Paris 2024: More urban Games
“We know that we have to bring the benefits of sport to where the people are – this means in the cities and urban areas of our world,” said IOC President Thomas Bach, speaking in September 2023. The Paris 2024 Organising Committee shares that vision, and so decided to stage a whole range of events away from stadiums and in the heart of the city.
Few Paris 2024 venues were more “downtown” than the Champ de Mars. One of the French capital’s best-known public gardens, it was the home of the temporary Eiffel Tower Stadium. The venue for beach volleyball, the arena sat at the foot of the city’s most iconic landmark and encapsulated what it meant to take the Games to the people.
Built for the Paris Universal Exhibition in 1900, an event that encompassed the second Olympic Games of the modern era, the magnificent Grand Palais was the home of fencing and taekwondo at Paris 2024. Another of central Paris’ great attractions, it was fully restored for the Games.
Connecting the Grand Palais with Les Invalides (where the archery events were held along with the marathon finish and cycling time trial start), Pont Alexandre III was the spectacular setting for the marathon swimming, triathlon, and time trial finish. Located close to Place de la Concorde, the Trocadéro, and the Eiffel Tower Stadium, the bridge was both a physical and symbolic link at the heart of Paris 2024’s urban vision.
No venue was more “urban” at Paris 2024 than La Concorde. The public square that connected the Tuileries Gardens and the Champs-Elysées was transformed into an urban park for the duration of the Games and was the home of breaking and Tokyo 2020 veterans BMX freestyle, skateboarding, and 3X3 basketball. The concept captured the imagination of fans, with tickets to events selling out in a matter of hours.
Building on the success of these sports in Tokyo, and making the most of the flexibility offered by Olympic Agenda 2020 in designing an Olympic sports programme, Paris 2024 had added the urban sports skateboarding and sport climbing again to the initial programme, together with surfing and Games newcomer breaking.
On top of that, the Seine was the setting for the most unique Opening Ceremony in Olympic history. The first to be held outside a stadium, it was watched by 220,000 non-paying spectators (plus a further 100,000 with tickets), and set the tone for Games that moulded themselves to the host city, not the other way round.
And Paris 2024’s urban vision was not just restricted to the 17 days of the Games. Joining forces with local authorities, the Organising Committee championed the concept of “active design”, which promoted mobility, sport, and play in public spaces and buildings and was trialled in six pioneering French towns. They included Saint-Dizier, in France’s northeast, where the local council transformed streets and public areas, with 71 per cent of its residents reporting that stairs and newly painted lines in activity areas encouraged them to move around more. Active design solutions were also implemented in two school playgrounds. The aim was to create 1,500 such playgrounds across the country in the next few years.
These initiatives were backed up by Terre de Jeux 2024 certification, which has been awarded to 4,500 French cities, towns, villages and regions in recognition of their efforts to promote sport and the Games among their citizens, and encourage them to be more active.
In the words of the IOC President, Paris 2024’s urban vision was “bringing the power of sport right into the heart of our communities”.