Paris’ iconic Arc De Triomphe was lit up with the city’s 2024 Olympic Games bid logo at precisely 20:24 local time on Tuesday.
A multi-coloured image of the Eiffel Tower with the words ‘Paris, Candidate city, Olympic Games 2024’ was screened onto the Arc at the top of the Champs-Elysees, and simultaneously on the town hall in Marseille.
The logo’s unveiling marked the start of the French capital’s campaign to lure the Games to Paris, which faces competition from Budapest, Hamburg, Los Angeles and Rome, with a decision to be made on September 13, 2017 in Lima.
Paris, which lost out to London for the 2012 Olympics, has staged the sporting spectacular twice before: in 1900 and 1924.
The 2024 bid committee is co-chaired by former French rugby supremo Bernard Lapasset and triple Olympic canoeing champion Tony Estanguet, who were joined at the unveiling by the city’s mayor, Anne Hidalgo.
French sports ministers Patrick Kanner and Thierry Braillard were also in attendance.
Next week Paris 2024 will unveil details of Olympic sites as well as elaborating on their vision for the event and launch the bid’s official website.
International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach has previously insisted that November’s terror attacks which killed 130 people “will absolutely” not affect the French capital’s bid. –Â Agence France-Presse
