2023-12-20 17:07:08
Operation “All is well”
Opening ceremony, security, transport, ticket prices: there is no shortage of reasons for concern or controversy seven months before the Games. Not enough to undermine the “confidence” and “serenity of the president of Cojo, Tony Estanguet.
As usual, Tony Estanguet displayed serenity this Wednesday, December 20 under all circumstances. “It’s the home stretch, the year is going to be exciting, we can’t wait,” confessed the president of the organizing committee (Cojo) during his last press conference of 2023, 219 days before the ceremony opening. However, these are not the subjects that are annoying, but the three-time Olympic canoe champion contrasted them with his incorrigible optimism, with superlatives that we hope are self-fulfilling.
The opening ceremony ? A celebration which promises to be absolutely magical”, July 26 representing an “absolutely unprecedented moment, like these Games where we want to show the best of France, a France which shines, an attractive France”, inflamed the athlete, who once again threw out any plan B for safety reasons. The parade on the Seine, “this is the only project we are working on”: “there is no questioning of this project which continues”. France’s shift to attack alert level since the resumption of the conflict in the Middle East, the recent attack near the Eiffel Tower, right on the route of the river parade – nothing to undermine its “confidence” and its “serenity “.
Transportation ? Here too, the recent controversies – how to transport 15 million spectators in an outdated and saturated Ile-de-France network – have left him unmoved. “For the transport of accredited persons, we have secured 100% of the fleet; on the public transport side, the offer is being strengthened,” says the president of Cojo, assuring that the organizers have “gone into the details of each of the 878 competitions” to ensure the fluidity of transportation.
He defends ticket prices
The volunteers? The organizers claim to have registered “313,000 applications” on the Paris 2024 platform in one week. It’s a “very strong enthusiasm, we have reason to be calm,” the president boasts.
The budget ? Last week, Cojo was pleased to have managed to maintain stable accounts, at 4.4 billion euros, an increase of 17 million over one year. Last year, inflation linked to the war in Ukraine gave the organizers a cold sweat, forcing them to add an additional 400 million euros – for an overall budget (Cojo and Solideo, responsible for the Olympic works) which was amounts to 8.8 billion. Estanguet was keen to point out that the Cojo budget was “96% financed by private money”, a third by sponsorship, a third by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), a third by ticketing.
At the start of the week, the president of the International Athletics Federation and former president of London 2012, Sebastian Coe judged the prices “a little high” for the Paris Games, reigniting the controversy over Parisian ticket prices. “Whether in London or Tokyo recently, we were at 20 pounds, which is 27 euros with inflation, and, in maximum price, they were at 725 pounds, so a little more than 1,000 euros with inflation today. ‘today,’ Estanguet replied this Wednesday.
If 7.6 million tickets were sold in record time for next summer’s competition, “unheard of in Olympic memory”, there are still a good million to go, particularly for football which, visibly, does not make a recipe. On the Paralympic side, 830,000 tickets have been sold, but there are also places to be taken, from 15 euros.
Tahiti and Emilie Gomis like stones in the shoe
It is only the surfing event in Tahiti that gives Cojo a hard time. Estanguet defended the need to build the judges’ tower, controversial because it was built in the middle of a coral reef. Against the advice of the International Surfing Federation, it wishes to favor “a new option without a tour” consisting of filming the competition from the shore and with drones. Embarrassed, Cojo cautiously adheres to the “almost unanimous opinion” of all local stakeholders, united behind the President of French Polynesia Moetai Brotherson, in favor of continuing the work.
Another big rock in the sand, the Emilie Gomis affair, named after this Paris 2024 ambassador who published an anti-Semitic post, before pleading “isolated error”. However, Tolérance Zéro, the collective behind this affair, revealed that the ex-basketball player had violated not once, but “sixteen times the ethical charter of Paris 2024 by liking and/or reposting anti-France publications”, notably from the preacher anti-Semite Kemi Seba.
And unearthed a like from Emilie Gomis dated August 24 on a post by conspiracy theorist François Asselineau qualifying Emmanuel Macron as a “clown,” a “crazy moron,” and an “obsessive liar” on the subject of France’s commitment to the Sahel. Which is bad for an ambassador… The ethics committee recommended her dismissal. Tony Estanguet explained on Wednesday that he would convene the Paris 2024 general assembly “from the start of the year” to rule on his case. With complete peace of mind.
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