A million free Paris Olympics tickets to go to locals in bid for inclusive Games
Starting in April, around one million free tickets for the 2024 Paris Olympics and Paralympics will be handed out to local young people, amateur athletes, people with disabilities and others in a bid to broaden access to the Games. It comes after criticism that tickets on sale to the public were beyond most budgets.
The free tickets will be shared between the neighbourhoods and cities across France that are hosting Olympic events, according to the organising committee Cojop.
They are destined for people with disabilities, people in economic difficulty, young people and students, those practicing or working in sports, and residents in areas directly affected by the mega event.
Of around a million tickets, Cojop said, 100,000 were donated by organisers and others were purchased by the national government and local authorities.
In Seine-Saint-Denis, a densely populated department north of Paris that is hosting four of the Games' big venues as well as the athletes' village, nearly 180,000 tickets are up for grabs: 150,000 for the sporting events and 28,000 for the opening ceremony.
"We've chosen sports that appeal specifically to our audience," said Mathieu Hanotin, mayor of Saint-Denis. The town is home to the Stade de France, the national stadium that will host athletics this summer.
Further afield, the cities of Lyon, Nantes and Saint-Etienne – all hosting Olympic football matches – as well as sailing venue Marseille have a smaller number of free tickets available.
Each local authority will decide how to distribute its tickets, and to whom.
Read more on RFI English
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