Photo : © MahdiAridj
Paris 2024 provided no shortage of exhilarating sporting action during its 16 days , with 31 world records broken and France able to celebrate a home-grown hero in swimmer Leon March becoming its first athlete to win four individual golds at an Olympics .
Aside from the sporting drama within the event ’ s 35 stadiums , what most impressed this visitor was the way in which the venues were interspersed throughout the city utilising some of its best-known and most beautiful sites to remarkable effect .
Among the many stunning constructions were the Eiffel Tower Stadium created in the shadow of the iconic iron tower , the Château de Versailles arena assembled in the stunning Etoile Royale esplanade , and the temporary infrastructure at Place de la Concorde that hosted breaking ’ s Olympic debut alongside the likes of BMX freestyle and skateboarding .
A key focus for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games organising committee was minimising the huge event ’ s environmental impact . The stated goal of making Paris the greenest Olympic Games ever staged , leaving half the carbon footprint of the London 2012 and Rio 2016 editions , was manifest in the huge number of temporary structures threaded between the city ’ s stunning historical landmarks .
Ten new permanent sites were constructed for Rio 2016 , while London 2012 saw six built , but of the 35 venues that hosted events during Paris 2024 only two were new permanent facilities .
The vast number of temporary structures required for Paris 2024 presented a huge opportunity for overlay suppliers . They were called on to help meet the organising committee ’ s sustainability commitment to create the Olympic and Paralympic Games with 95 % of its temporary infrastructure being re-used .
The focus on environmental sustainability was also very apparent ,
“ IT WAS A MASSIVE ENGINEERING CHALLENGE .”
- GL EVENTS LIVE DIVISION MD MAXIME ROSENWALD
but on a smaller scale , in the Athletes Village , where plant-based food was prioritised , and furniture was created with everything from recycled shuttlecocks and bottle tops to parachute canvas .
Power play Claiming that some 4 million litres of diesel was used to create electricity for London 2012 , Paris 2024 director of environmental excellence Georgina Grenon emphasised that the focus for the French event would be on avoiding diesel generators at all costs , and connecting venues to the national electricity grid .
As an official partner of Paris 2024 , GL events not only provided overlay planning and the delivery of around 70 % of the event ’ s temporary infrastructure , with some 14 stadiums including the equestrian and para-equestrian event grandstands in the gardens of the Château de Versailles , GL also provided temporary power solutions .
GL events teamed with Loxam to become the prime contractor for the design , maintenance and operation of all electrical installations at Paris 2024 . The focus was on enabling a “ clean and reliable ” power supply to more than 55 venues , including the Broadcast Centre .
Maxime Rosenwald , the managing director of GL ’ s Live Division says the task involved providing temporary power not only to all of Paris 2024 ’ s competition venues but also the noncompetition facilities .
“ We worked with the organising committee to use the utility power to bring electricity to all the Olympic venues , which involved us installing 8,000 distribution boards and laying more than 1,200km of cables . We did
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install some generators but only as a third backup . In case we had a failure of the main power supply from the utility , we had a second power supply , and if that failed only then would we turn on the generators .”
Rosenwald says that GL events handled the power distribution at FIFA World Cup at Qatar in 2022 but the provision for Paris 2024 was on another level : “ The Olympics was the first time we have done the electrical distribution for an event of that scale . We have shown to the world that GL is able to deliver complex temporary power distribution to this kind of event , and that ’ s a big legacy for the company .”
That legacy reaches beyond GL ’ s French operation . GL ’ s UK CEO Scott Jameson says that the team at its Flow Power Solutions subsidiary , based in Stoke-on-Trent , sent equipment and people to project manage some of the installs .
“ With GL being France based , a lot of it has been handled by the French team but it ’ s been good for the UK team to get involved and get experience of bigger projects like this ,” he says .
The UK team ’ s involvement didn ’ t stop at power , with furniture supplied by GL event ’ s Xpect Furniture arm , and tents and structures provided from the UK for Versailles and army accommodation .
“ We have invested a lot in new equipment , which will benefit UK events in the longer term ,” says Jameson .
Overlay GL events ’ huge overlay provision for Paris 2024 involved 60 Olympic venues , and the instillation of 160,000 grandstand seats at stadia . It also worked on 25 “ satellite ” projects such the 100,000 square meters of structures needed to accommodate 15,000 military personnel .
Rosenwald says that among the many challenges was installing the 160,000 grandstand seats in the heart of Paris while trying to minimise the impact on traffic : “ We tried to delay the closures of bridges and areas of the city to the latest accessaa . co . uk 19