Next Paris 2024 Hires Expected in March

(L-R) President of the French National Olympic Committee Denis Messiglia, French Olympic champion Guy Drut, President of the Regional Council of Ile-de-France Valerie Pecresse, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, French canoe champion and co-president of the Paris candidacy Tony Estanguet, former International Rugby Board Chairman and president of the French Committee for International Sports Bernard Lapasset pose in front of the Eiffel Tower on Velib bicycles at the Champ de Mars in Paris on October 2, 2016. Paris, which last hosted the Olympics in 1924, is competing against Budapest, Rome and Los Angeles for the 2024 Olympic games. / AFP / POOL AND AFP / Thomas SAMSON (Photo credit should read THOMAS SAMSON/AFP/Getty Images)

(ATR) Paris 2024 President Tony Estanguet says establishing a qualified team to deliver the Olympics and Paralympics is priority number one in 2018.

"We have many things to do at the moment, we have to recruit people and definitely that’s the top priority for me is to build the team around me and Etienne Thobois the CEO," Estanguet tells Around the Rings on a conference call with select reporters. "We will spend a lot of time to build the team."

Estanguet and Thobois are the sole members of the Paris 2024 Organizing Committee that officially began operations on Jan. 18. Estanguet tells ATR the next members of the team will be hired after the Olympics in PyeongChang that begin next week.

"We have also to select a recruitment agency that will be in charge of future hires," Estanguet says. "We have received applications so that’s also why we are not ready now to choose those applications. But I hope it's possible for the beginning of March."

The March hires will include the chief financial officer, human resources director and international relations director. Applications for these positions closed on Jan. 15. However, the need for a recruitment agency for consultation and Estanguet’s three-week trip in South Korea for the Olympics has pushed the hiring to March.

Once more members of the team are finalized the OCOG will begin to lay out its plans for delivering the Games in six years.

"The second priority is definitely to work on the vision and the identity of Paris 2024 to make sure that all of our actions and next programs will fulfill this vision and will be very effective," he says.

Included in this vision is ensuring the next generation of athletes and citizens in France live and compete by the Olympic and Paralympic values. Paris 2024 began its second annual Olympic and Paralympic week across 450 schools in France on Jan. 27 to jump start this process.

Estanguet and many of the athletes involved in Paris 2024’s bid for the Games are visiting schools throughout the week

"The message is about making sure that sport will be more practiced by this generation," he tells ATR. "I think this Olympic and Paralympic week in school is a good vehicle to promote the development of the practice of sport and make sure sport is part of their daily life and we know there is a good margin to improve for this society to have more sport practiced by the kids at this stage."

The Olympic and Paralympic week in schools will conclude on Feb. 3.

Written by Kevin Nutley

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