Paris is striving to present its best image ahead of the Olympic Games, which begin in just over a month. The aim is to transform its appearance, modernise the city and host events in different parts of the capital.
The thirty-third Olympic Games of the modern era, and the third to be held in Paris, represent an opportunity to reshape the look and feel of the world’s biggest sporting event in terms of athletes and participating countries, and the World Cup in terms of audiences and expectations worldwide.
“We are going to the heart of the city and away from the stadiums,” Pierre Rabadan, deputy mayor of Paris in charge of sport and the Olympic and Paralympic Games, told AFP.
It marks a change in the Olympic model, which has long centred on main stadiums or Olympic parks on the outskirts of cities.
“Once we are in the city centre, it will be special because it will be the playing field and no other city has done this,” Christophe Dubi, executive director of the Olympic Games at the International Olympic Committee, told AFP. “The Games adapt to the city and the region, not the other way around.”
The number of construction projects required for an Olympic Games is logistically challenging, but creating a series of temporary venues in the heart of a city whose residents are notorious for complaining at Olympic levels has presented particular challenges.
The Opening Ceremony will take place on the Seine on 26 July, and the long-distance swimmers and triathletes (if everything goes according to plan) will also compete along the river from the gilded Pont Alexandre III in front of the Invalides and the Place de la Concorde, both of which will host other events, to the Grand Palais, another venue near the Eiffel Tower, and the Fan Park at the Trocadero, two other venues for official competitions.
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As the games approach, everything is getting dressed up for the occasion. Banners dominated by the Games’ purple colour are being hung, reddish-pink plastic squares are being laid in cycle lanes, commercial areas and streets with schools are being decorated and the 2,000 planned posters are appearing on the main avenues. The iconic Eiffel Tower is adorned with the five rings of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Workers can still be seen at temporary competition sites, although the plan was to have everything ready close to the opening so as not to disrupt people’s daily lives for too long.
In a city expected to see at least 20% more visitors than in a typical summer, some 45,000 people will be responsible for security in a city where armed soldiers and police patrols are typically seen.
In the heart of the city, the 19-acre Place de la Concorde will host an “urban park” with skateboarding, climbing and BMX biking, as well as DJs and a fully vegetarian food offering. Dubi said the strategy was to “make the Olympics more open, more urban, younger, more balanced, more generous”.
The Olympic Games, said Konstantinidis, must be “sustainable both from an environmental point of view and as an event that does not contribute to what we call benchmark inflation”. These Games, he said, are challenging the trend of “more and more and more and bigger and bigger and bigger”.
While the Games could transform Parisin the run-up to 2028 and 2032, Dubi was cautious about the long-term impact of the Olympics and whether it could be replicated in the future. “The local flavour, the local culture, is what makes them richer every time,” said the executive director.
“Don’t try to replicate the culture of Paris in Los Angeles. Don’t try to replicate Hollywood and the star power of Los Angeles in Brisbane,” concluded someone who has been with the IOC for over 17 years.