Eurosport: We're going to talk with the president of Paris 2024, Tony Estanguet. In two years, the next Games, the next time we will see the Olympic flame, it will be here in Paris. We can imagine your emotion, a form of impatience. That's it, now we're getting down to business.  

Tony Estanguet: Then it is sure, we look forward to it. We've been waiting for this for so long, we've worked a lot in the last few years, I think there's everything we need to organise great games, there's really incredible potential, we've allowed ourselves to go beyond this ambition of making very spectacular and popular games, to also make different games, a bit of a break with what's been done in the past, on a regular basis on the markers: whether it's on the sports program, on the ceremonies, on the model that is also more sober since we want to reduce carbon emissions by half. So we will allow ourselves to do things quite differently, to change things a bit, to move the lines and break the codes. We can't wait. There are a little less than 900 days left.  

Eurosport: That's a lot and a little at the same time.  

Tony Estanguet: I even have the impression that it's accelerating, it's normal but it's accelerating a little bit, but overall, with exact 887 days to go before the opening ceremony, we are exactly where we wanted to be, with the construction sites that have started as planned, we are still on budget control. This is an event that is 98% financed by private money and our financing plan is progressing well, so there you have it, all the indicators are in the green, but there is still a lot of work to do. 

Eurosport: But before talking more with you about Paris 2024, I would like us to say goodbye one last time to our special envoy in Beijing. It is Géraldine Weber who had the privilege to attend this closing ceremony. She was in the stadium, in this famous bird's nest. We hope that in Paris it will be a little warmer.

Tony Estanguet: It should not be too hot neither. But no, no, it is sure that normally, at the climatic level, France is perfect: It is not too hot, not too wet either. We saw it in Asia, in Tokyo last summer, the humidity can also play detours for the athletes. So normally the climatic conditions will be good. 

Eurosport: We will stay one last time on the theme of these Winter Games. The last time there were Games in France, it was 30 years ago in Albertville, nobody forgot them. These Games, it was in 1992. Albertville marked a whole generation: this is obviously the ambition of your Games in Paris 2024?  

Tony Estanguet: Yes, it is true that the Albertville Games were a real success. I think it did a lot of good at that time to French sport, it launched a real dynamic, a real success at the time too, since these Games of Albertville knew how to innovate, we remember the opening ceremony which was on a new model and very inspiring. But beyond that, there were also new events, many tests. I think it is important that the Olympic and Paralympic Games keep what makes the strength, the history of the Games, but regularly innovate: it is not always the case. And it is true that we are delighted to be in the continuity of what was done in Albertville in 1992. We were inspired by what was done there. And so French sport continues to write its history. Indeed, in 2024, we also hope to write a beautiful history.  

Eurosport: Florence [Masnada], you had the privilege in 1992 to participate in these Games of Albertville, and to win a medal there and it is a unique emotion for a sportsman to play Games in his/her country. 

Florence Masnada: I could really share with the public, I hope that it will really be the case in 2024 for the athletes, also for the public. Because it must really be a celebration, otherwise, it changed the universe of the stations too, that's what the project of 2024 wants to bring, and especially to bring the young people to the sport. I have a question for Tony: we have seen Norway at the top of the medals, this incredible small country. We know that the place of sport in the education of the society in Norway is very important, and they have results at the highest level. I know that you want to promote 30 minutes of sport in school, is putting sport back into education a real project for Paris 2024?  

Tony Estanguet: It is sure that we realised that the success of the Games could not be focused only on the quality of the organisation and that it was necessary beyond the organisation of the Games to fix for objective to leave a legacy, it is not necessarily in number of infrastructures, even if it is important and that we are going to renovate the infrastructures and to try to leave a material legacy, but it is rather how we reconnect the French population to the practice of the sport. 

Unfortunately, we are a country where the phenomenon of sedentary is increasing with figures that are chilling. There is a study by the National Agency for Health Security, which has just revealed that 95% of French adults do not practice enough sports activities, and among young people, it is 85% of young people who put their health at risk according to the recommendations of the World Health Organization. So there you have it, we have this collective challenge. Everything is organised around us so that we hardly need to do anything anymore, we don't need to go out to get our groceries, we don't need to move anymore, we have modes of transport that even when we have 50 metres to go, we take a scooter or electric bikes. So we have a sedentary lifestyle crisis ahead of us. We have pushed a measure of 30 minutes of sport per day in elementary school and there are more than 1000 schools that have already launched this experimentation and it allows to develop good habits at that age (before 10 years old). Unfortunately, we have realised that a child who has not done any sport when he/she arrives at college becomes a sedentary adult. So it is really necessary to take the good habits from the elementary school and to find solutions in complement of what the sport clubs can propose, in complement of what the school can propose to tackle this challenge. 

Eurosport: To play the Games in Paris, it is the dream of a life for our French champions, now we will listen to our double Olympic champion of Tokyo Clarisse Agbégnénou [...] We feel that there is a real adhesion, a real communion with all our champions behind this project of Paris 2024.

Tony Estanguet: It's true that it's magical. Many of us would have dreamed of being able to do the Games at home. I remember at the time, Paris 2008, Paris 2012, but no, finally, I stopped my career in 2012… so we are delighted to be able to offer this incredible opportunity to French athletes. I think it will be a very strong moment for the country. We have seen it in all the editions of the Games. Something always happen between the athletes of a delegation and the supporters of the host country. We prepare this, we really want it to be a popular celebration. We really want that there is an impulse, a very strong dynamics around the sport in this country.

Eurosport: You made the event a few weeks ago by unveiling the outlines of this fantastic project around the opening ceremony, we are looking at that. Innovative Games, here we go.  

Tony Estanguet: It's great, indeed. The opening ceremony contains the biggest audience of the Games, it must be the marker a little bit. We must understand in two hours what we will expect from these Games and finally this ceremony will say that they will be spectacular games, popular games too because for the first time, we go from a gauge of about 60,000 people to more than 600,000 people. So here we are, we change dimension. And then we lean on a decoration which was existing, here is the most beautiful heritage of our capital which puts itself in the service. It is a celebration of the Games for the athletes too. It is an experience that will be quite nice because when you are an athlete, when you participate in an edition of the Olympics, you go around the stadium, and you don't have much opportunity to visit the city where the Games are held. With Paris 2024, the athletes will be able to cross the whole city from east to west in front of hundreds of thousands of people, so there is potential, frankly. We are delighted with this concept because it is in the image once again, of what we want to do during these competitions.  

Eurosport: You continue to think a lot about the organisation of this event, you were in Los Angeles to attend the Super Bowl. Does it take part in this reflection to have gone there?  

Tony Estanguet: Yes, it is sure that we look very closely at everything that was done in the past, everything that is being done. The Beijing games were also an inspiration for us, for the ceremonies. And we will have to find once again the good ideas that have already existed and succeeded, but also create our own way to propose something different. But it's true that the Americans have quite impressed me because you quickly understand when you go to the Superbowl (well, it was the first time I went), it's not just a sports event, it's really entertainment, it's really a global experience that is offered. There is a musical program that is very sought after. It was quite interesting for me. 

Eurosport: Does that mean that there will be Eminem in 2024?  

Tony Estanguet: We'll find the French Eminem. 

Eurosport: To talk about these Games of Paris 2024, but on the more sporting aspect. Precisely we talked about the Beijing Games with the freestyle disciplines that are now very well integrated into the Olympic Games, which were new disciplines for 4 years, for 8 years. In Paris 2024, there will be new disciplines like breaking in the wake of what we saw in Tokyo: surfing, skateboarding ... It's important to see these new disciplines enter the Games with full force.  

Tony Estanguet: Because it rejuvenates the audience a little bit, it allows to be surprised from time to time, to see sports that we don't know at all entering the program. Because it's true that those who are used to watching the Games don't know the breaking, but I think that it's important to renew, in small doses, and to propose new things. For me, the magic of the Games is that in 2 weeks of competition, we have a very complete panorama of the different sports communities: there are team sports, there are indoor sports, there is everything that is nature sports, racket sports and combat sports...  

Eurosport: Martin Fourcade is President of the Athletes' Commission for Paris 2024. He was the great witness on Eurosport during these Games in Beijing. He lived a great moment because he was elected to the Athletes' Commission this week. We will see these images again, he took the oath, does it bring back memories?  

Tony Estanguet: Yes, it brings back very good memories. I exchanged a lot with Martin these last years around this project, I think it is really a great news because he will bring a lot to the IOC. I think that he is really a committed athlete who has a legitimacy, but beyond that, he wants to do something with it, so he asked himself a lot of questions. He has worked hard to be elected and I am delighted with his entry into the IOC. I went out a few months ago in Tokyo, I am delighted that another Frenchman will take the place and continue to represent the athletes at the international level. 

Eurosport: So, you are the man of Paris 2024, I would like us to meet someone who is the man of these Games, it is Quentin Fillon Maillet. with its 5 medals, does this speak to you? The triple Olympic champion, do you understand the emotions? 

Tony Estanguet: No it doesn't speak to me, it's alien [laughs]. It's very impressive. I think we all don't realise how much it means physically, technically, and mentally to recover like that for two days in a row and go back to the fight and win. So I'm really impressed by what Quentin did, I think it's really quite historic for the French sport.  

Eurosport: Well, let's leave on this beautiful tribute from Quentin Fillon Maillet. Thank you very much Tony Estanguet for giving us this time, it is a real pleasure. See you in Paris 2024.