IIf I were a city, I would never want to host the Olympics. So last summer, I put my Paris apartment up for Airbnb for an exorbitant amount and considered leaving the city. Then a friend from the US convinced me to rent out my apartment for the duration of the Olympics. As the opening ceremony approaches, I wonder if my initial reaction was too pessimistic.
Standing along the Canal Saint-Martin last week as the Olympic torch passed by, I finally felt the excitement setting in. And now I wonder if other Parisians are feeling the same change.
All year round, there are constant complaints about impending disruptions to daily life and logistical worries: Will the Seine be clean enough? Will the transport infrastructure hold up? Will densely packed cities, parts of which are already congested with normal summer tourism, be overwhelmed by the sheer number of people expected to arrive? And, perhaps more seriously, will the Olympics go ahead without safety issues?
I don't know if people are feeling less pessimistic or less optimistic, but with less than two weeks until the Olympics open, Parisians just seem…divided. [Insert Gallic shrug].
Nathalie, who has been working as a bartender at Les Acolytes, a laid-back cafe in the 10th arrondissement, for the past two and a half years, says she thinks Parisians are too pessimistic, not just about the Olympics, but in general. “I'm happy to be working this summer because I'm looking forward to meeting people from all over the world and want to welcome them,” she says. Then she points to another customer, a sort of regular, and adds, “But Johnny is more skeptical.”
Jony, 32, who works in marketing, thinks the Olympics might be “soft power for Paris” but will likely be a logistical nightmare: “The metro is already crowded, and now three or four times as many people are going to ride it?” More than anything, he seems worried that tourists will come to Paris and find it even more inconvenient. Genuine More than a romantic fairy tale.
Across the river, Damien, a high school math teacher in the 13th Arrondissement, has other concerns. “I loved the Olympics ever since I was a kid,” he admits, but laments the fact that tickets aren’t more affordable, homeless people being displaced to other cities, and the overall carbon footprint.
While I share all the concerns expressed by my colleagues in Paris, here are some reasons why I tend to be optimistic.
Paris' bid was premised on using mostly existing venues as event venues, with the result that the city constructed few buildings specifically for the Olympics, opting instead for the necessary renovation and upgrading of historic landmarks, including the Grand Palais. New construction would consist of an arena and an aquatics centre (both in low-income areas that would be fully or partially opened to residents after the Olympics are over) and an Olympic village in Saint-Denis, 30% of which would add to the local social housing stock (in line with Paris' current average).
Moreover, the Olympics overlap with infrastructure projects already planned, such as the €42bn (£35bn) Grand Paris Express, a new automated metro line of more than 120 miles that will directly link Paris' suburbs, connecting the city centre with both airports. And the Olympics are further pushing the modernisation of the metro, albeit imperfectly. (Personal grievance: after years of waiting, users can finally load metro à la carte tickets onto their iPhones, but not suburban RER trains, so you still need an iPhone.) Paper tickets For one-off trips to either airport.
Finally, despite being the subject of ridicule, memes and protests, the city's flagship proposal (cleaning up the Seine) produced tangible results: the Olympics' carbon footprint is officially estimated at 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 – This represents 0.003% of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions in 2021 (52.6 billion tons). I don’t offer this context to downplay the urgency of addressing the climate crisis, but in a politically divided world, we need events that unite us more than ever. Sacrificing them won’t get us any closer to meaningfully addressing the essence of global warming: electricity production, cars, and agriculture.
Davina Chan, who is opening a Hong Kong-themed coffee shop called Bin Sat in the northern Marais district in December 2022, also adds economic concerns to her list of worries. Specifically, she worries about whether her business will actually experience a boom that will make up for all the other inconveniences. “Of course, it's also a once-in-a-lifetime moment to live in the host city, and I feel a sense of Hong Kong pride in being able to cheer on the athletes from the city I grew up in,” she continues.
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Overall, it is estimated that the economic impact will be 9 billion euros for the Paris region. This is not a figure to be taken lightly, since many people who visit the Olympics will likely extend their trip to other parts of France outside of Paris, like two of my friends. If this figure is reached, the economic cost-benefit ratio will be roughly balanced. But let's be realistic. France, the most visited country in the world, need Additional promotional efforts are being made to attract tourists. The financial burden of hosting the Olympics has always been a weak point of the Olympics: when Athens hosted the games in 2004, the costs were so enormous that modern ruins now stand side by side with ancient ones.
So, going back to what I said at the beginning of this column, if I were a city, I wouldn't want to host the Olympics unless they were there every year.
The ancient Greek Olympic Games brought participants and spectators to the same place each time, the sacred city of Olympia in the Peloponnese. Why not bring them back to Greece permanently? Most of the complaints about the Olympics boil down to their one-off nature: construction that falls into disuse, infrastructure that serves a purpose for two weeks but probably doesn't meet any real local need, and chaos for consumption with no real, lasting connection.
Bringing the Olympics to Athens permanently would mean a true re-use of the stadium, funded by the International Olympic Committee; an Olympic Village to serve as student accommodation for temporary retreat every four years; residents and traders could develop a true relationship with the Olympics and its organizers, and in return they would be invested in what is best for their local community in the long term; a lasting partnership, a commitment to truly play for the same team.
