Paris 2024 Olympics: “Yes, they will stay on the Eiffel Tower”, Anne Hidalgo announces that the Olympic rings will remain in the capital

Les anneaux resteront bien à Paris. MAXPPP – Mike Egerton

The Olympic rings will “stay on the Eiffel Tower” after the end of the Paralympic Games, Paris Socialist Mayor Anne Hidalgo announced Saturday in an interview with the daily newspaper Ouest France.

“As mayor of Paris, the decision is up to me and I have the IOC's approval. So yes, they will stay on the Eiffel Tower”, she explains to our colleagues at Ouest France about the five rings, hung at the beginning of June on the emblematic monument of the capital.

New rings, “as big but lighter”, will be fixed “as quickly as possible” on the iron tower, the rings currently installed being “too heavy” to “resist sustainably”, she specifies.

The statues of the opening ceremony on rue de la Chapelle

The socialist elected official also expressed her wish to install along rue de la Chapelle, "symbolic place" in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, the statues of the ten French women who appeared on the Seine during the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.

"It is a major avenue that goes towards Saint-Denis and the Basilica of the Kings of France. It is a strong symbol, I discussed it with Tony Estanguet who finds the idea excellent", she adds.

If the elected official also reaffirms her desire to see the Olympic cauldron, "an inseparable object of the Paris Games", maintained at the Tuileries, the decision nevertheless rests with the President of the Republic, the site being a property of the State.

"Paris will never be the same again"

On the accessibility of the Paris metro, the mayor of the capital said she was "in favor of a complete adaptation" of the network, before highlighting the "extremely high costs" of its renovation, which will require additional public revenue.

"I am happy to participate in the general effort, even if transport is primarily the responsibility of the State and the Region, but I do not have the money to finance a third of this titanic project", she notes. A few days after the launch of the Paralympic Games (August 28-September 8), the mayor of the host city nevertheless welcomed “the fact that the French had fallen in love with Paris again” during the event.

“Paris will never be the same again”, she assured when taking stock of the Games, before recalling their “legacy” left in the capital, including open water swimming in the Seine, which should be authorized on the Marie arm, at Bercy or even on the Grenelle arm by summer 2025.