First Tuesday for the new Minister of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra: she attended the board of directors of the organizing committee (Cojo), which meets approximately every three months.

Unable to stay because of the session of questions to the government in the Assembly, she made an appointment on July 25 for a "detailed point" around the President of the Republic, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, and the ministers concerned in particular, his ministry told AFP.

A little over a month after the fiasco of the Champions League final on May 28 at the Stade de France, which damaged the image of France as an organizer of major sporting events, the executive - now endowed with a minister dedicated to the Olympics - wants to debunk the idea of ​​any unpreparedness.

Basketball in Lille

Several projects are indeed crucial.

First, the budget promised by all and since the candidacy of France as "sober" and not slipping, but also security or transport.

On Tuesday, the organizing committee finished with the game of musical chairs of the sites of the Olympic events.

He noted that basketball will go well in Lille for the qualifying phases, will stay in Bercy for the finals, and will switch with handball, which will go to the hall of the Parc des Expos which basketball did not want.

Paris 2024: the sites of the Olympic Games Paz PIZARRO AFP

Boxing lands in Villepinte (Seine-Saint-Denis) for the preliminary phases in compensation for the start of the shot from La Courneuve, in the same department, for the site of Châteauroux, in Indre.

This new card, which many would finally like to be definitive, must still receive the stamp of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

It had already been overhauled in the fall of 2020 and had saved a few tens of millions of euros in a burst of overall savings amounting to 300 million euros.

"Very stretched budget level"

The budget was also part of the discussions on Tuesday, with the presentation of the report of the audit committee, which points to the inflationary risk.

Tony Estanguet, boss of the Cojo, has publicly sounded the alert since May on this risk "impossible to imagine a few months ago" and from which the Olympic Games are not immune.

French President of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games Organizing Committee Tony Estanguet and French Sports Minister Amélie Oudea-Castera at the headquarters of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games Organizing Committee in Saint-Denis on 31 May 2022 FRANCK FIFE AFP/Archives

“They are very stretched in terms of budget”, explains to AFP a source close to the file, to keep their envelope of 4 billion euros (ticketing, sponsors and contribution of the IOC).

The Cojo is already in negotiations with the IOC to try to get out of certain constraints of the specifications which are costing them dearly.

"Without that, they will not succeed", deciphers a former elected official who knows the file.

"They are really going to put the package on the ceremony, the rest will be + cheap + (cheap)", believes a president of an Olympic federation.

At the end of the year, the Court of Auditors, already going through everything, will submit a report debated in Parliament.

The extent of the savings to be made will then be known.

Another major challenge for the Olympics: securing a major event, in particular the opening ceremony.

The new Paris police chief, who will arrive on July 21, will take over from Didier Lallement - "upwind" against the ceremony according to some - and will be called upon to play a major role.

Paris police chief Didier Lallement attends a hearing in the Senate on the incidents that occurred at the Stade de France during the Champions League final in Paris on June 9, 2022 Anne-Christine POUJOULAT AFP/Archives

After the Stade de France fiasco, the question of transport, which was already on the table, will be on the menu for the July 25 meeting.

While the Olympics must also leave "a legacy", in particular in Seine-Saint-Denis, the poorest department in France, this question will also be examined, as well as that of "the means of mobilizing all French people" around of the Olympics, explained the Ministry of Sports to AFP.

© 2022 AFP