“We feel that the Paris candidature is really unified,” said Thomas Bach and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo was delighted to meet the IOC President “to hear his thoughts on how
our Paris 2024 bid is progressing.” Mayor Hidalgo’s first visit to the IOC Headquarters concluded a cycle of official visits by each Candidate City to the IOC President in Lausanne. President Bach’s trip to Paris in October will complete his own round of visits to the four cities.
“Your file is solid and your approach is in line with the principles of Olympic Agenda 2020,especially with regard to sustainability and legacy. I congratulate you on all the work accomplished so far,” Bach said at the end of the meeting. “We wish the Paris candidature every success,” he added.
“This was also an excellent opportunity to share Paris’ vision and ambition to deliver a spectacular Games in 2024 that will place sport and Olympism at the very heart of the city and across France. I look forward to working closely with my Paris 2024 colleagues to now take our bid to the next stage of the campaign,” said Anne Hidalgo Our close collaboration is a great asset for our bid that underlines the unity between the city and the sports movement. I would like to extend my thanks to President Bach for his helpful views and for welcoming us in Lausanne.”
The Paris delegation included NOC President Denis Masseglia, Paris 2024 Co-President
Bernard Lapasset and Director General Etienne Thobois. They were accompanied by IOC Members Guy Drut and Tony Estanguet, who is also Paris 2024 Co-President, as well as Olympic bronze medalist Muriel Hurtis-Houairi.
This story first appeared in the blog, The Sport Intern. The editor is Karl-Heinz Huba of Lorsch, Germany. He can be reached at ISMG@aol.com. The article is reprinted here with permission of Huba.