After three days in Los Angeles, International Olympic Committee (IOC) delegates head for Paris to inspect the city’s bid for the 2024 Games against a backdrop of a handover of power to French president-elect Emmanuel Macron.
With just four months to go until the vote in Lima, the 11-member IOC Evaluation Commission will on Sunday begin their three-day inspection of the French capital on the day Macron takes over from Francois Hollande.
Macron, elected last Sunday, has already taken the initiative and reaffirmed his backing for the Paris bid in talks with IOC chief Thomas Bach.
He spoke to Bach by phone and expressed his “attachment to the Paris 2024 project and emphasised France’s longstanding commitment to the Olympic movement”, the bid committee said in a statement.
“We are delighted that even before his inauguration as new president of France he has already found time to speak to the IOC president to reaffirm his full and complete support for Paris 2024,” the co-chairman of the committee Tony Estanguet said.
On the ground, the Paris bid committee will have to showcase the city to the IOC delegates without the head of state.
During Sunday’s opening presentation, Paris officials will highlight the virtues of a project which, from its inception, has focused on legacy.
With just one swimming pool and an Olympic Village to build, the renovation of the transport system being planned for 2022, Paris 2024 claim they are 95 percent equipped to host a third Games after 1900 and 1924.
The IOC will also be looking at the environmental and social impact and how a Paris Games would promote sport to a wider audience, such as women, senior citizens and the disabled.
