Dakar (AFP)
The organizing committees of the Paris Olympics in 2024 and the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in Dakar in 2022 signed a collaboration agreement on Wednesday in the Senegalese capital.
The aim is to make these two major sporting events "more sustainable, responsible and inclusive" events, the two committees announced at a ceremony in Dakar.
It was the IOC that asked the organizing committee of Paris-2024 to "mobilize French know-how in the organization of sports events," AFD explained at the signing ceremony.
In parallel, the French Development Agency (AFD) has signed with the Senegalese National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSS) a "memorandum of collaboration" which will result in the accompaniment of athletes, the launching of socio-educational programs by sport and support for the rehabilitation of sports facilities in Senegal, including the Iba-Mar-Diop stadium and the Dakar Olympic National Swimming Pool.
Paris was designated in 2017 to organize the JO-2024, for the third time in its history after the editions of 1900 and 1924.
While Africa is still waiting to host the Olympic Games one day, Senegal was chosen a year later by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to organize in 2022 the fourth edition of the Youth Olympic Games, a reduced version. which welcomes every 4 years some 4,000 athletes aged 15 to 18 years.
Senegal "can only benefit" from the experience of France, said the president of the Senegalese Olympic Committee and Dakar-2022, Mamadou Ndiaye, hoping that this collaboration creates "synergies that produce lasting effects and impacts ".
"This convention is really a two-way street: France, and Paris-2024, also has to learn from what will happen here in Dakar in 2022, because I am convinced that they will succeed in mobilizing the youth. , to propose new ideas, "said the president of Paris-2024 and triple Olympic champion of canoe, Tony Estanguet, questioned by AFP.
"This is a real exchange of experience between Dakar and Paris, with the organization of these two major competitions," said the French Minister of Sports, Roxana Maracineanu, visiting Senegal. "For Dakar, the challenge is to successfully cross this first step towards Olympic Games in Africa," added the former world champion swimming and silver medal at the Sydney Games in 2000.
© 2019 AFP