Paris welcomes first delegations preparing for 2024 Olympics

PARIS: With five years to go before the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the first foreign delegations began a two-day Paris visit on Thursday to check out venues and possible base camps.

Organisers welcomed 72 representatives from 27 National Olympic Committees and 13 National Paralympic Committees including heavyweights such as Australia, Britain, China, Japan, Russia and United States, as well as minnows like Andorra, Central African Republic, Eritrea, Guatemala and Luxembourg.

On the agenda for Thursday and Friday are visits to some of the 2024 event venues and workshops, particularly on the subject of the Olympic village in the Seine-Saint-Denis department.

“They all have a lot of experience of Olympic villages and have something to offer us and it is important to create a relationship of trust now,” Sophie Lorant, director of international relations at the local organising committee told AFP.