11:00 p.m., July 2, 2022
Early Friday afternoon, in the middle of a busy schedule, the three-time Olympic canoe champion, Tony Estanguet, 44, on the front line since the start of the project, explained himself for half an hour. in videoconference.
Paris 2024 seems to be going through a zone of turbulence. Where is the project?
He is a little stronger every day. Since 2017, we have managed to seize opportunities to make it more impactful. It’s a promise of unity, cohesion, pride… We are constantly in this alliance between succeeding in making people vibrate and creating meaning and value so that the project is most useful, especially in Seine-Saint-Denis. . So overall it’s going well. However, given its complexity, there are challenges. So far, we have managed to find this balance by anticipating them. After two years of Covid and an international war, Paris 2024 is facing, like everyone else, a particular context. We must continue to be flexible to maintain this ambition of extraordinary Games while respecting the stages.
Read also – Tony Estanguet at the JDD: “The success of Paris 2024 depends on the Paralympics”
The budget envelope has grown since 2017. Is there a risk of slippage?
We have been progressing very calmly on this subject since the beginning. We have respected each financial year since the creation of the Cojo. We are at nearly 4 billion to 98% financed by the private sector. We will redo a budget revision at the end of the year with always the objective of balance, it is our responsibility. We had spent 11% of our budget at the end of 2021, we had secured 66% of our income. There, we will have exceeded 20% of expenses at the end of 2022 but we will, I hope, be at 80% of our secure income. I have asked that our expenditure forecasts be audited so that we can gradually assess our trajectory as accurately as possible.
You received the audit committee report on Thursday. Is he alarmist?
From what I’ve read, not at all. It is useful because it is very concrete. There has been an enormous amount of work by Jacques Lambert and his teams to understand the forecast trajectories of income and expenditure. The idea is to anticipate the hazards, because there will be some, that’s for sure. I had ordered it in March to talk about it at the July 12 board meeting. We will work with the audit committee to ensure that the budget review is in line with its recommendations.
How to manage the cost of inflation?
This is the challenge of the moment. We know that we will be impacted, we do not know by how much. We must now begin to appraise each line of expenditure. How to better reduce the additional costs in terms of transport, catering, services… How to be creative to reduce the number of sites; shooting and basketball are good examples.
You have just signed Carrefour, we are talking about LVMH. How many sponsors do you expect?
It is going well. We are on schedule, I have set the target of 80% at the end of the year, I remain confident despite the context. It’s a challenge, we’re not going to hide it. Companies are also impacted, but they remain interested.
What about the state guarantee of 3 billion euros?
It is not exceptional at Paris 2024; it is a host city element. The objective is not to activate it. She won’t. Once again, the budget of the organizing committee is self-financing. I remind you that we also have our contingency reserve of 300 million euros which, to date, has not been consumed.
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Safety has been at the heart of our priorities from the start
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The events at the Stade de France have brought to light the subject of security, in Seine-Saint-Denis, and that of the opening ceremony. Are you worried ?
Even if there were these incidents, from which lessons should obviously be learned, you have to keep your cool and rely on the expertise that is there. Safety has been at the heart of our priorities from the start. Anything else we do will have no value if we don’t show up. In January 2021, we signed a memorandum of understanding which distributes responsibilities. An executive committee on private security is also led by the interministerial delegate for the Games [Michel Cadot]. We launched the first calls for tenders at the end of 2021 to have visibility by the end of the year on the capacity of the market to provide the 22,000 agents needed. We never make a decision if it has not been validated by all the actors upstream. The day we announced the ceremony on the Seine, there had been working groups for a year. We are going forward. We don’t always choose the easy way because we want to demonstrate that this country has the capacity to organize major events.
Is there a plan B for the opening ceremony?
No. We are already in the operational phase to deliver this ceremony according to what was decided in December 2021.
In matters of governance, you are criticized for not taking into account the points of view of the board of directors, in particular those of politicians. Do you hear it?
This is not my perception of things. Paris 2024 is probably the most collective private organization; this was not necessarily the case with London 2012. From the start, we wanted to involve public players. The Court of Auditors and other organizations have rather mentioned good governance in their reports. I stick to the facts. If the project is stronger today, it is because collectively we have been able to pass stages.
Given the current labor shortage, will you have difficulty recruiting?
Here again, we anticipated by ensuring that we would not have any problem in our ability to find suppliers; because, for us, the vast majority are service providers. But yes, for recruitment specific to Paris 2024, it is a challenge. So far, we can’t complain. Lots of resumes are coming. As for the volunteers, we are not worried, the world of sport is the first associative fabric in France.
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