Paris (AFP)
The actors of the Paris-2024 Olympic Games will initiate "before the end of the year" a review of the risks of additional costs engendered by the Covid-19 crisis, said a source on Wednesday after a meeting on the subject .
During this meeting at the Elysée Palace, where President Emmanuel Macron invited the boss of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach, and that of the Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris-2024 (Cojo), Tony Estanguet , the IOC also said it was ready to discuss the number of athletes (10,500) and disciplines during the Paris edition, whose total budget currently stands at 6.8 billion euros, including 3.8 for the Cojo.
"There may be a debate that the IOC is ready to hear on the number of athletes it sends to the Games and on the manner in which a certain number of disciplines are organized," the Elysian source told several journalists, by specifying that "the number of qualified in a discipline" has consequences on the costs or "the size of the Olympic village".
Emmanuel Macron, Thomas Bach and Tony Estanguet "together considered that it was relevant in the coming months, before the end of the year in any event, that the Cojo, with the local authorities" and the State " can look at how collectively we can minimize any risk of additional cost, always keeping in mind this concern for heritage, environmental and urban, "said the same source.
The figure of 10% of the Cojo's budget, ie 300 to 400 million euros, has been mentioned, added the Elyos source, but more as "options that we are likely to activate if we saw that the economic situation was deteriorating. " "It is not necessarily this type of amount that will be saved," insisted the source.
In addition, "there was no mention of a particular site" during the meeting, the source also said, while according to several Olympic players, possible savings could cause changes in the mapping of Paris-2024.
© 2020 AFP