Let it be said: athletes will be able to see double at the Paris 2024 Olympics. The medalists, at least. The organizing committee took out of its ideas box a discovery that will allow them to experience not once, but twice the exhilaration of the celebration. Its name: the Parc des Champions.
In addition to the traditional podium ceremony, always very formal, the medal-winning athletes will be invited to parade the day after or two days after their competition on a giant stage installed at the Trocadéro, facing the Eiffel Tower. Nice place. All around, the big crowd. No less than 13.000 people in maximum capacity, gathered in the pit and the stands.
Access to the Champions Park will be free. It will not require a reservation, even if members of the Paris 2024 Club will benefit from a guaranteed number of places daily. First come, first served. The festivities will begin at 4 p.m. with a “warming up" musical then an artistic show, followed by the parade of medalists between 5:45 p.m. and 7 p.m. The evening will continue until 11:30 p.m. or midnight with the broadcast of the most anticipated finals on a giant screen.
The Parc des Champions will operate from July 29 to August 10, but it will close its doors on July 30, then from August 2 to 4. Four days during which the site will serve as the finish zone for race walking and road cycling events.
Unlike the medal ceremony on the podium, the parade at the Parc des Champions is intended to be collective. The medalists will be gathered there by sport. “ To experience this celebration as a group, with other athletes in their discipline”, explains Brice Guyart, the former fencer, in charge of mobilizing athletes at the COJO Paris 2024. Each medalist will be entitled to four invitations. He can distribute them to his family, loved ones, or members of his team. Depending on the day, between seven and 17 sports will be on display.
Three weeks before the opening, 95% of the delegations accepted the principle of sending their medalists to participate in the celebration. Others ? They have not formally refused, but reserve the right to do so for security reasons. Israel, in particular.
Tony Estanguet, the president of the COJO Paris 2024, revealed it: a handful of “ legends » sports will come to perform on the stage, as masters of ceremonies, to give the place and the moment a more brilliant varnish. Carl Lewis, Dan Carter and Nadia Comaneci, among others, are in the cast.
Another first: the IOC will take possession of the premises, Friday August 9, for a supposedly more formatted ceremony. The presentation of re-awarded medals to ten Olympians following cases of doping by medal-winning athletes. The footage covers two sports – athletics and weightlifting – and three past editions of the Summer Games – Sydney 2000, Beijing 2008 and London 2012.
Please note: the Champions Park is not an Olympic site in the sense that the IOC understands it, the brands will be present. They will be able to display themselves and even run a store. Proof that the unprecedented and the celebration do not prevent business. Alcohol will also be permitted, unlike competition venues.
But, surprise, the Champions Park is not included in the Paralympic Games. Question of logistics. Tony Estanguet recognized this: “We promised to dismantle everything on August 12, the day after the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games. » The celebration will take place elsewhere. At Club France, in particular, for French medalists. Too bad.
