2024 Olympic Organizers Inaugurate Olympic Village, Announce More Ticket Sales

On a day where the Olympic Village was officially handed over to organizers for the 2024 Olympic Summer Games, a venue that Paris has touted as having a positive long-term impact on the city, French President Emmanuel Macron also drew attention to another long-term project when he promised to swim in the River Seine that is being cleaned up for the Games.

Macron cited pollution-reduction in the Seine as one of the Games’ positive long-term impacts. The river has largely off limits to bathers since 1923 and Thursday when asked by a journalist whether he would bathe in it, Macron replied, “Me, yes, I’ll go.” But he refrained from saying when.

The Olympic construction company, Solideo, transferred the village to organizers on Thursday, symbolically handing over a large key with Macron watching.

“It’s a very big day,” Macron said. “It’s a demonstration that France is a nation of builders.

“Our athletes will be able to experience the Games in the best conditions and you contributed to changing the lives of the people in the area,” Macron added. “What has been done on time and within budget as we finalize the reconstruction of Notre Dame is nothing short of remarkable.”

Notre Dame is set to reopen for religious services and to the public on December 8 this year, the cathedral having been renovated after being ravaged by fire in 2019.

The village sits in the suburb of Saint-Denis, best known for the Stade de France where France’s national soccer and rugby teams play. The neighborhood has been of special emphasis in the Parisian goal to use the Games as a means to rebuild an area which is one of the poorest in the country and was wrought with riots last year after a police officer fatally shot a teenager of north African descent in another Paris suburb.

More than 14,000 athletes and officials will lodge for the Olympics and 9,000 for the Paralympics. Each apartment has between one and four bedrooms with bathrooms and living areas coming as standard. Within each building, athletes will benefit from housekeeping services, laundry facilities as well as resident and multi-faith centers. Away from the living quarters, athletes will have several on-site restaurants accommodating various dietary requirements. The main restaurant, which will have space for 3,200 diners, will be open 24 hours a day. The Athletes’ Village also includes seven training sites, a polyclinic and a village club.

Apartments hold a maximum of eight people, with two people per room and one bathroom per four people. Beds are made from cardboard yet can withstand a maximum weight of 550 pounds and have a raised height to help Paralympians. Athletes will be allowed to keep their reversible duvet: blue side for the Olympics, green for the Paralympics.

Olympic organizers say the village’s construction led to nearly 2,000 jobs being created, with 1,136 going to local residents. The village cost about $2.2 billion with $700 million from public funds. Of particular note is there will be no air conditioning. Julia Watson, deputy director of the Olympic and Paralympic Village at the Olympic Delivery Authority, said planning for apartments cooled without air conditioning was detailed.

It started with the presence of the Seine River before determining street orientation and building placement for the village with airflow simulations to maximize ventilation. The delivery authority worked with Météo France to simulate summers in 2025 and 2050, then determined ways to design the orientation of units and use of through-ventilated units plus solar shading and shutters to cool the interiors of each apartment.

Watson said builders also implemented a network to provide heating and cooling using geothermal energy throughout the year, which is 70% renewable.

“This is a pioneering initiative that will provide cooling through underfloor heating during the increasingly hot summers between 2026 and 2050,” Watson said. “Essentially, we have geothermal wells on the outskirts of the village that draw water from an aquifer 70 meters below the surface. Through a network of hot and cold pipes connecting these wells to a geothermal plant, hot and cold water circulates between the central plant and each building in the village. Each building is fitted with sub-stations at the base which sends water up to and through the floors to heat the units. This is all done with water heated and cooled using geothermal energy from the aquifer.”

After the Games, the village will be turned into an eco-friendly neighborhood benefiting 6,000 residents and featuring two schools, a hotel, a public park, shops and offices plus planted areas for pedestrians and non-motorized vehicles.

“Our aim was to create a city with different functionalities and uses,” Watson said. “Our aim is to cater for families and residents of all ages, from the very young to the elderly. We’ve also set ourselves some ambitious goals to anticipate the challenges of 2050, including the issue of universal accessibility. We want to ensure that this neighborhood is not only livable for everyone, but also adaptable and comfortable for everyone in the long term.”

Each day is another day closer to the Opening Ceremony, which is scheduled to be held along the Seine on July 26. French Interior minister Gerald Darmanin told French TV Channel France 2 in January that some 300,000 spectators will be able to attend, about half the size of what was originally planned.

“Obviously, it’s been an obsession since the beginning,” said Macron of securing the river for the event. “We have a colossal amount of work being done in advance.”

Next Batch of Olympic Tickets Going on Sale

With the unveiling of the official poster for the 2024 Olympic Summer Games coming on Monday, organizers have announced that morning will be another release of tickets with a special emphasis on track and field starting at 10 a.m. Paris time.

Track and field will be held from August 2-10 at the Games and is part of surprise ticketing releases for Paris, which will punctuate the weeks leading to the Games with approximately one release per month. Of the 10 million tickets available for the Games, almost 8 million have already been reserved.

Organizers say “tens of thousands of new tickets” will go on sale at tickets.paris2024.org. All athletics sessions and all seat categories for each competition day will be available for sale with some in “very limited quantities.” Tickets will start at $26 for morning sessions and $92 for evening sessions. The session that will include the men’s 100-meter final will be available for purchase starting at $135 on a first-come, first-served basis with a maximum of 30 tickets purchased per ticketing account, taking into account previous purchases.