How the IOC takes control of Paris during the Olympic Games

Even her. Even the air conditioning installed on the ceiling got its piece of tape. Hop, gone, gone, the name of this large electronics group that begins with an S and ends with a Y. By agreeing to lend part of its premises to the IOC for the duration of the Paris Olympic Games, this prestigious organization located somewhere in the capital (the name must remain confidential) had every intention of tidying up, pushing a few tables and vacuuming. But hunting down the slightest mark? “That, no, never…” we hallucinate in the corridors.

This is how it is: the International Olympic Committee has its official sponsors, and when it arrives somewhere, it pampers them, even in the soap dispensers in the toilets. Convention requires that “any advertising or identification or marks other than those of marketing partners” either “deleted or hidden”. At the beginning of the year, a team from the IOC came to visit the building to list what absolutely had to be hidden inside it before the start of the events.

LThe audit report, which franceinfo has consulted, is around fifty pages long in total. The brand of elevators? “To hide”. The brand of the digital clock? “To hide”. The mark of the coffee distributor? “ To hide”. The brand ofTVs in meeting rooms? “To hide”. The brand of citrus press that employees usually rush to buy in the morning? “To hide” Also.

This employee still sees the small team going from room to room, photographing every internet box, every panel, every switch. “It’s like someone coming to your house and taking the keys to your house and doing whatever they want with it.she says. They told us they would do checks once a week.” According to the people interviewed by franceinfo, the International Olympic Committee is considered at best as a partner “intransigent”at worst “exhausting”. “The IOC demands and we comply,” summarizes, tired, one of them, who prefers to keep his identity silent.

“It’s an organization that is being tacked on to an existing organization and imposing its own rules. It’s madness.”

An anonymous contributor

to franceinfo

For several years, the International Olympic Committee has in fact required host countries to introduce tailor-made legislation to provide an additional level of sanction. This is how, in March 2018, the French Parliament adopted the famous law relating to the organization of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, and, with it, its exemptions from French law to satisfy the requirements of the Lausanne-based behemoth. It is a reinforced concrete protection that has, for example, been erected around the use of the terms “Olympic Games”, “JO” , “Olympiad”, “Olympism”…

And anyone who dares to use them for promotional or commercial purposes without authorization will have to pay. “The protection of Olympic assets is ensured jointly by the IOC and the local organizing committee of the Games, assures the world sports institution to franceinfo. This collaboration enables monitoring, detection and intervention in the event of counterfeiting to be ensured in a comprehensive, rapid and effective manner.”

Communicating about the Olympic Games is therefore a challenge in itself. The city of Roubaix was thus not allowed to rename its sports park in “Olympic Park”as it has been doing for three years as part of its summer activities for children. “We have quickly understood that we were doing something stupidthey explain at the town hall. As a second choice, we proposed ‘Olympic village’ to the organizers. It was another no.”

Finally, go for the third option, which could not be more neutral: “summer village”. Which leads a source at Roubaix town hall to say: “I regret that we are restricted on this type of detail because the population that benefits from our activities is not the same as the one that will go to Paris to see the Olympic Games. These are people who have other priorities than buying tickets for the events. Frankly, where is the competition?”

At the beginning of June, an SME from the North specializing in the sale of sports equipment actually received a letter ordering her to change her name or end up in court. Her mistake: having had the misfortune, more than thirty years ago, to have called herself “Les Olympiades”. “In their eyes, our company constitutes an infringement of intellectual property. It’s as if we were overshadowing the Olympic Games.”says its leader, Guillaume Bourgeois, still bitter.

“The tone used in the letters was incredibly brutal, it was disproportionate. It hit us all at once, we didn’t expect such pressure.”

Guillaume Bourgeois, head of an SME targeted by the CIO

to franceinfo

A few days ago, the manager of a restaurant located near the Nanterre Arena, one of the Paris 2024 Olympic sites, received a visit from a member of the organization: “He came to remind me of the rules, what I was allowed to do, and what I shouldn’t do. For example, I wanted to set up a takeaway sale of fries, he told me that they had the monopoly on ‘take away’, he explains. I I didn’t take it as a threat, but rather as a clarification.”

Very clever, moreover, is the one who manages to pay for his purchases with a card on the sly. MasterCard at competition sites. “Sorry, only Visa cards”replied sheepishly a young salesman to a slightly surprised Dutch family as they left a beach volleyball match on the Champ-de-Mars on Sunday, July 28. The banking group, which is a partner of the Paris Olympics, has a monopoly. Period.

Did you know that the police must also show their credentials to enter an Olympic site? “When we have to intervene, we have to notify our general staff, who in turn ask the IOCexplains a Parisian commissioner assigned to securing the Games. If there is a rape in an Olympic venue and we come to make observations without giving prior notice, even with our requisition card, we will not enter. Needless to say, this puts more than one person off…” This is confirmed by Thierry Clair, general secretary of the police union Unsa: “As soon as we enter the sports grounds, we need accreditation”.

Also watch out for athletes going off the track, especially on social networks. To fully understand the “CIO rules”, lThe entire French delegation was therefore specially trained by the federations and the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF).

“They advised us to always be positive, not to give our opinion, to stay smooth…”

Hugo Hay, middle distance runner

to franceinfo

Each person then received a 44-page document summarizing the instructions. In this note, which franceinfo consulted, we analyzed several examples of publications on social networks. Two options each time: in green, “compliant publication” ; in red, “non-compliant publication”. A medalist is also not allowed to associate his usual sponsors during the season with the Olympic symbols. And the partner in question can only share the medalist’s post, nothing more.

But there is a principle of reality: Paul Jordan challenges the IOC to control each of the millions of past and future posts. The British lawyer advised some official sponsors during the London Olympics in 2012. At the time, “The organisers had clearly adopted a strategy of being very tough before and at the start of the Games, recalls the marketing specialist at Bristows. Old ladies who wanted to knit the Olympic rings onto sweaters, butchers who wanted to hang sausages in the shape of Olympic rings in their windows… There was a lot of noise and threats of action.” Eventually ? “They have resulted in very few significant breaches.”

In the North, the company Les Olympiades finally gave in to the pressure from the IOC. “Today we are certain that we will have to leave aside the name ‘The Olympics’ which has been around for over thirty years. A page is turning… A new chapter will begin with a new name”wrote the SME on his Facebook page. She asks her customers to help her find it. This expense, neither budgeted nor desired, will cost the company 60,000 euros.