Paris – Olympic Day & Horizon 2024

ParisHenri_Garat_Mairie_de_Paris
  • Olympic City: Paris
  • Country: France
  • Edition of the Games2024 Summer Olympic Games
2018
Celebration of OG designation

Act III – Denouement

Legacy of the Celebrations

Linking Past, Present and Future 

If the main aim of the 2018 Olympic Day was to celebrate Olympic and Paralympic sports in the City of Paris, the organization also transmitted civic values to all participants.

People were first invited to separate their waste in order to raise awareness on sustainability. Recycling bins were installed all along the event’s route on the riverbanks, as an incentive for people to sort paper and plastic.

Education was also at the forefront of Thursday’s events in the 14 Parisian districts, with children getting initiated to gender equality questions through explanatory panels tackling the place of women in sports and society. They also received quizz booklets about Olympic history and 4 Olympic sports, namely gymnastics, athletics, boxing and ping-pong.

Paralympic sports were finally put on the centre stage of the 2018 edition. Several of them, such as blind football and sitting volleyball, were installed in front of the Paris City Hall, the heart of the event. It was the opportunity for a very large public to discover and try less well-known disciplines, and chat with athletes about the core rules and challenges of their sports.

History & Story

A historical moment in the spotlight

The 2018 International Olympic Day represented an opportunity to showcase an Olympic discipline. A unique and spectacular pole vault competition took place on the Pont d’Arcole, one of the most famous bridge in Paris. The contest got together a line-up of French pole vaulters (Stanley Joseph, Alioune Sene, Baptiste Boirie, Mehdi Amar Rouana, Julie Cyprès, Mathieu Collet et Romain Gavillon) with the exceptional participation of Renaud Lavillenie, world record holder and 2012 Olympic champion.

Zoom on an (extra)ordinary story

Special focus was put on engaging the local population in their daily life environment around the upcoming Games. Read the annexed text for more information.

Feedback Section

Key Challenges

Ensuring security

450,000 people participated in the 2018 edition of Olympic Day, generating important crowd management issues. The main objective of the day was to create a pedestrian route in the heart of the capital city, with no cars tolerated to preserve free and safe access to sports practice and family time during the celebration.

In this context, the 250 000m2 public area was closed and secured by fences and security officers. High security restrictions were taken at the different entrance gates, including individual physical pat-downs and bag-checking.

Each stakeholder involved in the organisation of the event was accredited for an easier access to sports facilities.

Technical implementation

The 2018 Olympic Day in Paris was a highly ambitious event, with more than 30 sports scheduled in one day. Aside from this, the banks of the river Seine, a narrow paved path alongside water, do not consist in a perfectly adapted site for sports animations, and the articulation of the different sport stands was a challenge.

Several sport federations requested specific installations such as a swimming pool for the triathlon, or the full use of the river for sailing. The organization worked together with two private agencies through a design and production market in order to fix most operational and technical questions.

Evaluation

The success of the program was evaluated through combined quantitative and qualitative data. The number of participants was a way to measure enthusiasm generated by such an event and the efficiency of the communication campaign. Participants’ feedback on social networks (through #journéeolympique) and in the press were also studied in a “best practice” spirit. Finally, Parisian representatives, national federations as well as athletes’ comments and observations allowed the organization to have a more professional evaluation of the event.

Replicability

The City hopes to replicate the project in the following years (every June 23rd) to maintain the engagement of Parisians until 2024.

Not only will this project be replicated on the Parisian scale, it will also be developed at the metropolitan level and in the French overseas departments and territories.

This project is materially replicable in any Olympic City.

Pictos_information

More information

The full case is available in printable version on the members’ portal

In addition to the above description, the PDF version also gathers practical information including internal and external partners involved; finance and cost; use of the olympic brand; human resources and time; and contact details. 

The World Union of Olympic Cities’ team remains at your disposal for any further information and contact’s facilitation at info@olympiccities.org 

Additional resources can be found through the following links:

www.paris.fr