Talents 2024

Olympic City: Paris
Country: France
Edition of the Games: 2024 Olympic Summer Games

Yearly since 2017

Youth 16-25

No official website

Description of the Project

Paris has the ambition to make the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games an opportunity to raise a “2024 Generation” that would embody the Olympic values of respect, friendship and excellence. Within this context, the Paris City Council launched “Talents 2024”, a call for projects led by young people from 16 to 25 who undertake innovative proposals conceived to change the world. Aiming at putting forward the innovation and initiative potential of the Grand Paris Metropolis’ youth, this initiative started in the bidding period, with a first edition taking place in 2017. It will now be perpetuated every year until the 2024 Games.

The Talents 2024 program promotes innovative, useful projects that are fully consistent with Olympic values and the 2020 Olympic Agenda’s recommendations. Whether individually or collectively, project leaders may propose initiatives related to a wide range of areas, whether it be a local project, the creation of a work of art, the implementation of a new public policy, etc.

Talents 2024 consists of 2 different steps. Each year, after the application deadline and the dossier preparation, 24 projects are first elected by the City of Paris and its partners in regards to their originality, their feasibility, their development and exemplary potential, as well as their impact on the metropolitan territory and its population. After a 3-month stage of maturity, these are then presented to the final jury, composed of experts from sports and economic fields and community representatives. During the final ceremony, 3 projects are rewarded with a subsequent grant and personalised support.

Objectives

Celebrate Olympism and its values

Convinced at heart of Olympic values’ strength, the Talents 2024 program wishes to fulfil the 2020 Olympic Agenda’s priorities and encourage initiatives that promote excellence, friendship and respect, as well as sobriety, sustainable development and non-discrimination. Future projects must therefore include at least one of four main themes: solidarity, environment, sport and new technologies. Young ”talents” are encouraged to think about innovative ways of transforming society and of finding solutions to crucial social concerns.

Develop human capital and generate social cohesion

“Talents 2024” is an opportunity for the young generation to get involved and build a forward-looking world. Hosting the Games truly is a stepping-stone towards innovation and skills development for these young actors of metropolitan Paris. Between the first and second selection phases, high school and university students, apprentices, active or inactive young people, are supported for 3 months by the Sensecube incubator and have the opportunity to reveal their potential, learn new techniques and build on innovative ideas.

The Talents 2024 initiative is also a social cohesion sensitiser, the main goal being to make the 2024 generation aware of important solidarity issues tackling the well-being of its fellow citizens.

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Evaluation

131 candidates applied to the first edition of Talents 2024. In the second year, we witnessed a significant drop to 74 applications, but these were proposed by much wider groups, gathering 136 project holders in 2018 against 129 in 2017.

Rewarded projects benefited from the City’s sponsorship and the personalised accompaniment of the Sensecube incubator, which helped the finalists develop their proposals in order to become fully operational. Each of them is now well-established and identified in the metropolitan Paris region, leading the City to partner with them on some occasions. For instance, the association Kabubu, which gathers refugees and locals through the practice of sport, participated in the animation of the 2018 Olympic Day. Since June 20th is also the International Day for Refugees, the association and the City celebrated friendship and brotherhood in sports through the organisation of inclusive tournaments.

The durability of the Talents 2024 and its capacity to be held every year until 2024 will be a significant evidence in evaluating the program.

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Key Challenges

Mobilisation for a yet uncertain event to come

As Paris was still in the candidacy phase when Talents 2024 started, one of the main challenges was to have people participate in this Olympic and Paralympic Games-based contest, while they had no clue it would indeed take place in their capital city. Mobilising project holders about a hypothetical event proved to be a hard task.

To combat this, the organisers reframed the Get Set programme, keeping all the best parts but shifting the focus away from supporting the local delivery of the Games and towards supporting the national athletes as they prepare to travel to the next Games where they will represent Great Britain abroad.

Keeping the flame alive: from 2017 to 2024 and beyond

Another ongoing challenge is the current program translation to the 2024 stage. Talents 2024’s idea was to help winning projects gain access to Games-related markets during the five-year organization period. What openings and prospects does winning the contest give to project holders? The association Kabubu was, for example, invited to participate in the 2018 Olympic Day, but their mobilisation in the following years, during and after the Games, remains a challenge.

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Key Learnings & Recommendations

Investing in the building of concrete projects proved to be crucial for creating a sense of belonging among Parisian youth. The Talents 2024 experience also showcased the Parisian youth’s deep attachment to the Games as early as the bidding phase. All of the actions undertaken by Paris as a candidate city resulted in a massive plebiscite from locals.

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:

Rewarded projects: