The Paris 2024 Games have barely started. An opening ceremony on the Seine, Friday July 26, then a first weekend of competitions. Little more than a warm-up. But Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of the French capital, is already thinking about what comes next.
Invited Monday July 29 on France Blue Paris, she surprised everyone by confiding her wish to see the city keep three “souvenirs” of the Olympic Games, after the closing ceremony, Sunday August 11. The cauldron installed in the Tuileries Garden, the female statues presented in one of the twelve paintings in the artistic spectacle of the opening ceremony. And above all, less expected, the Olympic rings hung since June 7 on the Eiffel Tower.
“There are three symbols that we must focus on so that they can remain as a legacy, explained Anne Hidalgo. There are the Olympic rings on the Eiffel Tower, the cauldron, an extraordinary, magnificent object, and the place in which it is located is magnificent. There is alsothe very beautiful statues that we saw emerging in the sorority sequence and on which I have long been thinking that they would also have their place in Paris, particularly in the 18th arrondissement. »
Possible ? For the statues, certainly. For the cauldron, the answer is just as positive. A petition has even already been launched on the Internet for it to be kept in the Tuileries permanently. For the Olympic rings, on the other hand, the subject is more complex. The Games symbol is the property of the IOC. The body protects them as if they were solid gold, obviously for commercial reasons, but also to preserve their rarity.
But the idea suggested by Anne Hidalgo on Monday July 29 seems to appeal to the envoys from Lausanne. Asked by FrancsJeux, the executive director of the Olympic Games at the IOC, Christophe Dubi, recognized that the body would be “ very happy "to see the rings remain as a legacy in the French capital, visible to all, on a monument as “iconic » as the Eiffel Tower.
« We would be happy and proud, he explained. This could be part of the legacy of the Paris 2024 Games. The rings permanently hung on the Eiffel Tower would constitute a very strong sign, but also a point of pride, for the entire Olympic movement."
Same story with Mark Adams, the IOC spokesperson. The Briton clarified FrancsJeux that the question was more of a Parisian affair than a subject to be dealt with from Lausanne. But he confirmed that the IOC would certainly welcome the five rings signing a long-term lease to observe Paris day and night, long after the end of the Games, from a high floor of the Eiffel Tower.
However, the precedents are not legion. In Tokyo, the giant rings installed during the 2020 Games on a concrete barge anchored in the Obaida marine area were dismantled shortly after the closing ceremony. They were replaced by the three “Agitos”, symbols of the Paralympic Games.
In Sydney, they were also not preserved under the Harbor Bridge, opposite the Opera House, where they had been hung for the Summer Games in 2000. On the other hand, five Olympic rings still stand today not far from Albertville, on the side of the highway, in memory of the Winter Games in 1992.
