Paris enters race for 2024 Games

Paris entered the race for the 2024 Olympics on Tuesday, proclaiming the bid on Olympic Day in what promises to be a tightly fought contest.

Paris, which failed in bids for the Olympics in 2008 and 2012, joined the US city of Boston, Rome and Germany's Hamburg as candidates for the Games in 2024, 100 years on from the last time the Olympics were staged in the French capital.

Bids must be officially submitted by September 15 this year and the International Olympic Committee will only make a decision at a congress in Lima on September 15, 2017.

Bernard Lapasset, chairman of World Rugby and future head of the bidding committee, said he wanted Paris 2024 to "innovate, smile, move and win" in a ceremony announcing the launching of the candidacy process.

Bid-backing Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo invited all Parisians to show their support for the French capital's initiative by gathering along the banks of the river Seine later Tuesday.

Paris will roll out an Olympic declaration with more political and state pomp on July 14 when a national parade is held along the Champs-Elysees.

After the disappointment of being beaten by Beijing and London respectively for the last two Olympics, French officials are leaving nothing to chance this time.

The proposal includes holding one sport under the Eiffel Tower as well as at the Stade de France, which was used for the 1998 World Cup final.

On the financial side, French organisers say the cost will be about six billion euros ($6.8 billion) and they will get a big chunk of that from the IOC.

Aside from the three other declared cities, Budapest's city council earlier Tuesday approved the launching of a bid, the idea now passes to the Hungarian parliament in July, where avid sports fan and Prime Minister Viktor Orban is likely to ensure it goes through.

The campaign will be long, however, and other cities could still enter.

The Azerbaijan capital, Baku, which is currently hosting the first European Games, could soon make a pitch, Olympic officials said. The Qatar capital Doha is also considering a move.
Source: AFP