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PARIS, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- To mark one year to go to the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games host city decision, Paris 2024 has launched Tuesday a "Tour of France", an initiative to promote bid vision and build on nationwide support.
The first tour stop is in the Mediterranean port city of Marseille, which has been planned to host Olympic sailing competitions and partial football matches at the newly renovated Stade Velodrome at the 2024 Games.
Paris 2024 Co-Chairman and triple Olympic gold medalist Tony Estanguet led the delegation hosted by the Mayor of Marseille, Jean-Claude Gaudin. Many athletes were also present, including Rio 2016 men's canoe single gold medalist Denis Gargaud-Chanut, decathlon runner-up Kevin Mayer, men's pole vault silver medalist Renaud Lavillenie, women's 470 sailing bronze medalist Helene Defrance and the third-placed men's 200m sprinter Christophe Lemaitre.
"We are delighted to mark one year to go to Lima and begin our Tour of France here in Marseille - a fantastic sports city which will play a big role in a Paris 2024 Games," said Estanguet in Marseille.
"We are proposing a bid for all of France and nationwide support is very important to us - we are looking forward harnessing this opportunity to visit many regions in France to promote the unique vision of the bid, engage with the public and build on the strong support. This is the beginning of an exciting new phase for the bid," he said.
With bid leaders touring cities in France outside of the Paris region, the tour will continue in Nantes on 16-17 September 2016 and will visit six other cities across France before February 2017.
In each city, the bid delegation will consult and engage with representatives from all areas of society including school children, economic and political leaders, young professionals and members of civil society, to gather feedback and ideas and build on support for the bid.
Paris has joined Italian capital city Rome, Los Angeles of the United States and the Hungarian capital Budapest as the candidates to host the 2024 Games, with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to vote on it in Lima one year from now on.
