Paris 2024 president Tony Estanguet: “We need to bring sport across the planet, everywhere”
In an interview with Time, the former Olympian spoke about the importance of the legacy of the next Olympic Games, which take place in Paris between 26 July and 11 August 2024.
When Paris 2024 president Tony Estanguet looks forward to the next Olympic Games, he does so with the mindset that they will be different.
These Games - the first in Paris in 100 years - are aiming for a legacy that reverberates across all sections of French society.
It starts with the choice of headquarters for Paris 2024, in Seine-Saint-Denis, one of the poorest suburbs of France.
“We want the legacy to be different,” Estanguet explained in an interview with Time.
“Not a legacy of having fantastic venues, but how this project can help a population. We have education programmes, we have an approach in terms of employment and the tenders, we will involve the local businesses.
“Here in Seine Saint-Denis two-thirds of the employees are local people. The volunteer programme will offer different opportunities for the population here.”
Tony ESTANGUET
A legacy of sport for everyone, everywhere
This idea of legacy is important to Estanguet, himself a three-time Olympic canoe champion whose life was transformed by the Olympics.
“It’s important to have this moment of gathering the world, an inspiring, positive moment,” he said, looking forward to the beginning of the Paris Games, following a Tokyo edition that exceeded all expectations in the face of the immense challenges of COVID-19.
“It’s had a big impact on my life, and I’m sure it can have a big positive impact on many lives.”
The legacy he has in mind is one that sees the reach of sport expanded so it touches all corners of society.
“We need to bring sport across the planet, everywhere. Sport has to be spectacular. Sport has to be everywhere, not just in the stadium,” he said.
“We will be in the Chateau de Versailles. We will be in museums. We will be in the streets. We will be everywhere. That’s really a vision of how sport can have an impact on society, by being everywhere.”
In a way that is completely aligned with this vision, for the first time ever the Olympics Opening Ceremony will take place not in a stadium but on boats along the river Seine.
Sport, quite literally, being brought to the people.
“It’s the first time that the opening ceremony will be outside a stadium,” Estanguet said.
“That’s important because we want to demonstrate that the Games will be unique and different. Paris 2024 has to be spectacular.”
Sustainability and gender equality - Games like no other before
Sustainability is a key concept of the Olympic Games in Paris and Estanguet has high aspirations for the tournament.
"We’ve promised to cut the carbon footprint in half from the London Olympics in 2012: That was the reference, the greenest Olympics until now," he explained.
"We’re building 10 times fewer venues, we will use public transportation, with all competition venues in public transportation-accessible areas. We are adding more local food. We’re already working with different companies to develop a new approach. Less meat, more vegetarian — a really new approach."
Another of the areas in which Paris 2024 hopes to provide a best-in-class example is in terms of gender equality.
"For the first time, we will have the same number of athletes—women and men," he said. "We will have parity. And I’m so proud of the fact that for the first time we are able to have the same logo for the Olympics and Paralympics."
There's no doubt that Paris 2024 will be a different type of Games. The world has changed over the past years and many of the lessons learned are being transformed into real-life examples of progress in the planning of these upcoming Olympics.
And when the Olympic cauldron is lit in two years' time, the hope is that the values and positivity of sport will have seeped into every section of society resulting in a tournament with a legacy that continues to future editions of the Games.
"The Olympics is a relay race," said Estanguet. "You build from the success or the previous ones. The Olympic movement’s strength is its universality. We need to bring sport across the planet, everywhere...
"That’s really a vision of how sport can have an impact on society, by being everywhere. It’s good that we have a new chapter, in France, then the U.S. and Australia."