Unprecedented Innovations at the Paris 2024 Olympics: What Are They?

The Paris 2024 Olympics is the first event entirely planned and executed in accordance with the reform agenda set forth in the Olympic Agenda 2020 and Olympic Agenda 2020+5, established in December 2014. Olympic Agenda 2020 includes a detailed set of 40 recommendations aimed at addressing current global, social, economic, and environmental challenges while enhancing the relevance of the Olympics in modern times.

Six years later, the Olympic Agenda 2020+5 was introduced to continue the agreements of its predecessors. This renewal agenda was meticulously developed by the Olympic Movement's stakeholders, resulting in 15 recommendations that serve as a roadmap for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) until 2025.

What exactly are the contents of the Olympic Agenda being implemented in the Paris 2024 Olympics that represent unprecedented innovations? Let's explore this article.

Maximizing Existing Sports Facilities

The IOC's promise in Recommendation 1 of Agenda 2020 is to actively promote the maximum use of existing sports facilities and temporary venues that can be dismantled.

Paris 2024 organizers will fulfill this promise by hosting 329 events. Most, even 95% of the event venues, will utilize existing and temporary facilities. Only 2 out of 35 competition venues for the Paris 2024 Olympics are newly built after the city was selected as the host: Arena Porte de La Chapelle and the Aquatics Centre.

Promoting Sustainable Sports

Paris 2024 also implements the IOC's promise under Recommendation 2 of Agenda 2020+5, which is to support sustainable Olympics by minimizing construction, reducing costs and carbon footprint, and maximizing the use of existing venues and iconic locations in the French capital.

This sustainability ethic applies not only to the venues but to every aspect of the Paris 2024 Olympics, including energy use, food, transportation, and digital services. The goal is to reduce emissions by at least half compared to the emissions produced during the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympics. This aligns with the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

By embracing innovative solutions, Paris 2024 sets a new standard for more sustainable events, with greater use of existing facilities and lower carbon footprint, while creating a lasting legacy.

This is an Olympics that successfully applies the principle of sports adapting to the character of the host city, not the other way around. This principle of adaptive adjustment has succeeded in bringing more sports to public spaces such as school facilities, workplaces, and other existing city facilities.

Supporting Gender Equality

One of the agreements in the Olympic Agenda, specifically Recommendation 11, also promotes gender equality in sports. Ten years after this agreement was established, it is finally realized in Paris 2024, where half of the 10,500 participants are female athletes.

Previously, female athlete participation rates were 47.8% at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, 45.0% at the Rio 2016 Olympics, and 44.2% at the London 2012 Olympics. Paris marks the first time in Olympic history that true gender equality is achieved at 50%.

Strengthening Support for Athletes

Lastly, Recommendation 16 of the Olympic Agenda expresses the spirit of strengthening support for athletes both during and after their careers. This time, the IOC fulfills this promise through a collaboration with the French Development Agency (AFD) to launch a business incubator program for elite athletes.

Each year, more than 20 athletes from France and Africa, including former athletes and those currently competing in the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics, will receive training on how to develop business projects, especially in sectors such as social integration, environmental sustainability, gender equality, health, and education.

In addition to helping bring about real societal change, these athletes are given the means to make a smooth transition into their post-competition careers.

The above explains several unprecedented innovations at the Paris 2024 Olympics. The IOC has adopted several objectives from the Olympic Agenda 2020 and 2020+5 and made them a reality. Many other examples can be found in the previous Olympic Agenda 2020 and Olympic Agenda 2020+5 reports.

On issues such as sustainability, athlete responsibility, social change, and climate change, the Olympic Agenda has shaped this edition of the Olympics into a fresher, more spectacular yet responsible event, meeting the challenges of our time.