French strongly back 2024 Olympics in Paris

French strongly back 2024 Olympics in Paris

Three-quarters of French people want Paris to lodge a bid to stage the 2024 Olympics, a poll published on Tuesday showed.

The majority of French people are behind Paris lodging a bid to stage the 2024 Olympic Games, a poll reveals

A total of 73 percent of those questioned in the CSA survey for newspaper Direct Matin would like to see the Games return to the city for the third time after 1900 and 1924.

Paris suffered a traumatic loss, despite being the hot favourite, to London to host the 2012 edition.

The findings appear two days before the French Committee for International Sport delivers its feasibility study on the City of Light staging the sporting extravaganza in nine years' time after Rio de Janeiro (2016) and Tokyo (2020).

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo will make a decision on whether to lodge a bid by June, her office said last week. Hidalgo has previously been lukewarm towards bidding.

"I love the Olympics and I love sport. But I am pragmatic. I need to put things on the table to study them.

"Only then, if we have a chance of actually winning, will I say 'Let's go!'," Hidalgo told French radio RMC.

"I will not say 'yes' or 'no' on a sudden impulse. At the moment, I'm leaning towards sports. I would really like having the Games here. But, at the same time, I can't just do anything I want."

Tuesday's poll, which found greater enthusiasm for the 2024 Games in Paris among 18-24-year-olds (88 percent) than the over-65s (61 percent) found that support is less solid compared with a similar poll conducted in 2005.

In that survey, 81 percent of those questioned backed Paris's ultimately fruitless attempt to hold the 2012 Olympics.

There is already a long list of potential candidates for the 2024 Games readying their bids ahead of a September 15, 2015 deadline announced by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

In Europe, Berlin and Hamburg in Germany and the Italian capital Rome are considering throwing their hats into the Olympic ring while the American city of Boston is also a candidate.

Durban in South Africa could press to become the first African host of the Games. Istanbul -- runners-up to Tokyo for the 2020 Games -- is also considering a new bid.

Cities must make applications by September 15 and then have until January 8, 2016 to place guarantees.

A shortlist will be chosen by the IOC in May 2016, leaving about 14 months campaigning before a final vote.

A final decision will be taken in Lima in mid-2017.

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