What will the opening and closing ceremonies of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games look like? More than three years before the event, the subject is not urgent. In the midst of a health crisis, it might even still seem anecdotal. However, it has become relevant today.
Tony Estanguet, the president of the organizing committee, recognized this on Tuesday June 1, at the end of the fourth meeting of the IOC Coordination Commission, held once again by videoconference: the OCOG teams are currently working on the file. With a course of action, always the same: to move the lines.
Tony Estanguet makes no secret of it: all options are on the table. Starting with the most innovative: taking the ceremonies, or at least one of them, out of the Stade de France and bringing them to Paris. The Seine could then serve as the theme of the evening, with the Eiffel Tower prominently in the decor.
The decision has not been made. The COJO is giving itself a few more months to decide the question. An announcement is expected before the end of 2021. The date December 13 is underlined with a thick line to reveal the answer.
A ceremony outside the stadium would be a first at the Olympic Games. The Argentinians tried it before anyone else, but at the Youth Games in Buenos Aires in 2018. On the scale of the Summer Games, it would be unprecedented.
What does the IOC think? “ We are clearly very in favor of it, assured FrancsJeux the Belgian Pierre-Olivier Beckers, president of the coordination commission for the Paris 2024 Games. Taking the ceremonies out of the stadium and into the neighborhoods, in order to share the values of Olympicism with the population, would meet the objective of making the Games useful to people. We encourage the Paris 2024 organizing committee to move in this direction"
In principle, the IOC's unambiguous position can be understood. At a time when Japan is preparing to host the Tokyo Games in a climate of mistrust among its population, any idea likely to bring the general public closer to the Olympic event is surely worth taking.
In practice, however, the option of one or more ceremonies outside the stadium would not be without effect on the budget of the Games. It would cut into ticketing revenue, while further inflating security expenses. The IOC does not mention it, despite its obsession with encouraging organizers to reduce costs.
In the meantime, Paris 2024 is focusing on the immediate: the passing of the Olympic flag. It must take place during the closing ceremony of the Tokyo Games, Sunday August 8, 2021. The Parisian organizers will be entitled to occupy the stage for around ten minutes, for a show whose tone and contours remain secret. Then Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, should receive the five-ringed flag from Yuriko Koike, the governor of Tokyo. Paris will then officially become the next host city for the Summer Games.
Due to the health crisis, the French presence will be limited to the Tokyo Games. Tony Estanguet explained it: the OCOG is reduced today to a delegation of around fifty people, or less than half of the initial forecasts. “ And that number could go down even further”, he specifies. The members of the board of directors of the Paris 2024 Games, in particular, will not be traveling.
There is no question, however, of resigning ourselves to a handover experienced remotely, everyone at home, in front of their television screen. “ Our teams are currently working on how to generate impact, in France, around the Tokyo Games, explains Tony Estanguet. We want people to be able to fully experience the event of the transmission of the Olympic flag live."
In Paris, a fan zone will be set up at the Trocadéro, facing the Eiffel Tower. Sunday August 8, it will welcome personalities who were unable to travel to Japan for the Tokyo Games. It will also allow the public to learn about Olympic disciplines, in the presence of champions. The same concept should be duplicated, on a smaller scale, in around ten other French cities.
