(ATR) Two youth athletes will join the Paris 2024 Athletes’ Committee bringing the total number to 24.
Wrestler Koumba Larroque and decathlete Ludovic Besson join other ‘Generation 2024’ athletes - those that could compete at the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics - on the committee.
Larroque and Besson also join Olympians and world champions Laura Flessel, Brahim Asloum, Gwladys Epangue and Marie Bochet in the effort to mobilize the French sporting community in support of the Paris bid for the 2024 Olympics.
The committee is co-chaired by Paralympian Marie-Amélie Le Fur and Olympian Teddy Riner. Beginning in May, the athletes will meet on a regular basis until the IOC Session in Lima in 2017 where the host of the 2024 Summer Games will be chosen.
The athletes are tasked with the mobilization and activation of athletes throughout Paris and France as well as consulting bid leaders on the technical aspects of the Games plan and venue feedback.
The Paris 2024 bid also has athletes within its leadership, including co-presidents Tony Estanguet and Bernard Lapasset, chief executive officer Etienne Thobois and executive Guy Drut who is also an IOC member.
"We’re delighted to welcome Koumba Larroque and Ludovic Besson as the newest members of the Paris 2024 Athletes’ Committee," said Estanguet. "It was crucial for us to bring together different generations of athletes to play a key role in the bid and we now have a diverse mix of great Olympians, current athletes and young champions who are driving the project forward."
Paris 2024 says the athletes have already played a vital role in the first bidding submission to the IOC in February, particularly with the venues and Olympic Village concepts. Estanguet says the role of the athletes "will continue to grow and develop as we prepare for the Rio 2016 Observer Program where we will watch, listen, learn and continue to shape the Paris 2024 vision."
"We are very proud of the integral role played by our athlete community throughout this bid so far and we will continue to harness their energy and enthusiasm as we continue in our ambition to deliver an Olympic and Paralympic Games for the athletes, by the athletes," says Estanguet.
Paris is competing with Budapest, Los Angeles and Rome to host the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Written by Kevin Nutley
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