Ten years. The World Union of Olympic Cities is celebrating next week in Paris (November 27 to 29), host city of the next Summer Games, the first decade of existence of its annual meeting, the Smartcities & Sport Summit. It promises to be a historic edition, with more than 300 participants and around thirty speakers. At the top of the list, Thomas Bach, the president of the IOC.
FrancsJeux asked Mélanie Duparc, the secretary general of the World Union of Olympic Cities.
FrancsJeux : In ten years of existence of the Smartcities & Sport Summit, what has been the biggest change?
Mélanie Duparc: The smartcities & sport network was originally created to meet the needs of the Olympic cities. Once the Olympic Games are organized, they find themselves facing the same challenge as any other city that wishes to integrate sport for its urban development and the good of its communities. We have therefore expanded the network to all cities, large and small, with or without Olympic ambition. To meet these needs, we have always tried to cover very broad themes: health, tourism, education, marketing, town planning... This approach has not changed in ten years. On the other hand, we added another idea, that of creating a network of networks. For several years, we have relied on other relays and skills, by creating partnerships with national organizations dedicated to cities and sport, particularly in Denmark, the United States and Japan. These expertise relays bring a lot to the smartcities & sport network.
Today there is a lot of talk about legacy and sustainability in Olympic cities. Were these themes already discussed ten years ago?
We were already talking about it, but differently. Legacy has always been at the heart of the work and discussions of the World Union of Olympic Cities. We talk about heritage in a broad way, because we bring together cities that had the Games more than 100 years ago, and others that organized them recently. We started working on this before the IOC clarified its definition and integrated it before, the phases of the Olympics, before during, after. . I would say the same thing about sustainability. We have been talking about it for a long time, but this theme was mainly linked to environmental issues. Today, sustainability encompasses a broader field. It concerns in particular the social and economic aspects, which will be discussed extensively during the smartcities & sport summit this year.
How can we ensure a long-term legacy when, at the same time, the IOC encourages host or candidate cities to no longer build new facilities?
The IOC understands this: the interest of cities today is to limit construction. For cost reasons, but not only. A host city must define the needs of its inhabitants, and take advantage of the Games to respond to them, without trying to go beyond. For this reason, the notion of inheritance has changed. It is no longer focused on sites and equipment, but also on sports practice, youth, inclusion… The legacy is also built much earlier in time. It precedes the event. Los Angeles and Dakar are providing proof of this today, by bringing the legacy of the 2028 Games and the 2026 YOG to life today, several years before the event.
Smartcities & Sport Summit celebrates its tenth anniversary in Paris, the next Olympic city. Will the French capital represent a turning point in the way the Olympic and Paralympic Games are hosted?
Certainly. The approach of the COJO Paris 2024 marks a real change. The next Summer Games will be the first to be fully in line with the resolutions of the IOC Agenda 2020. They will also be the first aligned with the Paris climate agreement. The OCOG displays a desire to be exemplary in terms of carbon impact, with its project to halve CO2 emissions. The Paris 2024 Games will also be the first to rely on 90% of existing or temporary sites. The strategy put in place in terms of sports practice, with the national program of 30 minutes of sports per day at school, is also intended to be exemplary to ensure a legacy of the Games in society.
With less than 10 months until the 2024 Games, what do you think will be the main impact of the event on the city of Paris?
The most visible impact, and also the most publicized, is to have made the Seine suitable for swimming. This will redefine the face of Paris. The Games also contribute to profound urban renewal, in Paris itself with the new Arena at Porte de la Chapelle, and in Seine-Saint-Denis with the construction of an athletes' village intended to become a place of housing. Another impact of the Games, perhaps less visible, is to have served as an accelerator for gender equality, accessibility and social responsibility.
The issue of inclusion is increasingly being highlighted in the host cities of the Olympic and therefore Paralympic Games. Is this a myth or a reality? Can the Games really change the way we look at disability and its place in society?
To change the way we look at disability, we must start by looking at disability. Inclusive sporting events, starting with the Paralympic Games, highlight and highlight people with disabilities. They make them visible. It's not that common. The Paralympic Games also act as an accelerator for the accessibility of a city. Before the 2020 Games, Tokyo redeveloped its urban space, making train stations and sidewalks more accessible, etc. The same work is being done in Paris for the 2024 Games.
