The Paris 2024 Board of Directors met this Thursday, March 30, at the headquarters of the Organizing Committee for a progress report on the Olympic and Paralympic project. Almost 500 days before the opening of the Paralympic Games, Paris 2024 and all of its stakeholders have reaffirmed their collective commitment and their high level of ambition to ensure that the first Paralympic Summer Games organized in France are a great moment. of celebration and that they contribute to leaving a legacy for the inclusion of people with disabilities.
A collective mobilization to make the first Summer Paralympic Games organized in France a great moment of celebration, festive and popular.
The Paris 2024 Board of Directors has made a progress report on the Organizing Committee’s Paralympic integration strategy, which aims to create the conditions for an exceptional sporting spectacle and to place inclusion at the heart of his project by making sport a vector of societal change.
The Paris 2024 teams recalled the three key commitments made during the bid period, as well as the concrete actions implemented to make the Paralympic Games a success, with the support of all project stakeholders:
- Consolidation of the Paralympic Games as a premier sporting event, with the choice of emblematic and spectacular competition sites allowing Para sports to be celebrated in the heart of Paris (armchair fencing and para taekwondo at the Grand Palais, Para archery on the Esplanade des Invalides, etc. ) and the organization of the first opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games outside a stadium, from the bottom of the Champs-Elysées to the Place de la Concorde. To give the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games a unique impact, the media coverage of the event will be unprecedented, with a record number of 300 hours of broadcast on the antennas of France Télévisions and the organization in conjunction with the CPSF, from present, awareness sessions on the Paralympic Games for the national media. To build and expand the fan base of the Paralympic Games, it is finally a spectator journey designed in the light of accessibility issues, from the purchase of tickets via a dedicated ticket office, to the experience in the stadium. .
- Support for the development of Para sports and the promotion of Paralympic athletes, with the awareness of young generations to Para sports through the Olympic and Paralympic Week (SOP) organized each year since 2016 in conjunction with the Ministry of National Education and the Ministry of Higher Education, nearly 95% of projects including disability awareness, and whose theme for the 7th edition this year will focus on inclusion. Support for local projects and initiatives involving Para sports also involves the action of the Paris 2024 Endowment Fund: 10% of the projects supported are exclusively dedicated to access to or development of sports practice for people in disability, such as the development of inclusive clubs in collaboration with the CPSF, the city of Paris and the Department of Seine-Saint-Denis, whose state has announced the expansion to create 3,000 inclusive clubs of here 2024. The organization of the Paralympic Games in France is also an opportunity to define a new standard in the organization of events, by developing the ISO 20121 standard in terms of accessibility and inclusion. This approach was successfully initiated during the first Paralympic Day, where the accessibility measures implemented were praised by AFNOR.
- Improving Paralympic brand recognition and value, by reconciling on the one hand an unprecedented logic of integration by the choice of a united French team, a common emblem and slogan. And on the other hand, by the desire to increase the visibility of the Paralympic movement, with the success of the first Paralympic Day organized in Paris, place de la Bastille, in September 2022 and the creation of a Paralympic mascot with an apparent disability through a racing blade.
A shared desire to build on the positive dynamics of the Games to promote access to sport for people with disabilities and leave a lasting legacy
Following the presentation in plenary session, Wednesday, March 29, of the opinion of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE) on the development of Para sport in France, Thierry Beaudet, President of the CESE, Marie-Amélie Le Fur and Dominique Carlac’h, co-rapporteurs, presented the conclusions of the rapport following the referral to the ESEC. The Board of Directors of Paris 2024, through its President Tony Estanguet, and the President of the EESC, Thierry Beaudet, underlined the quality of the work, which is part of a broader collaboration between Paris 2024 and the ESEC, aiming to make the Paris 2024 Games a vector of inclusion and sustainable cohesion for all citizens. A renewal of calls for projects from the Paris 2024 Endowment Fund for the period 2023-2024
A renewal of calls for projects from the Paris 2024 Endowment Fund for the period 2023-2024
The Paris 2024 Board of Directors also adopted the strategic orientations and budget envelopes of the Paris 2024 Endowment Fund for the period 2023-2024. By renewing the existing calls for projects, Paris 2024 as well as the State, the communities, the sports movement and the partner companies that surround it are maintaining their ambition to strengthen the social impact of sport.
The Board of Directors of Paris 2024 has affirmed the wish to continue to support the winning projects of previous editions in priority in order to optimize their impact and their potential for sustainability. He welcomed the co-funding commitment which prepares the future of the projects and begins now their lasting legacy beyond the Games.
For the 2023-2024 period, a total envelope of 4.95 million euros has been voted to support projects with a strong social impact.
