Terre de Jeux 2024 welcomes French, and French lovers, the world over

With fewer than 1000 days to go until the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Paris 2024 and the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs are offering the 2 million French people living abroad the opportunity to join in the wonder of the Games. France’s global diplomatic corps is joining forces with the community Terre de Jeux 2024, which already includes nearly 2000 French territories and 54 sporting federations, to promote sport and celebrate the Paris 2024 Games.

An unprecedented project for the diplomatic corps

France’s embassies played a crucial role in promoting the bid to host the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris. By joining Terre de Jeux 2024, they are now working towards three objectives:

To engage with as many French people, French speakers and French enthusiasts as possible, encouraging them to get involved in the Paris 2024 preparations;

To use Paris 2024 as a tool to enhance France’s attractiveness internationally, helping to promote French culture and France’s economic activities;

To forge lasting connections between the diplomatic corps and international sporting associations – in particular, the Olympic and Paralympic Committees in different countries.

France’s embassies will, from today, be celebrating sport and the values it promotes, and encouraging sport for all. They will be contributing to sustainable development and international solidarity through sport, helping to grow the Terre de Jeux 2024 community, and using sport (and the Games, in particular) to enhance France’s international image.

Between now and 2024, activities and challenges will be taking place as part of key events leading up to the Games, including the Journée Olympique (Olympics Day), the Semaine Olympique et Paralympique (Olympics and Paralympics Week), and on 6 April 2022, the UN’s International Day of Sport for Development and Peace.

The embassies already have access to a readymade presentation called “Champion.ne.s”. It is a photo pack celebrating four highly dedicated athletes (Marie-Amélie le Fur, Arnaud Assoumani, Aya Cissoko and Patricio Manuel). Presented in the colours of Terre de Jeux 2024 and forming part of the Cultural Olympiad for Paris 2024, this presentation highlights the strong links between sport, art and culture.

Sport: a formidable tool for diplomacy

As a driver of influence and economic development, helping France put its best foot forward, sport offers a new arena in which the diplomatic corps can exercise soft power.

The Paris 2024 Games are very much a part of France’s activities in relation to sustainable development, international cooperation, political influence and shaping sector-wide policy. Terre de Jeux 2024 showcases France’s expertise and knowhow in staging major sporting events, and helps promote the universal values of sport, Olympism and Paralympism, such as peace, respect and friendship.

34 embassies are already part of Terre de Jeux 2024

In the runup to the Tokyo 2020 Games, the French embassy in Japan became the first to adopt the Terre de Jeux 2024 label, even before its formal launch. Today, the colours of Paris 2024 are already flying in 34 countries, across five continents. From Tokyo to Copenhagen, in Dakar, Sarajevo and Brussels, Terre de Jeux 2024 activities have already been staged, and will intensify from now until the Games begin!

The embassies can sign up to represent the label until 2024.

Tony Estanguet, President of Paris 2024, states: “The aim of Paris 2024 is to organise Games that are open to as many people as possible, allowing everyone to engage and contribute, even at this early stage. With the community Terre de Jeux 2024 spreading to include all French embassies and French people living abroad, we are now taking that ambition beyond our national borders. With less than three years to go before kick-off, France’s embassies will help make the glory of the Games felt all over the world.”

Laurence Fischer, Ambassador for Sport at the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, adds: “For France, sport is a wonderful tool to promote our image and increase our influence abroad. The diplomatic corps is genuinely committed to doing so, working tirelessly throughout the world. We are honoured to be working with Paris 2024, bringing people together and reinforcing the feeling and the values that we share. Further, higher, stronger together, shoulder to shoulder with French people abroad, French speakers and Francophiles everywhere.”