The Seine-sational Agenda 2020 Games (Paris 2024)

The chapter focuses on the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the starting point of the new era according to International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach. Paris 2024 was also the first Olympic Games since the pandemic which was held without significant COVID-19 restrictions and embodied modifications to traditional bidding and hosting through Olympic Agenda 2020. From an innovative opening ceremony across the Seine River, highlighting iconic venues by holding competitions in the city center, celebrating the historic significance of France to the Olympic Movement through the role of Baron Piere de Coubertin, and marking 100 years to the Paris 1924, Paris 2024 showed that despite a polarized world, social and political instability, geopolitical turmoil, and ongoing wars in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, and the Olympic Games can still work for the host country and even create a culture of peace for over 200 participating delegations. The chapter discusses the significance of Agenda 2020 to the way Paris 2024 managed to overcome the challenges and use the Olympic Games as a moment of unity in very turbulent times, and what other hosts can learn from it.