IOC Executive Board leaves Paris with first-hand positive impression of Olympic Games preparations

The IOC EB held the last day of its meeting in Paris this week at Pulse, the headquarters of the Paris 2024 Organising Committee. The Board also spent two hours visiting the construction site of the nearly complete Olympic Village. Both locations are in Seine-Saint-Denis, one of the regions at the heart of the Games, which is set to benefit from a large number of the Paris 2024 legacy initiatives.

At Pulse, the IOC Executive Board heard from Paris 2024 and its delivery partners the latest updates from an important year for the organisation of the Games.

“This meeting and the reports from the IOC Coordination Commission reassure us that Paris 2024 is well prepared for the coming year. At the IOC we are committed to doing everything we can to contribute actively to these Olympic Games, which will be a turning point in history: more sustainable, more urban, more inclusive, with gender parity – Games wide open,” IOC President Thomas Bach said.

Paris 2024 President Tony Estanguet explained to the IOC EB members: “This year was particularly active, with a number of significant milestones, such as ticket sales, volunteer recruitment, test events and the one-year-to-go milestone, all of which required complex preparations.”

He went on: “We believe we end the year on a positive, thanks also to the support of the IOC, the International Federations and the National Olympic Committees, as well as the continued mobilisation of our national stakeholders at all levels of government, from local authorities all the way up to the French state, and our sports movement. We also want to thank both our domestic and international partners for their continued support.”

IOC President Bach added: “Even more important than looking back at a successful year is the fact that the Paris 2024 team has clearly identified the challenges they will meet until and, of course, during the Games.

The Paris 2024 report on preparations revolved around three key priorities: operations, budget and engagement.

Operations

The interministerial delegate for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024, Michel Cadot, and the Paris Prefect of Police, Laurent Nunez, reported on the progress of topics under the responsibility of the French authorities, such as security and transport.

This included the recent announcement of traffic changes in Paris during the Olympic and Paralympic Games, as they will be based on several urban clusters due to the ambition to use some of the world’s most iconic locations in the city centre as a backdrop for the sports competitions. The announcement of the plans will allow local residents and businesses to consult with the authorities well in advance to ensure regular activities can co-exist with the Games.

Budget

Paris 2024 reported that the Organising Committee budget has remained stable since the last review one year ago, thanks to efforts to optimise different aspects of the organisation, in collaboration with the IOC, and revenue targets being met.

The Games now have a total of 55 domestic partners. The latest offer of 400,000 tickets was released yesterday, with 380,000 being sold within 24 hours, meaning a total of 7.5 million tickets out of 10 million overall for the Olympic Games have been sold at this stage. As a result of this overwhelming demand, the Organising Committee decided to put an additional 50,000 tickets on sale today. More than 20 disciplines are currently sold out. Since the start of the sales, tickets have been sold to spectators from 197 countries in addition to France. Great Britain, USA, Germany and the Netherlands are the top five countries along with France.

The licensing programme is also well underway, with the inauguration of new official stores, taking the overall number to five, with a sixth to be opened in December and three pop-up stores to be in place for Christmas. In addition, the 3,000 official products (a figure which will grow to 8,000 during the Games) are available in 5,000 outlets across the country (to be increased to 30,000 at Games time). Out of the 70 licensees, 90 per cent are French small- and medium-sized businesses.

Engagement

Finally, the IOC EB was informed about the progress of the Olympic Torch Relay project, one of the main engagement drivers for any Olympic Games. Following the launch of the torchbearer selection campaigns by Paris 2024 and the presenting partners at the same time as the unveiling of the route in June, 90,000 candidatures for 10,000 torchbearer slots for the Olympic Torch Relay and 1,000 for the Paralympic Torch Relay have been submitted.

Olympic Village visit

To finish this week’s meeting in Paris, the IOC Executive Board visited the Olympic Village, whose construction is almost finished, thus respecting the schedule established more than five years ago by Paris 2024 and SOLIDEO, the public sector organisation tasked with financing, supervising and delivering facilities that will be used for the Games. The IOC EB also drove by the Aquatics Centre, one of only two new venues to be used for the Games. It will be left as a legacy community centre and high-performance training and competition facility to Seine-Saint-Denis, an area in need of leisure and sports venues.

From the main hall of Cité du Cinéma, a building constructed in 1933 that will serve as the dining hall of the Village, IOC President Thomas Bach spoke about his impressions from his perspective as an Olympic athlete, exemplifying the special place reserved in Olympians’ memories, alongside the ceremonies and their sporting achievements, for the Olympic Village as the place where performance meets diversity, friendship and respect: “As an Olympian it is always a great moment to be in an Olympic Village, because every Olympian will tell you that after the Games are over when they meet other Olympic athletes, it only takes one minute at the latest for them to start talking about the Olympic Village and the experiences they had there.

“Here, at this Olympic Village, is where the heart of the Olympic Games will beat, and the athletes will have great conditions. What we could see here is really spectacular: it is compact, it is very pragmatic, but it also offers wonderful scenery from the River Seine to the apartment buildings. Being here in this transformed hall you can really experience the great transformation Seine-Saint-Denis is enjoying through these Olympic Games.

“I can safely state that, not only me, but the entire IOC Executive Board is also very satisfied with the state of the preparations.”

The Olympic Games Paris 2024 will take place between 26 July and 11 August, with the Paralympic Games then taking place from 28 August until 8 September.