Paris not "entitled" to host 2024 Games due to centenary anniversary, admits chief executive

Etienne Thobois says there is an "appetite" to have the Summer Olympics in France again ©Getty Images

Paris has no "entitlement" to stage the Olympic Games in 2024 simply due to it being 100 years since they were last host, the bid's chief executive Etienne Thobois has admitted, vowing instead to win by having a project which best fits the aspirations of both the host city and the sports world.

The French capital is one of five cities bidding for the Games, along with Budapest, Hamburg, Los Angeles and Rome.

It has hosted the Games on two previous occasions, in 1900 and 1924, but the city bid unsuccessfully for the 1992 edition won by Barcelona and then the 2012 event, where Paris was beaten by London by 54 votes to 50 in the final round.

"The truth is we haven't had the Games for 100 years," Thobois told insidethegames during the SportAccord International Federations (IF) Forum here.

"We're very involved in the Olympic Movement and there is an appetite for the Olympics in France - we want to host the Games in 2024.

"Whether it is 100 years from the last time we hosted them is just a fact.

"France has been committed to the Movement and to sport, we just believe it would be great to organise the Games again.

"No-one is entitled to host the Games, look at Athens [100 years after the first Modern Olympics] in 1996?

"It's something which falls into very symbolic terms, we can't ignore it and obviously we welcome it.

"But that doesn't entitle us to host them again.

"What it entitles us to is the project, and we need to demonstrate we can be the best partner for the Olympic Movement, the IFs, the NOCs and that we have a project which fits into their main objectives, but is also in line with the development of the city."

Paris 2024, whose bid is co-led by Tony Estanguet (left) and World Rugby President Bernard Lapasset, are not focusing on the fact 2024 will mark 100 years since the last Parisian Games ©Getty Images

A perceived sense of entitlement and arrogance was seen as a weakness during the Paris 2012 bid, and this is something bid officials are keen to avoid this time around.

Having three-time Olympic canoeing champion and International Olympic Committee (IOC) Athletes' Commission member Tony Estanguet as a co-bid leader with World Rugby President Bernard Lapasset is one key dimension of this, as well as involving other current or former athletes, both within the bid team and on a wider consultative basis.

This includes the former world singles table tennis champion Jean-Philippe Gatien as sports director, while Thobois himself competed in badminton at Atlanta 1996.

Interestingly, the bid has looked to Britain for several of its consultants, hiring two figures who were closely involved in London 2012, Andrew Craig and Mike Lee, the commmunications director for the UK capital's bid who now heads Vero Communications.

Although they see their bid as individual, unique and in a different context to those of the past, Thobois admits there are elements they are incorporating from London's bid, as well as from Sydney 2000, Beijing 2008 and other recent Games hosts.

They have also learnt from Paris' past failures, and are now ensuring the bid is led foremostly by the sport movement, but has united support from the political establishment as well, Thobois claimed.

A host is set to be chosen at the IOC Session in Lima in 2017.