Paris 2024 'On Track' Despite Pandemic

(ATR) The Paris 2024 Organizing Committee receives high scores after the latest virtual IOC Coordination Commission.

"Paris is on track. Paris is where we expected it to be," CoComm chair Pierre-Olivier Beckers-Vieujant told reporters during a press briefing , "despite the current environment which I don’t have to describe to you as very complex, very difficult due to the pandemic".

Later he became more effusive in his praise, saying "every aspect around the Games is amazing us so far" and that "it’s really with great enthusiasm that we concluded the meeting today".

Tony Estanguet, Paris 2024 president, says that it was important to share with the stakeholders "all the work done by the team over the last months to adapt to the new context with this epidemic and demonstrate that we are ready to take over after Tokyo."

Estanguet believes that Paris 2024 is better prepared than ever thanks to the close working relationship it has had with Tokyo 2020 and the IOC during the pandemic.

He says the Paris team has incorporated some of the Tokyo 2020 measures, including ways to simplify the project, into its own planning.

Estanguet also said there is a Plan B lined up should the Paris Administrative Court of Appeal rule against allowing the construction of the media village. He says a court decision will probably be made by the end of June.

Should Paris 2024 fail to gain the environmental authorization to build, media instead would be housed in hotels.

"The good news is we have secured more rooms of hotel accommodations than what we had identified in the bid process. So now we are over 45,000 rooms already secured at the same level of price."

"The legacy won’t be the same and again, it’s more for the public authorities that really wanted this," says Estanguet. The media village, like the Olympic Village, is supposed to be used for housing after the Games end.

Homepage photo: IOC

Written and reported by Gerard Farek

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