SAINT-DENIS, France (AP) — The head of the embattled Paris Olympics in 2024 says he’s bracing for intense scrutiny and criticism as French police investigate Games-related contracts. But Tony Estanguet defiantly insists that the probes bear no comparison with corruption and ethics scandals that have for decades dogged the Olympic movement’s flagship money-spinning event.
In a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press, Estanguet, a former Olympic canoeing star who is now the face and chief organizer of the Paris Games, said he was working in their bustling Olympic HQ when the building on the outskirts of Paris was raided by police last week.
“It’s the first time this has happened to us, so we were surprised,” he said. “We said, ‘Yes, of course, take all the information you need.’”
The Paris 2024 president vigorously defended colleagues whose homes also were searched. Estanguet, 45, detailed multiple layers of internal and external checks, including continuous scrutiny by state auditors, that he and other Olympic organizers work under as they manage a budget of billions of euros.
No Paris 2024 employee awards contracts alone, “the decision is always collective,” he insisted.
“I don’t want this adventure to be remembered as having been badly managed,” he said.
He said he expects the financial probes to continue even past France’s first summer Olympics in a century.
“I am ready for that and I know that it is part of this kind of adventure. We’ll be inspected intensely, criticized hugely,” he said.
Estanguet, who won Olympic gold medals at the 2000, 2004 and 2012 Games, rejected any comparison between the two police investigations scrutinizing Paris contracts and previous scandal-tainted Olympics, including but not limited to those in Tokyo in 2021 and Rio de Janeiro’s bribery-plagued Games of 2016.
“It’s unfair to say that we’re like the others,” he said. “Unfortunately, things went off course in the past and I think we’re all being lumped together a bit, although I can tell you that we’re being very careful and everyone here has to be very careful because there is no room for error.”
In the hour-long AP interview, Estanguet also addressed other issues crucial to the success of the first Olympics with spectators returning after the COVID-19 pandemic.
He boldly predicted that security preparations for the groundbreaking opening ceremony on July 26 will turn Paris into “the safest place in the world.”
With just over a year to go, Estanguet also said it’s fine that Paris still has a lot of unfinished work.
“There are lots of things that aren’t ready. But that’s normal. I used to be a top-level athlete. It’s never good to be ready a year beforehand,” he said.
