2024 JULY ISSUE
OLYMPICS IN PARIS 2024
Written by ANDREW SIA
Share this article !
From the Desk of the Publisher
The Olympic Games Paris 2024 will be held from July 26 to August 11, 2024. Officially it is known as the XXXIII Olympiad. The organizing country is not building any new showpieces for the games but to repurpose the city’s attractions by using Place de la Concorde and Grand Palais for instance. This is all for the purpose of using less cements and steel for the purpose of controlling the carbon emissions. Its aim is to control more than half of the greenhouse emissions of the latest Olympics.
Many of the Parisians are leaving the city to let the visitors to use the public transportation and infrastructure. For those who stayed in the city are told to work from home and avoid using public transportation.
Paris is known for the strikes of its public service workers and at this time I hope that the organizers can come to the agreement with the labor unions.
Any international events in a big city like Paris is at its highest alert level for terrorist attacks. I am sure that Paris has taken all the necessary precautions and would keep an eye on those suspicious behavior.
Let’s hope that the Olympic Games Paris 2024 will be a successful one and a safe one for the athletes, the organizers, the visitors and the Parisians who would stay in the city. God bless.
OLYMPICS IN PARIS 2024 Look of the Games
Paris 2024 | Look of the Games | @paris2024officiel | youtube | Feb 9, 2023 | 2:00
It is going to be held in the city and about 16 million people are expected to be in Paris for the games. But the French public sector workers who staff hospitals, public transport and museums are threatening to strike during the summer Olympics. Head of the hardline CGT union, Sophie Binet, has led the charge by declaring that if the government would want the games to run smoothly, they have to pay up to their demands. It sounds like a blackmail.
The organizers had chosen the period specifically because it is the time when many Paris residents would leave for summer holidays and the pressure on public transport and infrastructure can give room for Olympics visitors. But also a wide range of public sector workers are being forced to work through the summer holidays. Some of them are demanding for bonuses, overtime pay, and support of childcare.
Unions have already been complaining for worsening working conditions and wages are not coping with inflation.
Game organizers have chosen some challenging formats held in temporary venues that are purposely built at historical sites, such as Grand Palais and Place de la Concorde. The opening ceremony is said to be held on boats on Seine river. The Seine River curves through the city is also set to have a central role, both in the opening ceremony, but also for marathon swimming.
France has moved the country to its highest alert level for terrorist attacks, and potentially walkout from the government’s three branches—customs officers, municipal police and cultural sector workers.
Unlike when Paris was awarded the Olympics games in 2017, the organizing committees were able to bring the union representatives into government bodies. They worked months ahead and reached accords with public workers. This time it is still unorganized and the time is getting close.
This time the organizers said that they will not generate more than half of the greenhouse emissions of recent Olympics. We have to see what they have promised. They are going to tighten on everything that produces planet-warming emissions: electricity, food, buildings, and transportation. They want to control the jet fuels that will turn the athletes and fans traveling the world to get to Paris.
This is an event that can attract 10,500 athletes and an estimated 15 million spectators. This is a very big movement of people travelling around, and if it is not planned and controlled, it would have an environmental toll.
It has chosen London Olympics in 2012 as a benchmark, and they were already sought to record emissions, and more important, they measured them. How much carbon dioxide was produced and amount of cement was used in new buildings for instance. The French set the goal to halve carbon emissions versus the earlier London and Rio games. They even try to recruit chefs to design menus with mostly local sources food and offer less meat.
The French are not building new showpieces for the games, or at least not as much. And this can avoid the using of cements and steel. Instead, the Paris Olympics have repurposed the city’s attractions, such as the Grand Palais, Place de la Concorde, and even reuse the swimming pool, the George Vallerey swimming pool, built for the 1924 Paris Olympics.
In the athletes’ village, instead of using air-conditioning, a cooling system using water have raised concerns. A few of the new buildings having built for the occasion, including the athletes’ housing, swimming complex and an arena, are using less cement but more wood, and have solar panels and greenery on the roofs. They are also meant for use by the local residents after the game.
To deal with the climate change, particularly at this time when the rising global temperatures are making Paris summers alarmingly hot. To protect the athletes in July and August is a concern for the organizers. Planting thousands of trees in recent years to temper summer heat and erecting misting towers to spray the air. Putting wide umbrellas to shade the sun for instance may help the sport fans.
We must say what Paris has been doing is commendable, especially in limiting new construction. The organizers are planning to offset carbon emissions by purchasing “carbon credits” although it can be something unclear and murky.
The Place de la Concorde, built in 1772 where guillotines were erected during the French Revolution, will be home to Olympic events like skateboarding.
Instead of using diesel generators to provide electricity for sports events, the French are planning for enough wind and solar energy in the grid to produce all the energy the games consume.
Transportation is another source of emissions, limiting the cars and making space for bikes as an alternative. Already, Paris has added some 600 kilometers of bike lanes. Its metro system is bursting at the seams and trains are very crowded. Another two new extensions have been added in time to serve the game. The city has asked people to work from home and urge the French people to stay off the trains. The Parisians are planning for vacation during the period and give rooms to visitors.
The George Vallerey swimming pool would be getting a new air filtration system, a new roof to let in the light but keep out heat. Its old roof beams have been repurposed as countertops. The wooden benches installed at least 40 years ago, would remain. The sturdy stucco walls would remain for nostalgic purpose. The pool has the history and it is where Johnny Weissmuller, an American swimmer, who won a gold medal in 1924. Later he became Tarzan in many Hollywood movies.
Roughly 95% of all the venues would come from the 1924 games, from old buildings or temporary structures. Temporary pools would be built and after the games would be taken apart and relocated in communities for public pools.
More buildings and facilities have been designed with sustainability in mind. A new aquatic center located on the edge of a highway in the northern suburb of Saint-Denis, is a showpiece of Douglas fir and pine. Its 5,000 square meters of roof, curved like a wave. The architects designed it in this way to shrink the size of the building and reduce the energy needed to heat the space. Its pool is only 5 meters deep where it is necessary to have greater depth for diving, and shallower where it is not needed. It is using the heat coming from a nearby data center. Its 5,000 seats are made from recycled plastic.
Near to the place is the 128-acre athletes’ village complex that would be changed after the games into a mixed neighborhood for 6,000 residents. Its builders say that its emissions would at least be less 30% from a conventional project of the same size. The village has a cluster of mostly wood-frame buildings and timber has its own environmental costs, but it is more sustainable than concrete. One building has been designed to recycle all its water. To cool the ground, 9,000 trees have been planted, including local varieties that can survive in hot weather.
An unconventional air condition has been used. It is running by a network of pipes using water first being sent underground for cooling. It will cool the interiors of the building in a technology known as geo-exchange system. Along with the shades of the trees, insulation and a breeze from the river can help to lower the indoor temperature.
This is all meant to provide the cooling effect for the athletes’ village.
We are looking forward to the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris which will be held from July 26 to August 11, 2024 and when we would come across anything interesting, we would be filling in our report.