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Video length: 74 min
Virtually no Olympic Games have been on budget. What about the Paris 2024 Games 120 days before the start of the events? Will taxpayers be asked?
We call it the winner’s curse. Apart from Los Angeles in 1984, no edition of the Olympic Games has ever respected its budget. Each city promises the impossible, and absolutely all exceed the promised envelope, until reaching peaks, like in Beijing (2008) or Rio (2016).
But for the Paris Games, we are assured quite the opposite! These will be among “the cheapest games in history“, with an announced budget of 8.8 billion euros. And the organization will be financed mainly by private funds, it is Tony Estanguet, the former kayak champion who became chief organizer, who says this.
Where to look for a few billion more?
What about 120 days before the start of the tests? Will taxpayers be asked? Revelations, unpublished testimonies: “Additional investigation” goes behind the scenes of Paris 2024 and its impact on public finances.
While its deficit is slipping this year well beyond the government’s forecasts, will the State have to look for a few billion euros more to pay for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games?
An investigation by Sébastien Lafargue, Julien Daguerre, Vincent Kelner, Lucie Dulois and Pierre-Louis Devais.
In the red armchairs: Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, Minister of Sports, Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The editorial staff of “Complément d’investigation” invites you to comment on the program on Facebook or on Twitter with the hashtag #ComplementDenquete.
> Replays of France Télévisions news magazines are available on the Franceinfo website and its mobile application (iOS & Android), “Magazines” section.
Among our sources
– “The organization of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games”, report of the Court of Auditors supplementary to Parliament (July 2023).
– THE Paris 2024 official website.
– THE Solideo site, a public establishment responsible for delivering the works and development operations necessary for the 2024 Olympic Games.
– “Paris 2024, economic impact study” from the Center for Sports Law and Economics (2016).
– The Senate hearing of Pierre Moscovici (January 2023).
– “Public deficit: the president of the Court of Auditors evokes a slippage which is very rare”: Pierre Moscovici, guest of “7-10” of France Inter (March 26, 2024).
Non-exhaustive list.