An evidence. Presented on Monday, July 25th, on the eve of the symbolic date of D – 2 years before the opening of the Olympic Games, the slogan of Paris 2024 would be an evidence. “Ouvrons grand les Jeux” for the French version, “Games wide open” for its declension in English, the other language of the Olympic movement.
Julie Matikhine, the director of the brand at the organizing committee, then Tony Estanguet, the president of the OCOG, explained it without holding back their words: the motto unveiled on Monday afternoon was born from an observation, namely a will of opening at the origin of almost all the decisions taken during the last four years.
An opening towards the general public, with the creation of the Paris 2024 Club and the introduction of the marathon open to all. An opening towards France at the end of the world, with the choice of Tahiti as the site for the surfing events. An opening towards the territories, with the launch of the Terre de Jeux label. Finally, the “supreme act“, the opening ceremony on the Seine, in the middle of Paris, with a capacity of 600 000 people, almost ten times the usual capacity of a first evening of the Games in a stadium.
“Games wides open, it is our course since the first day, our ambition to think all the markers for the opening”, summarized Tony Estanguet in front of the media, from the headquarters of the OCOG in Saint-Denis.
Its new motto, imagined internally by the teams of the OCOG, the organizing committee illustrated it by a video where are mixed in a certain disorder the images of the past and those of today, the athletes (Teddy Riner, Usain Bolt…), the youth, the figures of the history (Simone Veil) and the icons of the culture (Serge Gainsbourg). It will be broadcast from this Tuesday, July 26 on the social networks of Paris 2024, but also by the ecosystem of the organizing committee, including partners and channels of the France Televisions group.
In parallel, the OCOG unveiled a series of 11 posters, each supposed to illustrate a part of the opening that Paris 2024 promises for its Olympic and Paralympic Games: the opening ceremony, gender parity, breaking, disability, events outside the stadium …
Other announcement of a day of Monday, July 25 very busy for the OCOG, with in premium a visit of Thomas Bach to the seat of Saint-Denis: the ticketing. It wants, it also, marked by the opening. The opposite would have been unwelcomed.
At D – 2 years, the price list has been finalized. The calendar of the sale of the places also. For the Olympic Games, 10 million tickets will be offered to the general public. First price: 24 euros. Affordable. But Michaël Aloisio, Tony Estanguet’s chief of staff and spokesman for the OCOG, made it clear: this entry price will not concern a handful of disciplines, but all sports. In total, one million tickets will be offered at 24 euros.
Other figures illustrating the will of opening: almost half of the available tickets will be sold at a price equal or lower than 50 euros. Only 8% will cost more than 200 euros. At the top end of the scale, the most expensive seats (excluding ceremonies) will cost 950 euros, a price category that will account for only 0.5% of the total volume of tickets for the general public.
Innovation: the first phase of sales, scheduled to begin in February 2023, will involve three-packs of tickets. Here too, it will be marked by openness, with prospective spectators being able to put together their own shopping basket, regardless of the venue or sport. This first phase will be organized according to a random draw, for which registrations will start in December 2022.
The second phase, announced for May 2023, will concern single tickets. It will also be based on a random draw, separate from the first one. Finally, unsold tickets will be put back on sale, probably at the end of 2023.
Note: members of the Paris 2024 Club will be given priority, with a specific draw. As for the tickets for the ceremonies – opening and closing – of the Olympic Games, their prices will be known later. Their sale should begin in May 2023.
On Monday, July 25, the OCOG Paris 2024 also unveiled the sports calendar, by events, of the Olympic Games. It was known in its broad outlines. The organizing committee revealed the details.
From the first day of the competitions, Saturday July 27, not less than eight sports will distribute medals. The intermediate weekend, Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 August, will offer finals, and therefore titles and medals, in 14 sports.
Great first: the women’s marathon will close the athletics program, instead of the men’s race, on Sunday August 11, a few hours before the closing ceremony at the Stade de France. The last event of the Games will be also feminine: the final of the tournament of basketball. Same inversion of the kinds, and will “break the codes“: the table tennis will finish by the simple women, of the never seen since the entry of the discipline in the Olympic program, in the Games of Seoul in 1988.
