Paris 2024 bid leaders said that "almost all of the city's proposed venues for the 2024 Olympics were already built or would be temporary facilities" as the French capital on Wednesday unveiled its plans to stage the Summer Games, according to Julien Pretot of REUTERS. The race for hosting rights is "now officially underway" with the IOC having received the four candidature files of Paris, Budapest, Rome and L.A. The French "unveiled 36 venues in essentially two zones" -- central Paris and the Paris-St. Denis area, a few km north of the city center. Bid leaders promised that "95 percent of the venues" would be "already existing or temporary to minimize investment." Several events would "take place at prestigious venues" such as the Stade de France (athletics), Roland Garros (tennis) and the Bercy Arena (basketball). Among the facilities yet to be built are "the media, Olympic and Paralympic villages in St. Denis plus the aquatics centre." The bid leaders said that 85% of the athletes "will be within half-an-hour of their competition venue" (REUTERS, 2/17). The AFP reported the Paris bid team unveiled its slogan "The Strength of a Dream" on Wednesday. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo warned that although the bid "was a good one, the process was a competition and by no means a foregone conclusion." The vote for the host city will take place on Sept. 13, 2017 in Lima, Peru (AFP, 2/17).
