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Athletics

IOC team descends on Paris to size up Olympic biid

The International Olympic Committee's evaluation commission began a three day visit of Paris on Sunday to analyse in detail the French capital's bid to host the 2024 Games. Paris last hosted the Games in 1924 and is competing against Los Angeles for the honour.

Paris is competing with Los Angeles to host the 2024 Olympic Games.
Paris is competing with Los Angeles to host the 2024 Olympic Games. AFP/Franck Fife
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The IOC will announce the winner on 13 September during its congress in the Peruvian capital Lima.

"Paris has a special place in the Olympic movement," said Switzerland's Patrick Baumann, chairman of the evaluation commission, referring to the first Olympic Congress, which took place at the Sorbonne University in Paris in 1894. It was also the birthplace of Pierre de Coubertin, the IOC's founder.

"Now this beautiful city is building on that heritage. Paris is a special city and everybody in this commission has a special attachment with this city."

The first day of the visit was dedicated to meetings with a key issue embracing the  heritage left by a Games in Paris. The Olympic movement is eager to avoid the damaging images of venues falling into disuse.

While the Los Angeles bid has promoted a ready-made athletes’ village by using buildings in the UCLA campus, Paris organisers are boasting a made-to-measure athletes’ village in northern Paris that will be less than two kilometres from the Stade de France and the Aquatic Centre – the two venues where around 30 per cent of the athletes will compete.

“There’ll be no mistakes in the athletes’ village here because it won’t have been adapted,” said Michael Jeremiasz, one of the members of the Paris 2024 athletes’ committee. The wheelchair tennis champion added: “I will say again what the co-president of the organising committee has said all along: ‘Heritage must not be promises.’”

The IOC visit will continue on Monday with trips to Paris's most famous sites as well as the sporting venues which will feature during the Games. The evaluation commission will publish its report on its visits to Los Angeles and Paris in July.

The bidders have the right to reply before a final briefing for IOC members and international federations. Los Angeles and Paris will then take delegations to Peru to make a final presentation to IOC members before the vote.

 

 

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