The hidden faces of Paris 2024

This edition of the Olympics has a special feature: many of the competitions take place in the city centre, close to Paris’ most iconic monuments. 95% of the infrastructure is either existing or temporary, which has kept costs down to around nine billion euros. Paris 2024 is the cheapest Games in decades. The Municipality of Paris is convinced the event will still leave a huge legacy. 

 ​​​​"The Games were a great accelerator for the city", explains Pierre Rabadan, deputy mayor in charge of sports for the Municipality of Paris. “We have managed to finalise works that might have taken 10 or 15 years to achieve, in four or five years. It enabled us to transform entire neighbourhoods.”

Huge investment has gone into Northern Paris. The Olympic village is the biggest permanent infrastructure built in Seine Saint Denis, the poorest district in mainland France. It is presented as a cutting-edge eco-district with a future. It will be transformed into a new neighborhood for 6,000 residents after the Games, but apartments are struggling to be sold. The average price of 7,000 euros per square meter is just too high for Seine Saint Denis.

The area is home to key venues of the Games, including a renovated Stade de France and a brand new 175-million-euro Aquatics centre. Nevertheless, sport in this district remains a luxury for its inhabitants.

 “Most sport facilities in Seine-Saint-Denis are between 40 and 50 years old", explains Serge Reitchess, a former sports teacher and the heart and soul of CoPer 93, a local movement for the promotion of sport at school and of equality in sport.

“We have sixteen facilities for every 10,000 inhabitants, whereas the average for the Greater Paris region is 25 and the national average is 50,” he says.

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