The Paris Olympic Committee invited the AAPA to a breakfast meeting with Committee President Tony Estanguet at their headquarters on Thursday, October 12, for a briefing on the state of play less than a year before the 2024 summer Olympics.
A slalom canoeist, Estanguet served France’s flagbearer at the Beijing games and is the first French athlete to win three gold medals in three different Oympiads (Sidney, 2000, Athens 2004, and London 2012.
He assured us the games were on schedule and on budget, and that the organizers have “never been more ready,” including sprucing up the Seine sufficiently to allow public swimming after the games. The games’ legacy, he said, is not just to develop venues, but to encourage the practice of sports by creating education programs in schools and mandating 30 minutes of physical exercise daily in primary school.
A few highlights of his answers to member questions:
The Paris medal reveal will take place in Q1 of 2024.
Security for the Games is in the hands of the Paris Police, who will decide which bookinistes along the Seine must be removed during the Games. A decision regarding whether they will be restored following the Games is under discussion between the City of Paris and the bookinistes themselves.
In accordance with the recent decision of the IOC, Russian athlete will be allowed to compete in the Para-Olympic Games, but without displaying flags and emblems. A decision on Russian participation in the Games themselves was still under discussion at the time of our meeting.
Front picture: courtesy Paris Olympic Committee