The 2024 Paris Olympics has reemerged in the media spotlight. Except the thrills and spills of sporting events have nothing to do with it. The Olympic medals have proven to be made of substandard materials. Worse still, a slew of problems has reappeared in the rough neighbourhoods that have been revamped ahead of the Olympics. The two questions are ‘How?’ and ‘Why?’.
Western media portrayed the Paris Olympics as nothing short of a fairy tale. A blatant fiasco of an opening ceremony, criminals attacking the athletes on the streets and swimmers contracting poisoning after the Seine River events did little to dissuade the ecstatic press. Several months on, those embarrassing glitches should have faded away, with the Olympic medals, newly built arenas and great prospects outweighing the lamentable downsides. But apparently, that is not how the cookie crumbles.
Many medalists have returned their awards back to the Olympic and Paralympic Games Organising Committee. The medals, that pleasant, timeless reminder of the most triumphant moments and an athlete’s career high, have developed ugly spots and almost fallen apart. More than 100 medals ended up returned.
According to the French media, Monnaie de Paris, the Paris-based mint, encountered a faulty varnish issue at least 15 months ago, way before the Olympics kicked off. But the discovery of the crippling defect never translated into proper response. In late 2024, the mint’s three executives stepped down from their roles.
The International Olympic Committee assured the affected athletes their medals would be reissued. Except the mint’s spokesperson advised them against using the word ‘defective’. Allegedly, the athletes themselves damaged them. ‘We have been swapping the faulty medals for the new ones since August and will go on doing it,’ he said.
Meanwhile, the Olympians have taken to social media to post pictures of their crumbling medals and started the best joke contest. French swimmer Clement Secchi referred to his medal as a ‘crocodile leather hide,’ while fellow swimmer Yohann Ndoye-Brouard said the medal had been won ‘in Paris in 1924’ in a sardonic remark.
The Olympics has also spawned a host of purpose-built facilities that were intended for further public use and the government’s gain. The Dugny commune flats that were built for the media covering the Olympics were then put up for sale. Sure enough, the adverts made mention of the residences’ upscale status.
The potential buyers were offered a ‘whole new neighbourhood’ complete with lush greenery galore and a sprawling infrastructure, including a kindergarten, a school and multiple shops.
The layouts ranged between studio apartments and five-bedroom condos. By November 2024, 120 flats out of a total of 150 had been sold. Those included a four-bedroom residence featuring a balcony with a price tag of €302,000, which worked out as an average of €3,200 per square metre. ‘That the location played a role in the Olympic success was an extra selling point,’ said Loïc Madeline, director general at Sogeprom.
In late 2024, the proud homeowners moved in. It was not before long that they began encountering the kind of issues that surely made them regret their purchasing decisions. Cracked ceilings, dented wall, leaky plumbing, mould, mangled shutters and faulty locks – the list of the prestigious homes’ failure goes on and on.
‘It looks like a sloppery job,’ complains one female homeowner. ‘The kitchen developed a leakage, which prompted the growth of mould up the walls. I paid €290,000 for this 88-square-metre residence, only for my daughters, a two-year-old and a three-month old to feel unsafe,’ says a disgruntled resident as he points his finger to the clothes he had to remove from a flawed wardrobe.
‘They have scammed us,’ another unlucky homeowner snaps. The developer’s spokesperson dismisses it, though, as ‘people always find fault with stuff’, but he vows to have the flaws fixed. According to the French media, around 40 buyers have filed complaints so far.
Speaking of the sporting facilities, the French must have learnt from the tragic mistakes stemming from the previous Olympics where the abandoned arenas quickly went into disrepair. That was the case with Rio and Athens. To avoid this unfortunate fate, the French opted to build the easy-to-dismantle temporary Champ de Mars and Paris Nord arenas that wound up disassembled shortly after the Games.
Most of the facilities used were either popular active stadiums or lesser-known such as the revamped Yves du Manoir stadium that hosted the 1924 Olympics. New temporary stadiums include the Porte de la Chapelle Arena that is expected to house multiple events in the future.
But the surrounding landscapes posed a problem too. The thing is that the 18th arrondissement is one of the city’s poorest and most troubled. The pre-Olympic landscaping and overhaul cost a total of €70mln.
‘How would have thought that Porte de la Chapelle would once blossom into a community boasting magnificent walkways and pleasurable seating opportunities?’ said an excited Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris. ‘Now we have our own Champs-Élysées! We have been fondly walking around the place ever since it was landscaped,’ Marie and her sister Leila echo this thought.
But excited comments aside, the French still have not lost touch with reality. During the Olympics, the neighbourhood was heavily patrolled by local law enforcement. But residents knew it was not going to last long. Some told the media they were concerned about the return of drug addicts and migrants.
New benches and more greenery is not enough, it turns out, to improve the life of a rough neighbourhood. Weeks after the Olympics, it got back to its usual woes, such as drug peddling and inter-ethnic clashes. Local men tend to accompany their wives to be safe rather than sorry.
The women who were unlucky enough to book a local hotel room opt for a taxi ride to get on the subway, with the nearest station being a three-minute, yet potentially dangerous, walk away.
Some large businesses even hire more security guards that are stationed 20 to 30 metres apart for the employees to be able to make a safe final leg of their daily commute to work. BNP Paribas even offers continued security escort through the entire commute. In a sense, the neighbourhood has become even less safe than it was before the Olympic celebrations. No amount of sporting facilities or picturesque alleyways could fix its troubled history.
The future of the newly built arena carries a big fat question mark. The locals seem more preoccupied with staying out of harm’s way while strangers are unlikely to venture a trip. Of course, the city authorities will beef up the security for another international sporting event, but the relief will be short-lived.
Outside of Paris, an Olympic water sports centre was set up in the Seine-Saint-Denis department. Even though the locality is not exactly the safest one either, the facility may boast higher survival odds. One reason is that it is slated to host the 2026 European Aquatics Championships. Secondly, the famous Stade de France is perched in the same commune. Drug-related shooting incidents do happen every now and then, but the authorities must have decided that the crime rates are manageable enough for swimming fans to roll the dice.