What to expect from the Olympics in Paris and Los Angeles
Paris will host the Games in 2024 and Los Angeles four years later.
Paris, Los Angeles and the International Olympic Committee have described the unprecedented decision to award two Games at once as a win-win-win, as it gave all parties what they most wanted.
Here, we explain the differences in approach the two cities have taken.
The concept
Paris’ pitch played heavily on the city’s beauty and history. Its key message was “Paris as an Olympic Park”, promising a “compact” Games to give athletes and fans a sense of being at the centre of something magical.
Los Angeles’ unique selling point was its host of world-class venues and the commercial success of its last Games in 1984, while making a big play on California’s prowess in the entertainment and technology sectors.
Venues
Most of the sports at Paris 2024 will be played in two clusters of venues: the Paris Centre Zone and the Grand Paris Zone, which is just to the north. The centrepiece of the latter is the 75,000-seat Stade de France, which will host the ceremonies and athletics. Roland Garros is the most famous venue in the centre zone, while there will be open water swimming, triathlon and surfing in the Seine.
Los Angeles 2028 will, for the most part, be played in upgraded venues from 1984, the plush new homes of the city’s professional teams and the excellent facilities provided by the city’s universities.
To do list
Paris has one major project to tackle and that is the athletes’ village at L’Ile-Saint-Denis in the city’s northern suburbs. With an estimated cost of £1.5billion, this is not a trifling matter and the claim that the land would not be available in 2028 was a key factor in Paris winning the argument that it should go first.
LA’s organising committee, on the other hand, has nothing to build as things stand, although 11 years is a long time and there is every chance that new sports will be added, old ones dropped and upgrades required.
Organising committees
As successful bidding teams usually morph into organising committees, we can assume many of the faces behind the bids will stay on. For Paris, the co-chairmen were three-time Olympic canoeing champion Tony Estanguet and ex-World Rugby chairman Bernard Lapasset. Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo provides multi-lingual political support.
LA’s bid was fronted by multi-millionaire sports agent Casey Wasserman and LA mayor Eric Garcetti, with a who’s who list of Californian business and sports aristocracy behind them. Athletics star Michael Johnson and swimming great Janet Evans were also prominent during the campaign.
Budget
If we have learned one thing from Olympic history it is that the price quoted will not be the final bill. Paris has suggested its total infrastructure costs will be £2.7billion, with operational costs closer to £3billion. LA believes it can do it all for about £4billion, although waiting an extra four years will bring more costs.
Security
Another huge variable – it is almost impossible to predict what will be happening in 2024, let alone 2028. Security looked like being one of Paris’ weaknesses, as the city and France has suffered so much at the hands of terrorists. The successful security operation at last summer’s European Championships eased IOC concerns.
LA has not experienced anything like the terrorism threats that Paris have had to deal with but is hardly unaccustomed to violence. The problem for LA will be numbers, as its police force is small for a city of its size.
