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PARIS 2024 OLYMPICS

More than 300,000 apply to be Paris Olympics or Paralympics volunteers

The organisers of the 2024 Paris Olympics and Paralympics said Thursday more than 300,000 people have applied to be volunteers, meaning they can easily fill the 45,000 places available.

More than 300,000 apply to be Paris Olympics or Paralympics volunteers
Photo by CHRISTOPHE SIMON / AFP

One third of the applicants is under 25, the organising committee said.

The criteria for applicants were simple — they have to be at least 18 on January 1st, 2024, speak French and/or English and be available for at least 10 days in the summer of 2024.

A total of 30,000 volunteers will be needed for the Olympics, which take place from July 26th to August 11th next year, and 15,000 are required for the Paralympics, from August 28 to September 8th.

READ ALSO How to get tickets for the Paris Olympics and Paralympics

Some of the applicants “were already volunteers at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville and want to take part again”, the organisers said.

The application process is now closed and the selection will begin.

“Some candidates will be offered interviews or complementary tests, especially when the roles they want require specific skills” such as languages or knowledge of a sport.

The successful applicants will be informed by the end of this year.

The next hurdle for the Paris organisers is recruiting the more than 20,000 private security staff needed for the Olympics, with fears that the army might have to be called in if there is a significant shortfall.

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PARIS 2024 OLYMPICS

Paris Olympics to cost taxpayers €3-5 billion, says French national auditor

The Paris Olympics this year are expected to cost the state between €3-5 billion, the French national auditor said on Tuesday as new figures revealed the country's widening debt levels.

Paris Olympics to cost taxpayers €3-5 billion, says French national auditor

“We still don’t know the cost of the Olympics,” Pierre Moscovici, the head of the auditing body, told France Inter radio. “These games will cost between three, four or five billion euros.”

Moscovici had estimated in January last year that the ultimate cost to taxpayers would be “around three billion euros”, which represented an increase from government budget estimates at the time of €2.44 billion.

The bill for every Olympics often expands in the latter stages of preparations as unbudgeted costs appear or extra funds are needed to accelerate unfinished building work.

Under the threat of strikes, the French government is currently negotiating one-off bonuses for public sector staff who will work during the Games, with pay-offs to the police alone set to cost up to €500 million.

ANALYSIS How likely is strike disruption during the Paris Olympics?

The overall cost for the Paris Games, including private and public money, was most recently estimated at around €9 billion, up from a budgeted €6.6 billion when the city was selected in 2017.

Making cost comparisons between Games is difficult because of a lack of transparency with figures and the complexity of comparing investments across countries.

But a 2020 study by academics at the University of Oxford concluded that every summer Games since 1960 had gone over budget, with the average sports-related costs ending up between two and three times (172 percent) the original estimate.

The most notorious over-spends occurred in Montreal in 1976 and Rio de Janiero in 2016, where both cities were left nearly bankrupt and mired in debt, as well as Athens in 2004 which contributed to the country’s debt and financial crisis.

Paris organisers had promised “sober” Games, using existing sports infrastructure for 95 percent of their needs to keep new construction and costs down.

France’s budget deficit leapt to 5.5 percent of gross domestic product last year, according to figures published on Tuesday, piling pressure on President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist government to find cost-cuts and savings.

France’s public sector debt now stands at 110.6 percent of GDP, making the country the third-most indebted country in the eurozone, outperforming only laggards Greece and Italy.

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