Paris 2024 focused on creating an innovative Olympic Games for all of France
Following the second Coordination Commission meeting for Paris 2024, the International Olympic Committee (IOC)’s Coordination Commission was impressed with Paris’ extensive plans to create an Olympic Games for all of France.
“Creating a creative and innovative Olympic Games experience that benefits everyone is at the core of Paris 2024’s mission,” said IOC Coordination Commission Chair Pierre-Olivier Beckers-Vieujant. “Paris 2024’s vision that ‘sport can change lives’ is evident in so many of its projects, especially ones like Terre de Jeux 2024; the Organising Committee’s approach for an open and inclusive economic development and employment plan; the proposal to host mass participation events at Games time; and its ambitious plans for Olympic Day. Each one of these is a symbol for how Paris 2024 is uniting and engaging the country behind the Olympic and Paralympic Games.”
He continued: “Paris 2024 has made steady progress in a very short amount of time. We are in a new era of collaboration and co-creation, as seen with the presence of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and so many local authority partners in Marseille. This is fully in line with the spirit of Olympic Agenda 2020 and its New Norm, as we work to build this project together with a common goal: to plan and organise inspiring and memorable Olympic and Paralympic Games in a responsible and effective way.”
It was in this spirit of collaboration that the Coordination Commission meeting was set in Marseille, which will host the sailing and football competitions. While in the seaside city, the IOC Coordination Commission visited the proposed venues for the two sports, stopping to see both the marina and Velodrome Stadium. These iconic locations will provide a magnificent backdrop for athletes and fans in five years’ time.
The essence of urban sport was on full display on the first day of the Coordination Commission visit, when crowds gathered in the Old Port area to experience a lively and youthful atmosphere that included basketball, BMX, breaking, skateboarding, and sport climbing demonstrations.
At the end of June, the IOC Session will vote on the provisional inclusion of breaking, skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing on the 2024 Olympic programme.
A core objective for Paris 2024 is to ensure that the Games are organised in a sustainable way that will benefit the citizens of France for decades to come. As such, the Organising Committee presented its carbon neutral strategy, and reported on the creation of an endowment fund that will be used to help fund legacy projects linked to Paris 2024.
SOLIDEO, the public body responsible for managing development operations ahead of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, was also on site to update the Coordination Commission on advancements made in the conception for an innovative and sustainable Olympic Village. Not only will the facility be designed to anticipate the evolving challenges facing tomorrow’s generation of residents, but it is also being optimised to welcome athletes for the Games.
Tony Estanguet, President of Paris 2024, said, “ This second Coordination Commission meeting comes at an important time in the construction of our project. It shows the progress we have made. A year after we laid the foundations of the Organising Committee, this second meeting has been looking outwards, towards the public at large. We have made the goal of engaging with the sports movement, the public authorities and the people of France one of our main priorities. This desire to get the population involved from the outset is a reflection of our ambition to offer Games that are different, and which make creativity the Paris 2024 hallmark. This desire to innovate and surprise spans every part of our project, for example the opening of some of the Games events to the general public or the celebratory dimension of our project, placing sport at the heart of the city, which has never been done on such a scale before. As a result, it is essential for Paris 2024 to be able to count on partners like the IOC and IPC, which every day push and encourage us to go further. I also wish to thank the city of Marseille, its Mayor, Jean-Claude Gaudin, and all its inhabitants, for their welcome and their engagement alongside us. Marseille, which will host football matches and all the sailing competitions in its fantastic marina, is an extraordinary asset for the Paris 2024 project.”
During the meetings, the Organising Committee presented to the IOC and IPC its impressive progress made on governance topics, engagement plans, marketing programmes and more.
Reinforcing the spirit of collaboration, members of the different levels of government from the Marseille and Paris regions joined the meetings to participate in creating the Olympic and Paralympic Games of a new era.
The International Olympic Committee is a not-for-profit independent international organisation made up of volunteers, which is committed to building a better world through sport. It redistributes more than 90 per cent of its income to the wider sporting movement, which means that every day the equivalent of 3.4 million US dollars goes to help athletes and sports organisations at all levels around the world.
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