The circular heritage model of Paris 2024 and its possible local legacy perspective

Abstract

There are growing concerns about the rising local costs to organize and host Summer Olympic Games. This has been expressed by local resistance and the abandonment of candidacies. In the face of the difficult context of COVID-19, economic and environmental crises, Paris 2024 is tasked with rebuilding a better Olympic and Paralympic Games (OPG) model – one with high global and local value and low direct local costs. Paris is a heritage-shaped city like London and will use this sporting and cultural heritage as a central element for the OPG model to become sustainable. This circular heritage model (use of an existing heritage) for the OPG reduces direct costs related to infrastructure and organization. However, this is also likely to reduce its local legacy. Comparing the models of Paris 2024 and London 2012 (whereby events are part of this creation of a new heritage), this paper considers each cities ambition for legacy as presented in various public documents. This in-perspective paper seeks to characterize the circular heritage OPG model of Paris 2024 and answer the question of: is its possible local legacy as important as for London 2012 using the convergent method?