For Paris 2024, "there are a lot of subjects to question"

• In a column at the end of April, former Sports Minister Guy Drut described the Paris 2024 project as "obsolete" after the coronavirus pandemic.
• Its leaders (obviously) do not agree, but do not deny the need to rethink the way they intend to deliver these Games. 

The debates which animated the world of sport on the holding or not this summer of the Tokyo Olympic Games, finally postponed by a year, obviously did not escape the organizing committee of the Olympic Games 2024 in Paris. Beyond the health emergency it generates, the coronavirus pandemic invites us to rethink the concept of a global event like the Olympic Games. The French capital will not escape introspection, as Guy Drut astonishingly pointed out in a column published on France Info on April 26.

“The crisis we are going through has a lasting impact on our daily lives, our way of life, our economy, our social pact, our choice of society. It cannot and must not remain without effect on the imperative necessity which makes us to reinvent ourselves. (…) The Olympic and Paralympic Games are no exception to this new context. They too must reinvent themselves, ”wrote the former Minister of Sports and member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), deeming the Parisian project“ today obsolete, outdated, out of touch with reality ”.

Tokyo is no longer a goal but "a springboard for Paris 2024", says Onesta via @ 20minutesSport https://t.co/WtlD3xexdZ

This outing made Tony Estanguet, the boss of Cojo, jump up. “One of the conditions of our candidacy was to propose a new model of Games: more sober, more useful, more responsible. This is what we did from the start, we did not wait for this health crisis to reinvent the Games, he replied in an interview with Le Monde on Wednesday. This Guy Drut release is out of step with reality. "

In fact, one cannot take away from Estanguet a certain coherence. Throughout the application phase, then in the advancement of the project since the city was chosen by the IOC, almost three years ago, the concept of more responsible Olympic Games, which will leave a legacy for the population, has was put forward in order to follow the shift initiated by the International Committee with its Agenda 2020. This does not prevent us from thinking about the new situation imposed by the coronavirus.

A model to invent

Also on Wednesday morning, Michaël Aloïsio, the chief of staff to the president of the Cojo, held a press point to explain the current questions within the Parisian project. “Societal and environmental concerns are part of our foundations. Only, the crisis obliges us to go even further than what we had imagined, he summed up. There are many subjects to question. »Particularly on the outskirts, behind the scenes, where it is least visible to the general public.

Tony Estanguet's right hand gives two examples, among others:

• The transport system: “The Games model has always been based on a transport system by family of the population: athletes, IOC members, journalists, etc. Is it still strictly necessary today? The answer is no. We could pool these transports, which represents very substantial savings. "
• The Games delivery model: “In the classic model, the organizing committee manages everything. For example, a team of thirty people will take care of delivering the tennis events. Perhaps we can imagine a different model. Why not, for each sport, a Paris 2024 contact, a sort of conductor, who will lead a team of external service providers who have expertise, who know how to do, and who will thus reduce the complexity of delivery. This can be a site operator, a Federation, a private service provider. It is a balance to be found, sport by sport, between complexity, cost and risk management. The precedent was very reassuring for us, the organizers, but perhaps more expensive. The time has come to re-examine that, to find a more agile model. This is typically the kind of debate we have right now. "

In summary, the Cojo puts each component of the delivery of the Games on the table to see if there is not another option, less expensive. And this in order to give ourselves room for maneuver which will serve to manage the problems that are sure to emerge in the months to come, when the consequences of the crisis will be hard felt.

No (yet?) Question of a postponement to 2025

These effects are not measurable at the moment, but delays on construction sites (Olympic Village, transport networks) or an increase in prices in the building are possibilities to take into account. Thus, the pandemic will "undoubtedly" cause "cost overruns" on the global budget, recognized Tuesday the Minister of Sports Roxana Maracineanu.

Anyway, a postponement of the 2024 Olympic Games is not at all current at the moment. “We discussed it, recognized Tony Estanguet in Le Monde . After going around the subject, our interest is to keep the Games in 2024. We will need more than ever to recreate positive dynamics to contribute to economic recovery, societal issues and the reconstruction of the country. In this crisis, Paris has a chance. Unlike Tokyo, which saw the unthinkable pandemic emerge just a few months before the big meeting, it has time to anticipate.

• Covid 19
• OJ 2024
• Olympic Games
• Coronavirus
• Sport