Olympic Day takes place this Thursday, June 23, the opportunity to take stock of the Olympic Games which are coming to us in 25 months. The opening ceremony will take place on July 26, 2024. While the terms of this event have yet to be determined, several other issues are still on the table, in particular the question of the allocation of sports venues.
The construction sites are progressing
On the calendar, no red alert, specifies the organizers. The infrastructures under construction should be delivered on time, in particular the Olympic village in Seine-Saint-Denis which will accommodate more than 10,000 athletes. “At the moment, it’s a floor that is built every 8 days”, we explain at Paris 2024. On the other hand, discussions are still underway around the allocation of certain sites. If boxing arrives in Seine-Saint-Denis, perhaps in the town of Villepinte, the shot could land in Châteauroux but again nothing official.
Basketball in Lille and Paris?
There is also the question of basketball which gives the organizers a hard time. It is one of the most watched competitions during the Olympics, in terms of audience, and several players from the French team but also FIBA, the international federation, are pushing for all matches to take place in Paris. For its part, Paris 2024 is advancing another scenario with matches of the preliminary phase which would be played at the Lille stadium and the final phases at Bercy. For handball, it would be the opposite: the group stage would start at the Porte de Versailles exhibition center and the final would be played in Lille.
All these avenues will be discussed this Thursday, in the executive office. The IOC, the International Olympic Committee, has invited itself into the game to play the role of mediator and “in the end if necessary, it is he who decides”, we warn at Paris 2024. The organizing committee maintains that the Lille track is the “solution, the most balanced technically, geographically and economically”, while the overall budget for the Paris Games has now reached 7.3 billion euros, more than the 6.2 billion initially planned. This budget will be reviewed and revised if necessary in December.
An Olympic day at the foot of the Stade de France
Paris 2024 hopes to endorse a final map of the sites at its next board meeting scheduled for July 12. Until then, a big Olympic day is planned for this Sunday, June 26 near the Stade de France in Saint-Denis with sports events, concerts and many champions who will also be present.