With the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games barely over, the Paris 2024 Organizing Committee (OCOG) had a few files on the top of the pile on the menu of its Board of Directors (CA), Tuesday, September 21. The recruitment of volunteers who will take part in the Paris Games in three years and the Olympic torch relay were discussed in particular.
The campaign to find 45,000 volunteers – there were more than 70,000 in Tokyo, whose oldest was 91 – essential to the smooth running of the Games, should mobilize the Paris 2024 teams during the coming months. The organizers reiterated their objective of strict parity, as well as their desire to promote the diversity of profiles and applications from people with disabilities. The only prerequisites for applying: be an adult at 1er January 2024 and know how to speak French and / or English – 3% to 5% of volunteers are foreigners.
The 45,000 volunteers (31,500 for the Olympic Games, 13,500 for the Paralympics) – their total depends on the number of both sports on the program and competition venues – will have, among other tasks, among the 75 missions assigned to them. are entrusted, the reception of the public around the stadium, the driving of the transport shuttles for the athletes and the Olympic staff, or the assistance with sports operations (timing, rankings, etc.).
700 towns crossed by the torch relay
The platform to submit an application will be open from February 2023. Until then, the organizers will be able to rely on the host communities of the Games and on the Olympic federations to identify profiles of volunteers, and will launch at the fall 2022 a national and international communication campaign. The objective: to collect more than 100,000 files, “At least two candidates per application opportunity”. Downside: the volunteers will pay for their expenses (accommodation, transport) to participate in “The Olympic party”, and will have to buy their own ticket if they want to attend the Games as spectators.
Another subject on the CA table on Tuesday: the route of the Olympic flame, which will be unveiled in mid-2023 – just like the identity of the torchbearers -, specifies the OCOG. It will leave, as tradition dictates, from the city of Olympia, Greece, in the spring of 2024. Some 700 municipalities, including 70 stopover towns (with at least one passage in the overseas territories), will be crossed by the different relays. The organizers want a unique torch relay, common to the Olympic and Paralympic Games, and promise a carbon neutral course.
The iconic French heritage will not be forgotten nor the passage through Strasbourg or Brussels for “The little European wink”, adds the OCOG, which also ensures to think about a hook by Italy, where will take place in 2026 the Olympic Winter Games in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo.