French capital Paris has finally clinched the biggest prize in sports, and is all set to host 2024 Olympic Games.
By taking on board IOC chief Thomas Bach’s bid recommendations, Paris has finally succeeded where it failed agonisingly in 1992, 2008 and 2012.
Paris effectively secured the right to host the 2024 Games after it emerged Los Angeles, its only remaining rival, had reached a deal with the International Olympic Committee to accept to host the 2028 Games instead, in a double deal favoured by Olympic officials.
President Emmanuel Macron termed 2024 as “the right moment” for Paris to host again, a century after they last hosted the Games in 1924, and that as president he was keen to rally the country around a cause like the games.
It is a question of morale. It is good for a country to mobilise and back a project.French President Emmanuel Macron
Other potential candidates – Rome, Budapest, Hamburg and Boston – all dropped out of the process amid increasing public opposition to an event that had become associated with wasteful spending, heavy deficits and white-elephant construction.
On his election Bach called for change, demanding cost- effective, streamlined and sustainable projects which placed athletes at the centre of the Olympics.
Paris responded with a low-cost bid using existing infrastructure, structured to regional needs and designed to leave a meaningful legacy.
So with a tightknit, well focused bid team, a truce from political infighting, and a stunningly beautiful city possessing a fully functioning infrastructure, Paris presented a tough bid that proved hard to resist.
Swimming in the Seine, beach volleyball and boxing beneath the Eiffel Tower, tennis at Roland Garros, events on the Champs de Mars, the Trocadero, Les Invalides, the Grand Palais – a magical backdrop for the Olympics that clearly impressed the International Olympic Committee.
“Paris’ iconic monuments will form a very strong centre of life,” IOC vice-president Patrick Baumann said in May while visiting to check out the bid.
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