Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo on Monday said the French capital would give its full backing for the city to organise the 2024 Olympic Games.
“Now we’re off on an Olympic adventure,” Hidalgo said after announcing the city’s official support for the project. President François Hollande put his weight behind a Paris bid in November.
France, still smarting over London’s successful bid in 2005 to host the 2012 games, will be up against Boston and Rome for the 2024 games. Hamburg is also expected to bid.
Hidalgo has until now been cautious about supporting the bid after personally working on two failed attempts to host the games.
But she said on Monday that that a new feasibility study, the Islamist attacks in the city in January, and the likely contribution of 1.8 billion euros from the International Olympic Committee – which will announce the winning city in 2017 – had changed her mind.
The feasibility study has proposed the idea of beach volleyball in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, archery on the Invalides Esplanade near Napoleon’s tomb and fencing in the historic Grand Palais museum.
The Stade de France that held football’s 1998 World Cup final and the French Open tennis venue, Stade Roland-Garros, would also be used.
With so many existing facilities already on the draft plan, only a new swimming pool and a village for the 10,000 athletes would have to be built.
Paris Council’s approval was a major step towards France launching a bid to host the Games, but the final rubber stamp must be given by the country’s Olympic Committee.
A poll published Sunday showed that nearly two-thirds of French people were in favour of an Olympic bid, but a small majority thought that Paris would be better off hosting the 2025 Expo.
If the French capital wins, the Games would be held on the 100th anniversary of the last time Paris staged the Olympics.
