He had always lived the sport from the field, but now he has started to manage his logistics from the other side of the barrier. He went from playing rugby championships with the French team to organizing the biggest sporting event in the country to date: the Paris Olympics. Pierre Rabadan (Aix en Provence, 1980) is attached to the Paris Mayor’s Office, Councilor for Sports and responsible for the Organization of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The man who has the map, and all the secrets, of the Parisian event.
An event for which there is still a year to go, but which is already surrounded by controversy: on Tuesday the police searched several venues linked to the organization in the framework of two investigations on suspicion of favoritism in the awarding of public contracts for Olympic works.
Although the interview takes place before this police operation, Rabadan affirms that “everything is going according to schedule. Despite the operational difficulties and setbacks that have occurred, such as the Covid pandemic, because many raw materials came from China and there the restrictions lasted much longer, or right now the war in Ukraine. Despite everything, there are no risks.
He receives EL MUNDO in his office at the Hotel de Ville, the headquarters of the City Council, where he has a giant map of Paris in which he indicates how the event will take place in each of its stages. The opening ceremony, he proudly explains, will tour the Seine, with all the delegations navigating the river in an “act like there has been no other like it.” A spectacular ceremony with which Paris wants to impress, but quite a challenge in terms of security.
The olympic village in Seine-Saint-Deniscelebration centers scattered throughout the city, the Princes Parkhe Roland Garros… In total, there are 62 Olympic works in different parts of the capital and surroundings, where new facilities are being built but, above all, adapting existing spaces. A total of 46 of these works are still unfinished.