An event ? The future will answer. But one thing is certain: the first edition of Global Sports Week, organized this week in Paris (February 5 to 7), promises to be sumptuous. A grandiose place, the Carrousel du Louvre, a golden cast of speakers, 1.300 participants from 70 countries, 300 companies represented and 66 private and institutional partners.
Two days before the first exchanges and debates, FrancsJeux surveyed its president and co-founder (with Laurent Damiani and Arnaud Drijard), Lucien Boyer (photo above), on the identity, ambition and vision of Global Sports Week in Paris. Interview.
FrancsJeux : Why did you decide to organize this first edition of Global Sports Week now, in 2020?
Lucien Boyer : The period is particularly favorable, with the prospect of the Paris 2024 Games. The new decade will be marked by an increased role for France in the international sports movement. The eyes of the whole world will turn to Paris at the end of the Tokyo 2020 Games, and even more so from next year. It seemed to us that the beginning of 2020 could be the right time to set up our event. Before, the French capital was undoubtedly a little less legitimate than London, for example, to bring together every year at the same time the leaders of the sports movement and the most influential figures in its development.
Was such an event missing in Paris, where the major meetings of the Olympic movement (IOC sessions, SportAccord, ANOC general assembly) have long ceased to take place?
Certainly. France has hosted some of the biggest international sporting events, but it has failed to establish itself as a place of influence. Paris deserved better. There was no reason to leave things as they were. We must take advantage of the 2024 Games to change Paris' position. French influence and expertise were recognized, but there was a lack of a place to bring together the actors of the movement.
Can Global Sports Week become a competitor to SportAccord?
We don't play the competitive game at all. We rather seek to combine the different facets of the international sporting universe, covered elsewhere in existing meetings: SportAccord for governance, Sportel for sports rights, Leaders for the football business... The Global Sports Week aims to become a crossroads where everyone can come together: the Olympic movement, but also F1, offshore sailing, the economic sphere…
What identity do you want to give it, to distinguish it in an already very busy landscape?
I repeat, we want to become a crossroads, a place where people and worlds that are often far from each other can come together. We have an innovation component, where start-ups and investors will meet. Civil society is also present. We are also opening the door to culture: music, video games, cinema... Ultimately, we want to combine health sport and education. Another essential point is the crossing of generations. We invited around fifty young people aged 18 to 25, the “Young Sport Makers”, from all over the world. They represent a generation at the heart of the practice of sport.
Global Sports Week is placed under the patronage of the Head of State, Emmanuel Macron. Why did you associate it?
Emmanuel Macron is very international and multilateral. His patronage helped us convince some world leaders to come to Paris. But, through its support, it also shows the importance of sport in the influence of France and the ideas that the country can defend regarding the place of sport in society.
What vision do you have today of this event? Will it become a permanent fixture in the landscape?
Things are clear: our economic model is built over a period of 5 years. This seems to us to be the minimum duration for setting up such an appointment. It will be very interesting to draw up an initial assessment in 2025, but with the desire to see further. We want the international sports movement to get into the habit of coming to Paris, every year at the same time, to understand the challenges of sport and its evolution. Ultimately, we could imagine little sisters at GSW, in Los Angeles and in Asia. But the main meeting will remain in Paris.
