“Through this race, the citizens of the city also celebrate gender equality, diversity, sharing, openness and friendliness – values that are inherent to our society and to our Paris 2024 bid,” said Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo as 37,000 women runners took part in Sunday’s La Parisienne road race in the heart of the French capital’s city center.
“I am delighted for everyone who participated in today’s La Parisienne race. This is a very special event for women that promotes active lifestyles and health and well-being,” she added. “We have seen today that Paris is one of the world’s most iconic and cosmopolitan cities with historic landmarks and breath-taking venues offering an incredible live setting to showcase sport. Seeing all the runners race past these stunning cityscapes in the center of Paris also highlights the compactness of our Games Plan, which makes it very attractive for athletes, sports fans and the Olympic Family with a view to 2024.”
Paris 2024 Co-Chairman, Bernard Lapasset, said: “On behalf of everyone at Paris 2024, I wish to congratulate all the runners who participated in the 2016 La Parisienne race. It was another weekend where the streets of Paris were filled with a wonderful festival of sport and my thanks also go to the race organizers and the fans who came out in their thousands to support the runners. Paris is a true city of sport with events like La Parisienne race being part of the fabric of our social life in the capital and across France.
“Paris 2024’s promise is to harness this growing public interest and participation in sport and help the Olympic Movement create a new generation of fans who are fully engaged with the Games and Olympic sport.”
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.