Abstract (EN)

This paper focuses on the development of the successful Paris bid for the 2024 Olympic Games. The bid wasinitiated after the French Minister of Sport drafted a new strategy to overcome a long series of past failure (Paris1992, 2008, 2012; Lille 2004; Annecy 2018). The presentation shows how the synchronization of both thepolitical and sport agenda during and after the presidential campaign of 2012 increased sports issues’ visibilityand the legitimacy of a new public policy in this area. The then Minister of Sports, Valérie Fourneyron,implemented a sport-event-hosting strategy by reforming the sports administration and reshaping the taskdivision between public actors and the sports movement. Such a delegation of power to a non-public actorraised reservations and even opposition within the ministry, the government and the National OlympicCommittee (CNOSF). I examine the developments, arbitrations and transformations of this public policy drawingon a dozen sociological interviews with actors from the ministry, the Parisian bid and the French NOC, and onarchival materials from the sports administration. This approach highlights the role of the Olympic Games as anaccelerator for public action and as an opportunity for various actors to push for their own agenda. The studyalso underlines that the Games fractionalized the Ministry of Sports by encouraging a reform of sportsgovernance that threatens the very existence of this administration.