Paris 2024 Olympic Games Aims for Sustainability Gold

“We are taking the Games out of the stadium and into the city. Paris will transform into an Olympic Park, with some fantastic, iconic venues that will be used as sports venues for the duration of the Games.”

Paris 2024 Chief Executive Etienne Thobois addresses the host city's commitment for organising the world’s first Olympic and Paralympic Games with positive contribution to the climate and vision to make the Games more open to the public.

Taking the games into the heart of the city was kind of the cornerstone of your initial bid with Paris 2024, how has that concept evolved from just an idea to where you are now actually putting those processes into place?

We have just come out of Tokyo which was a fantastic experience because our they managed to deliver a Games in this particular time. We can only commend the Japanese people for that because the prior games are always an excitement for the next edition. Sometimes it’s a wakeup call also as it's only three years from now and we came back with a few learnings from there.

There is nothing like the games to bring emotions and sport should be at the heart of that. Even with no public the performance of the athletes was extraordinary, and they inspired the world. We saw that the Olympic games, once again despite the situation, were the centre of the world for everybody. Also, the strengths of sport is such that it goes behind sport and we saw demonstrations of mental health through Simone Biles.

We saw all those things and the political issues in respect to the athletes. You can see that the Games are a fantastic opportunity to take part in both for a country and emotional moments for the athletes, but also the ability to tackle a few of the current issues. That reinforces the fact that we want our games to be as open as possible and we want the games to be open to the city, and to its people.

We are taking the Games out of the stadium and into the city. Paris will transform into an Olympic Park with some fantastic, iconic venues that will be used as sports venues for the duration of the Games.

Whether its the Olympic Games or the Paralympic Games, it is very important for us to treat both in the same way.

We are working on an open ceremony that will not be within a stadium but actually outside in the centre of the city alongside the Seine River to the Games closer to the people.

It would be the first mass participation event. We want participation and to give the opportunity to people to live that experience as the athletes [do] and that is something new that is bringing new audiences to the Games.

That is also what we will try to achieve with the [inclusion of] new sports as we have the ability to get new sports ➡

coming back, such as surfing and skateboarding.

It is a way of connecting with new audiences. Both sports [surfing and skateboarding] are very appealing to the youth, very strong in social media [and] very accessible. They are sports that you can get on very quickly and it is also linked with music, with the urban culture. It links with a new kind of excitement and brings a new audience.

We want to serve [that], but that’s our mind set again to open to new territories which links with what we learned in Tokyo.

But we want our Games to be open with the issues of modern society. That’s why we take the challenges very seriously like sustainability and a socially conscious games, the fact that we want to be responsible financially.

The concept by design is to use existing venues or temporary venues. 95 per cent of our venues are existing or temporary and we [have] tried to optimise with the delivering model, not to reinvent the wheel, but to use the local expertise. Then we can focus on legacy.

When we talk about physical legacy in areas that really need it. When we construct the Olympic village, it is in one of the poorest area's of Paris and there is a need for social housing. That is where will build the village because of the need for the future generation. The notion of being responsible, sustainable, and socially conscious for us is very important because we believe that’s also

the acceptability for the public today that want to take part. That is consistent with the open concept. People want to take part they don’t just want to be spectators. They want to be involved. The marathon, for example, will be the first mass participation event at an Olympic Games where anyone can get involved. That’s what we’re trying to do for 2024. best possible environment for the games. The level of services that we are going to bring to them, the level of comfort, the ability to interact with the public is very important [and] we think the athlete will like that.

We don’t make the rules in terms of media relations. If we talk about Naomi [Osaka] case, I think that is more of an issue for NOC’s (National Organising Committees), for the international federations, and for the IOC (International Olympics Committee) to deal with the day-to-day welfare of the athletes.

Our goal for Paris 2024 is to give them an opportunity to show the world what

they can do, to bring emotions to the general public and to make sure that that connection between the general public and the athletes through the media. It can be a bit more direct, and I think that already the decisions that have been taken by the IOC are going in the right direction allowing more freedom for the athletes to express themselves and the way we manage a commercial programme to allow the day-to-day support of the athletes to also have a little piece of the games.

I think it is important that we are sensible and that is what the IOC is doing today. The world evolves and everything does evolve. I think you need to have a global frame within the Olympic Games where there are commercial activities and that do finance the game.

If you look at the old organising committee, 97 per cent of our revenues, come from the commercial programme of the IOC. Whether it is through the IOC directly with the TV rights, or the top programme, or with our domestic programme and the ticketing, so this is also part of the overall frame.

But, I think there is more and more room for individual athletes to benefit from their actions and performances.

How will you look to better protect athletes but also enhance opportunities for them to develop commercially and ultimately, they can get some sort of financial benefit from that?

It is not directly a role for Paris 2024 [as the Host City]. Our role is more to offer a platform for the athlete to compete in the

You mentioned domestic commercial partners. What’s the uptake from them in France?

“We like to say that we are taking the baton from Tokyo. Every Games has its own part and We are looking at and considering the situation where companies, for the last couple of years, have been very much centred in how to survive in contribution to Olympic history. We want to be a pandemic situation with lockdowns. But the interest for no different. We want to be a bit more open.” the Games has never altered. We kept contact and continued to have discussions. We already have a pretty good sponsorship programme with more than half of the objectives on board and we have signed about 15 partners. They are very keen on the Games and for the ones we are still discussing with, they see the games as a positive project that is connected to its time and to the people. We have 80 per cent of people in favour of the games in France. That figure rises to 90 per cent when we talk about kids and under 35’s. So, there is a great appeal for the project from the general public and from companies who see this positive project as maybe a way of symbolically to get out of these difficult times. They [local sponsors] have been very supportive and we hope to have some very good announcements in the next few

weeks, but globally the sports industry has been very supportive of the Games as it opens opportunities for them.

The way we approach it again is as openly as possible so we can get a circular economy, working with small businesses and bigger ones. There is room for everyone, so we try to connect those different types of companies. At the end of the Games, the ones that want to use the Games’ sponsorship and communication opportunities, we welcome them, and we feel that through the Games there is a platform that allows them to say who they are.

Looking back at Tokyo 2020 and previous games are there any elements that you are looking to emulate with Paris 2024?

We like to say that we are taking the baton from Tokyo. Every Games has its own part and contribution to Olympic history. We want to be no different and we want to be a bit more open.

There is a huge frustration of not being able to have spectators [for the Tokyo Games] because of the situation, so definitely that’s an aim. But, we want to get one step further in terms of sustainability. What Tokyo did is actually quite remarkable in terms of using new kinds of energy like hydrogen, electric for transport.

When we talk about sustainability the use of plastic, how do we recycle, and our waste management strategy is going to be quite important for us. The full vision with the circular economy and those kinds of things are, for us, at the heart of society and we believe that with the Games we have the opportunity to maybe speed up some of those processes.

I think the IOC as a whole has the idea of finding out how to do better with resources. For example, we want to cut the carbon footprint in half, and we will completely compensate the rest. Actually, we will even overcompensate.

Tokyo led the way, and we are just trying to push a bit harder to go to the next step and reach the next standard.

With environmental policies and technology expectations constantly evolving at such a fast rate, how are you planning ahead in terms of where that going to be in three years’ time and working towards that?

By design our games will be sustainable. When you use 70 per cent of existing venues, you are sustainable and naturally we have a very concentrated concept. I think around 80 per cent of our athletes will be within 10km of the Olympic village. When you translate that into transport operations you get a footprint that is much lower.

It’s also about social responsibility. For example, our headquarters are constructed out of 6,000 square meters of wood and we have solar panels on the roof. The people that work in the restaurant here are hired within the vicinity, while some of them come from socially difficult backgrounds.

We try to make sure that this sustainability aspect is prominent and embedded into the way that we think we should manage big events in the future. We have had discussions with our colleagues from the Commonwealth Games in 2022 on how we can reuse some of their equipment and some of our equipment will be reused in 2026. All these things we are trying to take to the next standard because we think it is important.

Where did that mission come from to take that up and drive sustainability from the start?

I think first of all the IOC is very conscious. We have known in the past that they have been questioned about the size of the Games [and] it's [carbon] footprint. I think they [the IOC] have really embarked with this responsible approach of how we contain the size of the games and how do we make sure that the resources used are used for good reasons.

It is also a global trend in society and I think sport with its reach and visibility has a role to play and we feel very much close to that. If you look at the city of Paris it is quite involved with those climate issues. We had the climate change summit here in Paris and the Paris agreement was something important for the climate and we completely embraced that.

We want to be connected with our time and we believe that sport is good for society, for the welfare of individuals, for the health that sport brings, and benefits in the social aspect of life.

If you could sum up in one sentence what will make Paris unique what would it be?

We believe that interaction is now the aim of the game as people want to be a part of the story and part of something positive. We want to make our Games more open to everyone and connected with our time. U