(ATR) Amid the myriad details needed to handle for the 2024 Olympics, the push is on to include restoration of Notre Dame on that list.
French President Emmanuel Macron was the first to publicly mention such an ambition two days ago as the embers from the April 15 fire were extinguished. He set a deadline to complete the work within five years, aiming for the landmark to be part of the celebration of the 2024 Olympics.
Today, IOC President Thomas Bach wrote to Paris 2024 chief Tony Estanguet, pledging €500,000 ($562,000) to the rebuilding effort.
"The aim of completing the reconstruction in time for Paris 2024 will be an extra motivation for all of us," Bach said in a letter to Estanguet.
"All the Olympic movement and in particular the IOC have been extremely touched by the instantaneous connection the French have made between Notre Dame cathedral and the Paris 2024 Olympic Games," he wrote.
So far more than €800 million ($899 million) have been pledged to help pay for the repair of the 800-year-old landmark.
"The President [Macron] said that the objective was to restore Notre Dame in five years so that the monument will be ready to welcome the world during Paris 2024," Anne Descamp, media director for Paris 2024 tells ATR.
But she adds that this will not be a project for the organizing committee.
"It seems a nice goal and it seems also that it would be possible," French NOC President Denis Masseglia tells Around the Rings.
But there’s plenty of doubt over the speedy timeline. Architects who have handled other restorations say a more accurate schedule ranges from 10 to 30 years.
And timing aside, just three days after the fire, the real cost of the repairs is not known. That number will depend on how Notre Dame will be restored. That question will likely be subject to substantial debate.
Reported by Ed Hula.
Recent Articles
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Beyond the final result, Roland Garros left the feeling that the Italian and the Spaniard will shape the great duel that came to help us through the duel for the end of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era.
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
She is the third in her sport and the seventh athlete to achieve it in the same edition; in Santiago 2023 she was the first athlete with disabilities to compete at the Pan American level and won a medal.
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Argentinian Rodrigo Isgró received a five-game suspension for an indiscipline in the circuit’s decisive clash that would exclude him until the final or the bronze match; the Federation will seek to make the appeal successful.
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
The Kenyan received the maximum sanction for irregularities in his biological passport and the Court considered that he was part of a system of “deliberate and sophisticated doping” to improve his performance. He will lose his record and the bronze medal at the Doha World Cup.
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
The American, a seven-time Olympic champion, referred to the case of the 23 positive controls before the Tokyo Games that were announced a few weeks ago and shook the swimming world. “I think our faith in some of the systems is at an all-time low,” he said.
