As Paris provides center stage for top-tier performances of the human body, mind, and spirit, the City of Lights will remain in the spotlight for the next few weeks.
However, hosting the quadrennial summer and winter events comes at a cost. And, especially in recent decades, the spectacle has been blemished by budget overruns, long-term debts, wasteful infrastructure, displacement and gentrification, political strife, and environmental harm.
But the International Olympic Committee (IOC) hopes to change course, taking a more frugal and greener approach.
"This will be the first Olympics, since Sydney, where the total costs are coming in under $10 billion,” Victor Matheson, a College of the Holy Cross professor of economics who has researched the financial costs of the Olympics, told CNN.
"That's because the IOC was running out of cities willing to host this thing," he explained. "It's become pretty clear to cities that — under the old regime — these were real financial debacles for the cities involved, and wildly expensive with little hope to make money back in the long run."
It might sound difficult, but the IOC has dealt with tremendous challenges in the past, too.
For example, after the 1968 Mexico City Games and 1972 Munich Games were marked by deadly violence and the 1976 Montreal Games experienced dramatic cost overruns, there were hardly any takers to serve as a host city for the 1984 Games.
Los Angeles, the lone city to bid on the 1984 Games (after Tehran backed out), was able to use its existing infrastructure and stadiums and line up lucrative corporate sponsorships and broadcast rights to build up the event into the marketing behemoth it is today.
The icing on the cake was that the LA Organizing Committee ended up with a surplus of $215 million.
For the 2024 Paris Games, which are the first aligned with the IOC's Agenda 2020 roadmap of 40 recommendations to ensure the event's viability, organizers have announced a slew of initiatives aimed at reducing the impact of the Games.
This includes building only one permanent sports facility (a low-carbon, bio-based aquatics center designed for future use by the public and French Olympians alike) and relying instead on existing or temporary structures that take the sport outside of the stadiums and show off the city's famous monuments.
Paris organizers also attempted to minimize the carbon footprint of the Games by relying on low-impact or recycled goods whenever possible (such as furniture made with shuttlecocks) and identifying second lives for the temporary structures and equipment utilized for the Games.
Additionally, the Paris Olympic Village will be converted into offices and housing in a historically impoverished neighborhood. (However, it's worth pointing out that the efforts have raised concerns about displacing thousands of people and negative gentrification impacts.)
