Four years before the Paris 2024 Games, where does the preparation of the Olympic and Paralympic event stand? Is the COJO on schedule? Has the health crisis slowed its momentum?
After sports, and before marketing and governance, the focus is on the competition sites dossier. Certainly one of the hottest topics at the moment.
What has been accomplished
Almost everything. At the beginning of the year, the COJO (Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games) Paris 2024 believed it had mostly completed the essential work with an almost finalized map of competition sites, with only a few details left.
Parisian organizers had even already chosen the surfing spot, the Teahupo’o wave in Tahiti, French Polynesia. “The most beautiful in the world,” according to Tony Estanguet, the president of the COJO. This decision was made even before the IOC’s final decision to include surfing in the Paris 2024 Games as an additional sport.
The file was closed. Unlike the Tokyo Games, where the final version quite diverged from the initial project proposed during the candidacy phase, Paris 2024 could boast of presenting an almost unblemished copy.
Among the changes, mostly announced as early as October 2018, was the relocation of Arena 2 (badminton, para-badminton, and para-taekwondo) from the south of Paris to Porte de la Chapelle, the abandonment of Marville (Seine-Saint-Denis) for water polo, or the relocation of judo and wrestling to a temporary structure near the École Militaire, not far from the Eiffel Tower.
But the COVID-19 pandemic has swept across the Olympics sites map. Yesterday’s certainties have danced away, leaving in their place a forest of question marks. The organizers’ announced goal: reduce the Games’ expenses by at least 10%, or about 400 million euros.
What remains to be done
The COJO Paris 2024 quickly realized that the health crisis and its economic effects could hit it right at the core. It began a new “project review” last spring. The results are expected in the fall, or at the latest by the end of the year. They promise to be spectacular.
Tony Estanguet is not shy about it; the COJO will not rule anything out, provided they adhere to their commitments: budget sobriety, environment, and legacy. “We will have to consider evolving the sites map to ensure better mutualization,” he insists.
The COJO’s leader explained last month, during Thomas Bach’s visit to Paris: “We started with a concept of 70% existing sites, 25% temporary sites, and 5% construction. But we should be able to reduce the percentage of temporary sites by relying more on existing sites. Various options will be open for temporary sites. All territories might potentially be impacted.”
The re-calibration might mainly affect Seine-Saint-Denis. The volleyball site, planned at Le Bourget, is highly threatened. It could be relocated to an already existing structure, at Roland-Garros or the Porte de Versailles exhibition center. The shooting range, announced in La Courneuve, might also find itself traveling. A provincial option is under study in the city of Châteauroux (Indre), at the National Shooting Sport Center. According to information from Le Parisien, the temporary swimming pool for swimming races, which is to be installed in front of the future Olympic aquatic center in Saint-Denis, might also be relocated. The COJO is considering placing it in Nanterre, near the Arena de la Défense.
Elsewhere, options remain open as well. The urban sports cluster (climbing, 3×3 basketball, skateboarding, and breaking) announced at La Concorde is also written in the conditional. The map of France for the two football tournaments, currently rich with 9 cities (Paris, Lille, Nantes, Lyon, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Nice, Marseille, and Saint-Étienne), might be reduced and lose two stadiums.
A predictable effect of the COJO’s desire to cut its budget to align with the realities of the post-crisis world: the discontented from the first round are waking up. Serge Lecomte, president of the French Equestrian Federation (FFE), used the current climate to express his lack of enthusiasm for equestrian sports occupying the gardens of the Palace of Versailles in 2024. The French leader is now advocating for the Federal Equestrian Park in Lamotte-Beuvron, in Loir-et-Cher.
Everything was almost done. Today, the copy needs revisiting, in both its major lines and its smallest details.
