The Paris 2024 Olympic Video games are solely a 12 months away, however many French cities refuse to host the Olympic torch relay for monetary causes.
The eyes of the world will flip to France in July 2024, when the Summer season Olympic Video games kick off with a spectacular opening ceremony on the Seine River.
Earlier, the Olympic torch will embark on a two-month journey throughout the nation, after traversing the globe on its manner from the Greek Olympus to the French capital.
However this Olympic custom is changing into a headache for the organizersas cities have mentioned a well mannered “no merci” to the go to of the Olympic torch relay, citing the excessive prices concerned.
Councils have been requested to shell out 150,000 euros, 180,000 if taxes are included. A minimum of 10 of the 96 metropolitan departments – the executive rung under the regional degree – have already declared that they won’t host the torch.
Tensions on the floor
Residents of the Rhône division in southeastern France, the place the nation’s third metropolis, Lyon, is situated, will be unable to see the torch.
For some it’s a supply of frustration. In an announcement printed by the Rhône department of the younger supporters of Emmanuel Macron, “Les Jeunes avec Macron“, the division drew criticism for a choice supposedly made for environmental causes.
“The narrow-mindedness of environmentalists who confuse the battle in opposition to world warming with an ecological puritanism that will prohibit all types of festive spirit.”
Nonetheless, these are usually not the explanations being put ahead by the division and the town.“Asking 180,000 euros from every division doesn’t make any sense. Some departments are smaller and others are much less strong. It will have been extra logical for the areas to prepare the funding of the torches on the regional degree to ensure territorial fairness”, declared Bruno Bernard, President of Lyon Metropole.
“Naturally, we might have appreciated to host the flame, however the financial circumstances demanded by the Olympic Committee – 180,000 euros for an exercise that solely lasts in the future – appear unreasonable when it comes to public motion,” he added.
Prioritize native sport
Christophe Guilloteau, President of the Rhône area, spoke out in opposition to internet hosting the flame as early as January 2022.
As he instructed Euronews, “to this expense should be added that of complementary actions to the torch relay. The Rhône division prefers to spend money on native occasions and assist the sports activities trade in our territory.”
The departments of the Vosges, the Meurthe-et-Moselle, l’Indre-et-Loire, the Lot-et-Garonne, the Creuse, the Haute-Loire et la Haute-Vienne, the Loire-Atlantique, the Côtes-d ‘Armor et l’Orne have declared that they won’t host the flame.
Ludovic Gouyette, Vice President of the Côtes-d’Armor division, instructed France Bleu Armorique: “This sum is greater than my grants to finance sporting occasions all year long.” The division is situated within the north of Brittany.
Why this value?
The organizing committee of the Paris 2024 Olympic Video games ensures that “a overwhelming majority of departments have already accepted” the decisionincluding that the 150,000 euros assure that the torch will cross via “the utmost variety of territories” on its method to Paris.
The committee stresses that the torch relay is funded “for probably the most half by the committee and its companions,” and claims that he’ll hold going it doesn’t matter what.
In January 2023, the French authorities introduced that the general public funding a part of the Video games would improve to 2.4 billion euros.
Based on a research, the 2024 Paris Olympic Video games might generate 10.7 billion euros in financial advantages and produce 250,000 jobs.
Nonetheless, the price of internet hosting the Olympic Video games has skyrocketed in recent times. As fewer and fewer international locations select to host the massive multi-sport occasion, The Worldwide Olympic Committee has known as for a reform of the host metropolis choice course of.
previous glories
France has already hosted the Olympic Video games 5 occasions, two of them in Paris.
Chamonix, situated within the Haute-Savoie division, will host the flame: a historic second, because the ceremony will happen 100 years after the 1924 Chamonix Olympic Video games.
The cities of Grenoble and Albertville additionally hosted the Winter Video games in 1992 and 1968, however they won’t revive previous glories. Positioned within the departments of Savoie and Isère, native leaders as soon as once more selected to cross up the chance to host the flame.
“Internet hosting the Tour de France has already made it potential to achieve visibility among the many inhabitants”at “a should decrease value”, declared Frederic Burnier Framboret, Mayor of Albertville in an interview with l’Equipe.
Nonetheless, the organizers insist that the relay “will provide a novel alternative to spotlight the areas of Francetheir heritage and their savoir-faire… emblematic cities and locations will profit from the main focus of the Video games to disclose themselves to the world.”
