Venue changes for Paris 2024 approved by IOC Executive Board

The Paris 2024 Main Press Centre will now be situated at the Palais des Congrès. The shooting competitions will be held in Châteauroux, the existing French National Shooting Centre, which will leave a strong legacy for the sport in France. And the North Paris Arena in Villepinte was approved as the venue for the boxing preliminaries and fencing ranking round of modern pentathlon.

These changes align with Paris 2024’s continued efforts to optimise its Games without compromising its ambition, supported by the continued commitment of Games stakeholders to deliver a new era of Olympic Games.

In addition to the venues update, the IOC EB received a summary of recent activities – the highlight being a series of announcements made around the two-years-to-go milestone celebrated on 26 July.

This included the launch of Paris 2024’s slogan: ”Ouvrons Grand les Jeux”/ "Games wide open”, the confirmation of the competition schedule by event and with that some initial information about ticket pricing.

In his report to the IOC EB, Paris 2024 Coordination Commission Chair Pierre-Olivier Beckers-Vieujant relayed the enthusiasm shown by key delivery partners. He explained that, building on strong relations with the French state, IOC President Thomas Bach met with French President Emmanuel Macron in July, while later that month Beckers-Vieujant met Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, the newly appointed Minister for Sport and the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Lausanne. He also shared the confidence shown by key stakeholders in France about hosting the Games at the recent Coordination Commission meeting in Paris.

In addition, updates were received on the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 and Olympic Games LA28. These outlined the progress being made by future hosts in recent months, their concerted effort to integrate Olympic Agenda 2020 and New Norm recommendations into planning, and a consistent theme of optimisations to Games delivery.

The latter is being supported across all Olympic Games editions by the IOC’s new Games Optimisation Group, chaired by IOC Member Kirsty Coventry. This was established following recommendations outlined in the final Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 Coordination Commission report. The group aims to analyse further opportunities to foster sustainable Games and enhance Games delivery by identifying what expertise can be leveraged, where new technologies and innovations can be used and which ideas could be implemented across Games delivery; Games experience; and sustainability, impact and legacy.

Milano Cortina 2026

Updates from the Chair of the Milano Cortina 2026 Coordination Commission, Sari Essayah, and from the Organising Committee, summarised recent activities as momentum continues to build towards the next Olympic Winter Games.

Highlights include the announcement of Milano Cortina 2026’s first domestic partner in July, with further commercial partnerships due to be confirmed in the coming weeks. The Organising Committee also detailed the development of its mascots following the launch of a design initiative, in partnership with Italy's Ministry of Education, in schools across the country.

From an operational perspective, following an Italian Government decree about Milano Cortina 2026's management structure, the IOC Executive Board noted that it is following the situation and looks forward to seeing the outcome of discussions within the coming days.

The IOC’s Coordination Commission will next visit the Milano Cortina 2026 team in December 2022, providing members with the opportunity to receive updates and see the progress being made on the ground.

LA28

The Chair of the LA28 Coordination Commission, Nicole Hoevertsz, explained that planning continues in line with the Games masterplan, while recent and upcoming visits to Los Angeles are boosting anticipation amongst stakeholders for the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2028.

The IOC Executive Board heard that the PlayLA Youth Sports Programme continues to expand across the city as it aims to ensure every youth aged between 5 and 17 years old has an opportunity to participate in low-cost, or no-cost, quality sports programming in their neighbourhood.

Hoevertsz also highlighted IOC President Thomas Bach’s recent visit to the city where the dates of the Olympic Games LA28 were confirmed (14-30 July). During his visit, President Bach engaged with a number of key stakeholders. These included Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and other city council members, the business community, athletes and LA28 Board members and staff.                     

The next major milestone for LA28 is a visit by the IOC’s Coordination Commission between 13 and 15 September 2022.