Pressure on Paris Games 'to kick-start new Olympic golden era'

PARIS – 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 ceremony in the French capital, organizers 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 organizing committee) and Tony (Estanguet, head of the organizing committee) and I am sure that they realize 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 realizes 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 organizational 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.

"The fervent hope is that Paris 24 will shine brilliantly and help kick-start a resurgence of the Olympic brand and Games around the world," Burns told AFP.

"Beautiful, wonderful things that inspire us are usually rare and difficult to achieve; if they were easy, they would be