Championing change: IOC Young Leaders win over Olympic fans at Paris 2024

If bright ideas were awarded medals at the Olympic Games, the concept behind the creation of the Champions Park would have been a shoo-in for gold at Paris 2024.

Not far behind was the decision – another masterstroke – to place the IOC’s Young Leaders’ booth inside said park.

Located at the Place du Trocadero at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, the Champions Park was open free of charge to the general public, who came in droves during the Games to celebrate in person with Olympic medallists and to take in the day’s sporting action at boisterous public viewing parties.

With over a quarter of a million people filing through the gates of the Park during the nine days it was operational, there wasn’t a better location anywhere in France for the IOC Young Leaders to engage with the public.

Their mission? “Primarily to spread the message of Olympism365 – that sport is not just for a particular time of year or during sports events,” said Grace Towobola, IOC Young Leader from Nigeria. “Sport can be used for development at any point in time by anybody, every day.”

The choice to place the booth in a public space inside the Champions Park helped deliver the IOC's highest-profile activation targeting Olympic fans at Paris 2024.

“I think we really benefitted from this atmosphere, being in the Park,” said Paul Bayet, IOC Young Leader from France and a Paris 2024 volunteer. “We were probably their only face-to-face touchpoint with the Olympics and the Olympic Movement, and they were likely to remember the interaction.”

Nine Young Leaders worked in shifts at the booth to promote the Olympic values and showcase the positive impact sport can have on society. Their work supported wider efforts throughout the Games to showcase the IOC as an organisation committed to youth empowerment and the contribution of sport to the UN SDGs.

Visitors took part in a range of activities designed to demonstrate how sport can be used as a tool for development in key areas such as equality, inclusion, health and well-being, sustainability and education.

They included interactive exercises, sustainable handcrafting workshops and Q&A sessions with Olympians, Paralympians and other notable figures, including Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus.

“Visiting the IOC Young Leaders at the Champions Park during Paris 2024 was deeply energising,” Professor Yunus said. “It was a space filled with ideas, action and the energy of young people who refuse to accept the world as it is. The passion, creativity and sense of purpose I saw in the IOC Young Leaders are exactly what the world needs right now, and I always feel honoured to stand beside them.”

In addition to interacting in person with the public, the IOC Young Leaders were heavily active on social media. Curating over 5,000 images during their time at the booth, they shared some 350 stories on Instagram alone, reaching an estimated 260,000 people on all social media handles.

Having welcomed 566 Olympians, 5,653 special guests, and 280,000 Olympic fans over the course of its existence, the Champions Park more than lived up to Paris 2024’s motto of being “Games Wide Open.”

And it provided the IOC Young Leaders with the ideal platform on which to actively contribute to the host’s vision of Games that were as accessible, inclusive and connected to the city of Paris as possible.

Delphine Moulin, Director of Games Celebrations for Paris 2024, explained: “The IOC Young Leaders and Olympism365 booth as an international source of exchange – led by youth and touching on a range of important themes – was perfectly suited to public interaction and contributed to our strategy. From a Paris 2024 perspective, it was well received and tailored to our target audience.

“Our vision was to bring sport and the athletes to the heart of our projects,” she added. “It was also to host Games Wide Open and create links between sport and culture. We combined all of that at the Champions Park.”