The date will quickly be forgotten. It is only symbolic. But the event is important. Monday, November 4, under a sunless sky, the French Prime Minister, Edouard Philippe, kicked off construction work on the athletes' village for the Paris 2024 Games.
He did it on time. On the exact date and at the appointed time, specifies SOLIDEO, the delivery company for the Olympic works. Delays, if there are any, will come later.
Proof of the symbolism of the gesture, Edouard Philippe made the short trip to Seine-Saint-Denis accompanied or followed by an imposing battalion of ministers, elected officials and personalities from the sports movement. Let us cite, without concern for a protocol order, the Minister of Sports, Roxana Maracineanu, her colleague in charge of the City and Housing, Julien Denormandie, the Secretary of State in charge of People with Disabilities, Sophie Cluzel, the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, the special delegate of the Île-de-France region in charge of the Games, Vincent Roger, the president of the CNOSF, Denis Masseglia.
Nicolas Ferrand, the general director of SOLIDEO, walked his talk to detail the why and how of an athletes' village intended to become a new district of 2025 housing units from 3.000. Tony Estanguet, the president of the COJO Paris 2024, observed the scene without leaving a smile for the occasion.
As expected, Edouard Philippe spoke about heritage. Less than 5 years before the Games, the post-Paris 2024 period has already been made a priority. The IOC will appreciate it. “ If we want the Games to be successful, all this organization, this funding, this mobilization must not disappear when the Olympic flame goes out., suggested the Prime Minister. This all has to last. There has to be something left. This something will be material: public facilities and this 51-hectare village. But it is also practices, public policies and in particular the fact of redeveloping the practice of sport among our fellow citizens. »
The inheritance, then. Material and intangible. In concrete and muscles. How ? The response was provided this same Monday, November 4, decidedly very Olympic, at the end of an interministerial council dedicated to the legacy of the Paris 2024 Games.
In the morning, Edouard Philippe produced an impressive collection of 170 measurements related to the Games. They are intended to forever transform French society, its champions and its anonymous people, into winning machines for the former, into followers of physical effort for all the others.
The palette is wide. Among the measures already known, the creation of a Pôle Emploi unit dedicated to positions linked to the Paris 2024 Games; an “aquatic ease” plan (elegant formula) intended to combat drowning; a cycling plan; a tax exemption system to facilitate sport in businesses and encourage them, in exchange for an exemption from charges, to equip themselves with sports equipment, showers and changing rooms.
In the new items section, the basket presented by Edouard Philippe weighs a good amount. School figures prominently, with the announced (and quantified) increase in the number of sport studies (more than 1000 new sections due in 2024), but also the establishment of new school rhythms where the afternoon would be dedicated to sports practice. One hundred and fifty classes have already volunteered for a first phase of experimentation.
Less classic, the government's decision to declare September 2020 “ month of physical and sporting activity. » The French will be invited to get active, in order to achieve the national objective of a 20% reduction in the number of adults spending more than 3 hours a day in front of their screen outside of work.
For the high level, a budget of 20 million euros will be allocated to a research program on high sporting performance. It is intended to increase the chances of French medals at the 2024 Games. Always a good idea, even if the sports research project, unlike the work on the athletes' village, seems to be lagging behind.
