D-100 Paris 2024 Olympic Games: Tony Estanguet, the speech and method of the head of the Organizing Committee

Tony Estanguet regarde droit devant depuis le début de l’aventure. MAXPPP – Gao Jing

À 100 jours de la cérémonie d’ouverture, le patron de Paris 2024 avance toujours avec la même assurance. Rien ne l’affecte en dépit des controverses. La France sera prête.

Before each important deadline, Tony Estanguet goes back to the front, right in his sneakers. To explain, convince and answer questions. 100 days before the opening ceremony, there are many of them. The boss of the Olympic Organizing Committee (Cojo) could falter. He prefers to surf like in the best days of his canoe-kayak descents.

"We are ready for this final stretch, assures the former triple Olympic champion. Over the last few years, we have accumulated a lot of confidence and serenity with the conviction that fundamental steps had been taken. We respected all the passage times. Whether in terms of infrastructure, delivered on time, income, secure, ticketing, which was a great success, teams that are gaining momentum or even the recruitment of 45,000 volunteers.&quot ;

Also read: D-100 Olympic Games Paris 2024: one hundred days to convince the whole of France

Tony Estanguet begins the home straight with confidence but also with "a lot of humility". "There will undoubtedly be new challenges, new challenges to take on." A few fires to put out occasionally . "Paris 2024 is preparing to face", assures the boss of Cojo.

Swimming this summer

Last week, it was the quality of the water in the Seine that was still the talk of the town. According to the NGO Surfrider Foundation, his condition would be "alarming" and incompatible, at this stage, with the proper performance of an open water swimming or triathlon event.

"I’I was a little surprised that we were doing a study… in the middle of winter, times when the rivers are not in a state that allows swimming", skillfully commented Tony Estanguet, questioned on the subject during’ a press conference.
"There was never any question of wanting to swim in the Seine during the winter, the objective, already, is to succeed in to be able to swim during the summer and everything is being done to ensure that this is the case from next summer", he said.< em> "We move forward with serenity". Always.

Since his appointment as head of Cojo in September 2017, Tony Estanguet bends but does not break. Even when the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) opens an investigation into his remuneration (early February). The manager accepts it and says he is ready to answer questions, specifying in passing that he does not decide anything in the matter.

Diplomatic on all occasions, he also knows how to avoid the traps set by journalists. Invited to comment on the future location of the Olympic cauldron, the role of Aya Nakamura, the pieces of music chosen for the opening ceremony or the name of the first bearer of the flame ( "or the last"), he dodges smiling and promises surprises: "Discover all this live, it&quot; ;rsquo;is still cool".

A candidacy in the aftermath of the attacks

On security, a much more sensitive issue, the manager does not tremble. While he regularly refers everyone to the comments made by Gérald Darmanin, the Minister of the Interior, the Palois asserts a few truths in each of his outings.

"France has decided to be a candidate for the organization of the Olympic Games following the terrorist attacks of 2015… The measures implemented are unprecedented. France will never have deployed so many resources. I have confidence in my country's law enforcement to secure these games."

Tony Estanguet praises the enormous work to guarantee the safety of athletes and the public and warns: "That’s the priority. Without it, everything else is useless. The French authorities have expertise in this area, demonstrated during various events organized on our territory… We can have confidence."

The word comes back regularly in his mouth. His body language (Editor's note: the language of the body) reinforces the point. Relaxation fits him like a glove. And it’s contagious. In the Pulse offices, the headquarters of the Organizing Committee located a stone's throw from the Stade de France, the 2 450 employees – there will be 4 500 at the height of the Olympics and Paralympic Games this summer – it feels like you’re on the campus of an American university.
They laugh, they exchange, they discuss over coffee.

If it weren't for the Olympic rings hanging on the walls of the huge entrance hall, no one would know what was going on on every floor (27). ;m high, 30 000 m2 of modular spaces according to the Parisian who took the measurements).

Absolute concentration

Behind the assurance of all these little hands, there is a team "more determined than ever, absolute concentration", assures Tony Estanguet. "Men and women driven by the same ambition since the beginning of the adventure."
100 days before the start of the festivities, every minute, every hour counts.

"We want to organize big Games, spectacular Games. So far, we have never backed down", repeats the former member of the IOC (International Olympic Committee), convinced of having given the 2017 Parisian file more substance than ever.

"If we take our application and where we are today… Everything is more spectacular. At the time, there were no ceremonies in the city, no surfing in Tahiti, no urban sports in Concorde…, lists Tony Estanguet. We wanted to open with popular and committed Games, the first equal Games in history. Games under the sign of environmental excellence by reducing our carbon footprint by half. We are moving forward with conviction and our level of ambition is intact."

Since this morning and the lighting of the flame in Olympia, the Paris 2024 Olympic Games have shined a little brighter. Soon, the torch will travel on all the roads of France. The country is ready to "welcome the world". Tony Estanguet is convinced of this.

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