The Paris Games has the chance to “kick start a resurgence of the Olympic brand” following the last two Covid-affected editions and the doping-blighted 2014 Sochi Winter Games, former IOC marketing executive Terrence Burns has told AFP.
With just six months to go to the opening cere-mony in the French capital, organisers face plenty of hurdles if they are to seize this opportunity.
Chief among them are security concerns over the revolutionary opening ceremony and a first ever digital ticketing system.
Displaying typical French artistic flair, the ceremony will take place on the river Seine as opposed to in a stadium.
Burns, who since leaving the IOC has played a key role in five successful Olympic bid city campaigns, admits “the world has changed dramatically” since the ceremony plan was given the thumbs-up.
“I know Etienne (Thobois, director general of the organising committee) and Tony (Estanguet, head of the organising committee) and I am sure that they realise that this issue, security, can make or break their Games depending on the outcome,” Burns told AFP.
“They are serious and prudent.” Burns says Paris has a huge opportunity in hosting the July 26-August 11 showpiece.
“I think Paris 24 realises how important these Games are to the (Olympic) movement and to the world,” he said.
He said Paris would be the first Games since London in 2012 “to reach any sense of comparative opportunity”.
Tokyo 2020 and the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics were excellent but “their global impact was muted beyond their own borders,” due to the strict Covid protocols in place, he said.
Rio in 2016, meanwhile, “was beset by a host of organisational problems which led to unending negative reportage” and Sochi “struggled with doping” and a controversy over the respect of the LGBTQ community in Russia.
Thus the onus falls on Paris to reboot the image of the Games, which represents a formidable challenge.—AFP
