"It is difficult to leave the 2024 Olympics project the same"

Pierre Rabadan, deputy in charge of Sports to the mayor PS Anne Hidalgo.

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• Faced with the current context and a need for savings decreed by the organizing committee for the Olympic Games (Cojo), the elected officials of Seine-Saint-Denis are worried about being the big losers of the operation.

• "It's difficult to make a savings plan without taking something away from someone," said Pierre Rabadan, sports assistant to the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo.

• Among the sites in the balance, the provisional aquatic stadium where the swimming events must take place in Saint-Denis and a temporary arena at Le Bourget for volleyball.

It is the new face of sport and Olympism at the city hall of Paris.

Last July, Pierre Rabadan, former third row at Stade Français, became Anne Hidalgo's assistant in charge of sport, the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which will be one of the major events of this second term.

But in this return to school 2020, it is more of a hot and thorny issue.

Changes to the site map for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games are in fact currently under study.

At the start of the summer, the health and economic context led the Paris 2024 Olympic Games Organizing Committee (Cojo) to decide that 10% should be saved compared to the initial budget (3.8 billion euros ), i.e. between 300 and 400 million euros.

What worries the elected officials of Seine-Saint-Denis.

“We've been playing this unpleasant little music for several months now, saving money in Seine Saint-Denis.

We understand the context well but our department should not be an alibi at the time of the application to become the adjustment variable of the project afterwards, ”said Thursday, Stéphane Troussel, the president of the departmental council.

In this context, Pierre Rabadan answered questions from

, two months after taking office.

What is your track record as the new deputy mayor of Paris in charge of sport, the Olympic and Paralympic Games?

We are in the process of establishing it.

Several issues arise outside of the political will to make this term of office that of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

There is a holistic approach to integrating sport into society, which in my opinion is underexploited.

But all this must be done in the current environment and in view of the strong constraints: budgetary, health.

Our roadmap will be consistent with the means we will have to carry it out.

In a city like Paris with a high density and few spaces, we want to continue, as during the previous term of office, to maintain and develop the Parisian sports park made up of 500 facilities, improve quality and support the development of new practices.

Our goal is also for sport to allow better integration with places of social and administrative support around a sports club.

Sport must be inclusive and we are not going to shirk and shirk our responsibilities.

Seine-Saint-Denis, which was to be the big winner of these 2024 Olympic Games, could end up without the provisional aquatic stadium in Saint-Denis, without the Volleyball Arena at Le Bourget and possibly with a less substantial media village. … What is your feeling ?

Seine-Saint-Denis will be the big beneficiary of these Games in terms of territorial transformation.

Whatever the purpose of the current discussions, this will be the case.

The candidacy of Paris 2024 was not limited to Paris and even if there are adjustments, we will not touch, or as little as possible or by finding agreements, in Seine-Saint-Denis, which must be satisfied by the 'arrival.

We hope for national unity.

Afterwards, we are also in an exceptional context which postponed the Tokyo Games by a year and which questions what the Paris Games will be, with a principle that will not budge: budgetary sobriety.

Potential savings must be found which may involve more uses of existing structures.

The elected officials of Seine-Saint-Denis met Thursday to express their fears vis-à-vis these potential changes, does the mayor of Paris support them?

Seine-Saint-Denis is worried and has demands.

We understand their questions.

We can potentially lose competition venues, which would have consequences on the starting project.

It's hard to make a savings plan without taking something away from someone.

But in the economic and health context, it is difficult to leave the project the same.

We are no longer in the same world as a year ago.

Afterwards, it must be a fair distribution with phenomena of compensation and transfer of competitions.

The climbing that could finally start from the Place de la Concorde to settle in Seine-Saint-Denis for example?

Yes, but it's still under discussion.

It is Seine-Saint-Denis and the City of Paris, together, which will host the most events.

And today we are in a search for savings.

It is therefore together that we will be the most impacted.

Personally, the idea of ​​losing climbing does not please me.

It is a spectacular, young, visual sport with more and more practitioners.

The idea is to find a balance that is acceptable to all.

We must be flexible and know how to adapt.

Beyond the coronavirus crisis, I think that when you lead a project of this magnitude, you have to question yourself and see if there are no improvements to be made.

Does that mean that the initial project was too ambitious?

Not at all.

He was measurable and reasonable.

But there are things we cannot anticipate: the economic context, inflation.

There are things that need to be reviewed as we go.

Some people are suspicious of the Games because, in the past, there was a certain rigidity in the organization which led to constructions which were not useful to the populations.

We had identified this problem from the start.

And without a guarantee from the IOC on this point, the City of Paris would not have been a candidate.

Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), spoke on Wednesday of “the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024 adapted to the new post-coronavirus world”.

Are fan zones, popular gatherings, sports activities and initiations for residents going to be called into question?

Nothing has yet been decided.

It is in discussions.

Given the health crisis, it will in any case have to put all this back on the table with a new project.

But we don't want to degrade the spectator experience.

Two months after your arrival as an assistant, and as a former athlete, are you discovering a facet of the sport that you never suspected?

I have been working in the city for five years, although it was in a different function, I am not surprised by the environment and the way it is.

That said, there are always surprising situations and this new function remains unique.

It requires permanent adaptation.

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