Sport takes prominent place at World Urban Forum

Legacies and future plans

During the sessions devoted expressly to sport and urban planning, experts in planning, legacy and urban transformation from the past and future Olympic cities of Barcelona, London, Paris, Los Angeles and Brisbane acknowledged the power of the Olympic and Paralympic Games to deliver lasting benefits that can transform a community, its image and its infrastructure.

Paris 2024 set new benchmarks for legacy the Olympic Games can create, as highlighted by Medany: “The carbon footprint of Paris 2024 was reduced by 50 per cent compared to previous editions. A critical component in achieving this was that 95 per cent of the Olympic venues were existing or temporary facilities.

The Games were also a catalyst for making sport accessible and beneficial for more people, particularly young people. In her remarks, Marie Barsacq, Director of Impact and Legacy for the Paris 2024 Organising Committee, highlighted “the implementation of a daily 30-minute exercise period at all French primary schools and the construction of 5,000 local sports grounds across the country, as just two of multiple examples”.