Paris, Tokyo Pledge Integration

(ATR) Paris 2024 Chief Executive Etienne Thobois says an agreement with Tokyo 2020 is helping French organizers understand the deep "integration" needed to prepare for an Olympic Games.

Thobois joined his Tokyo 2020 counterpart Toshiro Muto on the sidelines of the IOC’s Coordination Commission visit to sign the memorandum. According to the document the two organizing committees agreed to share best practices in a number of areas.

Joint points of contact will be established between the two organizing committees, and both groups committed to amplifying news from each respective Games. Tokyo and Paris pledged "daily and technical cooperation" in areas such as the flag handover and interpretation services.

Muto told reporters he believed that Paris could immediately aid Tokyo in preparing its language services for the Olympics, even if the 2024 Olympics are more than six years away.

"About four years ago immediately after taking the post of CEO of Tokyo 2020 I had an opportunity to meet with Mr. Thobois and the multitude of advice he gave me about running a Games," Muto said. "I really remember it very fondly."

Paris only formed its organizing committee at the beginning of this year after appointing Thobois as CEO and bid co-chair Tony Estanguet as president last December. Thobois said that linking up so early with Tokyo 2020 will help the organizing committee learn how to "project" what the project could look like multiple years down the line.

Thobois visited Tokyo in December for the last IOC Coordination Commission and has brought along a larger delegation to attend this week’s meetings. Both Paris and Tokyo require government investment in infrastructure, and Thobois said Nicolas Ferrand, the managing director of SOLIDEO the government agency in charge of Paris 2024 projects, is in Tokyo. Such observation opportunities have proven very important ahead of the signing.

"The projects are very different from one another, but the overall learnings and dynamic is quite interesting," Thobois said. "Integration is something you hear a lot about but it is actually going in a way that is more complex as the delivery of the Games move on and understanding that [idea] early allows you to build your organization in a way that you integrate earlier, but the overall dynamic that is going on organizing the Games is interesting to see from the inside.

"This is an opportunity that maybe was not given before and I think it is very valuable. There are great ideas that you pick up on, make your own, maybe take a little different path, but are inspired by."

Written and reported by Aaron Bauer in Tokyo

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