will stand up in Paris," Martins tells ATR. "Two weeks after the November attacks, people were hurt and sad about what happened but showed that the city is resilient. It hasn’t downgraded the joy, the happiness, the way they want to live in Paris.
"The most visible proof of this is Euro 16 football championship. We hosted this in the worst security context you could imagine and we hosted with 1.2 million people going to the Eiffel tower and screaming and supporting their teams."
The 2024 candidate city is also hosting three world championships in the nine months leading up to the September 2017 IOC host city selection. Paris will stage the Handball World Championships in January, World Ice Hockey Championships in May as well as the World Wrestling Championships in August.
Martins says the events will add to the city’s "track record of hosting great events".
"Paris is the only city in the world where you can have a full 15,000 seat venue for judo competition or handball competition. Here in Paris you will find real passion and real fans of all the Olympic sports."
Paris is competing with Budapest and Los Angeles to host the 2024 edition of the Summer Olympics. The IOC will make its selection in Lima, Peru during its IOC Session on Sep. 13.
Reported by Kevin Nutley
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