Advertisement

Macron visits Lausanne to support Paris Olympic bid

The Local
The Local - [email protected]
Macron visits Lausanne to support Paris Olympic bid
Macron spars with a boxer during an event to promote the Olympic bid in Paris in June. Photo: Jean-Paul Pelissier/Pool/AFP

The new president of France, Emmanuel Macron, will visit Lausanne this week as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) debates Paris’ bid for the 2024 Olympics.

Advertisement

Macron will spend Monday to Wednesday in the so-called Olympic city, where the IOC is based, in order to present the French capital’s bid to IOC president Thomas Bach on Tuesday. 
 
He will be accompanied by the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, French sports minister Laura Flessel and the president of the Ile-de-France region, Valérie Pécresse, reported La Tribune de Genève
 
The paper said Macron is likely to stay in the Beau-Rivage Palace hotel at Ouchy – one of Lausanne’s most prestigious hotels – where Bach and Lausanne officials will hold a dinner on Monday night.
 
The visit comes as the IOC prepares to approve changing the rules for the bidding process to allow the awarding of the 2024 and 2028 Games at the same time. 
 
Only Paris and Los Angeles are still in the running to hold the 2024 Games after Budapest and Rome pulled out. 
 
The IOC has praised both cities, with Bach saying they did not want to turn away either. 
 
As a result, in an extraordinary session to be held on Tuesday the IOC is likely to approve the awarding of two Games at the same time.
 
However the final decision on which city gets which Games won’t be made until the IOC congress in Lima in September. 
 
Macron will not meet with the Swiss government during his visit. Swiss president Doris Leuthard is set to visit Paris for her first meeting with Macron on July 18th, according to Swiss media
 

More

Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.

Please log in to leave a comment.

See Also