When the event dates for the Paris Olympics were announced a couple of years ago we immediately booked accomodation. We’d had a brilliant family trip to the London Olympics in 2012, and felt that the similarly iconic locations of Paris would provide another incredible experience.
With Brisbane’s own Olympics in 2032 looming more closely on the horizon, we’ve found ourselves thinking about (and fielded so many questions from people at home!) what Brisbane can learn from the Paris experience, so I’ve decided to document some of that here.
The Good
So clearly the absolute headline thing that’s been best about this experience is the opportunity to be here and see first hand some amazing performances by the world’s best athletes in person, and feel the energy that sweeps through the venues and crowds. I’ve captured lots of the events we saw on Instagram, so I’m not going to replicate that here, and keep this more about the non-athlete related themes.
In news that surprises no one, the venues have been amazing. It feels like the organisers have maximised the use of every major landmark in their venue planning, which definitely highlights the broadcast experience but also is a big contributor to the in person experience. While Brisbane obviously doesn’t have the depth and breadth of historical buildings and landmarks that Paris does, being here has illustrated how important the choice of not just the venue itself but its surrounds are in enhancing the experience of both the athletes and the spectators.
The transport to the venues has been fantastic, we’ve travelled everywhere using the public transport network and it’s been seamless. We’ve predominantly used the train network, and have never had to wait more than 5 minutes for a train at any station regardless of whether we’ve travelled on a direct route or one that has required multiple line changes. You buy a special Olympic ticket for as many days as you require which covers travel to all Olympic venues, regardless of the zone they are located in, and just install it in the wallet on your phone and tap it at each station. The signage has been clear and easy to follow, with plenty of volunteers to help if required. As we also saw in Sydney and then in London, the directive for locals to stay off the roads has definitely had a big impact on traffic here, but public transport has still been by far the best way to get around.
The consumer technology applications to help you manage your Olympic experience have been outstanding. There are 3 main apps, one with details of schedules and venues, one for ticketing, and one for public transport. The ticketing app is the best I’ve ever used, with all tickets purchased or transferred to you appearing instantly in the app. You do need to make sure your phone is charged, as the QR code to enter the venue is dynamic so screen shots don’t work, but that’s pretty standard for tickets anywhere now. Transferring tickets or listing them for resale is very easy, and simple to do. The public transport app is also dynamic and when multiple routes are available for a venue it directs you to the one that currently has the lowest real time user numbers to facilitate the flow of people. I don’t think I’ve ever had a better user experience at a major event than these three apps have combined to deliver, and while there will clearly be significant advances in technology by 2032 these have definitely set the benchmark in terms of best of breed applications.
The Bad
The heat has definitely been an issue on some days at the outdoor venues. We’ve been pretty fortunate that the majority of our time here has included unseasonably cooler temperatures, but there have been a few days in the low to mid 30’s and it does impact on daytime events. We had a brilliant time seeing Jessica Fox win gold at Vaires-sur-Marne, but I don’t think I’ve ever been so hot. It was compounded by the fact that you’re only able to bring in water bottles sized 750ml or less, and in a venue that holds 11 000 people there was one water refill station! You could buy drinks (more on that in the Ugly), but sitting in full sun for four hours meant the paramedics on site were kept pretty busy and with global temperatures continuing to increase it’s easy to see this becoming a real issue with the current timing of the Games moving forward from both an athlete and spectator perspective. This is definitely one element where Brisbane 2032 has the advantage with daily temperatures at home hovering around 20 degrees while we’ve been here!
Sadly the other thing that made my bad rating was actually Brisbane 2032 related. There was a café that was billed as the Brisbane 2032 Aussie Café, where you could ‘experience a little taste of Australia in Paris’. We went to check it out, and underwhelmed is probably the best thing I can say. Other than a couple of decals stuck on the walls, there was absolutely nothing that promoted Brisbane itself or the Brisbane Games experience in any way. There wasn’t an Aussie flag or boxing kangaroo in sight, and if you missed the decal you would never have known it was meant to be promoting the Brisbane games. The single item on the menu that had any visible link to Australia (although eucalyptus flavored kombucha is something I’d not typically associate as a taste of home!!) was out of stock, and while towards the end of our visit a few people in Brisbane 2032 polo shirts appeared to jump in an Uber to head to an event, they had been completely unsighted in the prior hour or so that we’d been there. There were plenty of other Aussies there, and it’s fair to say the conversations we overheard mirrored our thoughts. Definitely a missed opportunity.
The Ugly
We’ve had a brilliant time here, and overall this has been a really fantastic Olympic experience but there are two aspects that have been really crazy, and I certainly hope Brisbane doesn’t replicate them.
The first is the requirement that you could only use cash or Visa at any of the Olympic venues. This is clearly a condition of Visa’s sponsorship, but you have to suspect the brand damage that it has delivered as the frustration meter ramps up in every line for food, drinks, and merch definitely outweighs any Olympics halo generated, certainly for those physically present! It was outlined towards the bottom of the email that you get in advance of each event which lists everything you need to know about that event, and I had to read it twice and google it before I believed it was actually real. What it’s meant in reality if you don’t have a Visa card is that you have to carry lots of cash with you, as much the same as any other venue, drinks and food don’t come cheap. You can download a special temporary Visa card and load it with up to 150 euros, but refilling it is a pretty clunky process and not particularly time efficient if you have to do it mid transaction with a long line of thirsty spectators behind you. As a result most people seemed to be using cash, but given that both consumers and retail workers are now used to ‘tap and go’ pretty much everywhere else in their lives this made for really slow and torturous transaction times. Somehow I always seemed to pick the queue that had the person who was at their first event, didn’t know about the cash or Visa, and had to download their virtual card, add funds to it and then figure out how to use it before the queue moved forward. And with teenagers forming the majority of the hospitality workforce, it’s fair to say their familiarity with handling cash was understandably next to zero. Just a crazy crazy decision, and one that definitely did not work in practice, particularly with thirsty spectators desperate for fluids in the heat.
The other thing that made my ugly list was also drinks related. The focus on sustainability of these Games has been widely publicised, and while I’m all for more widespread implementation of sustainability measures this one definitely jumped the shark. All of the available drinks for purchase were present in bottled form, but when you bought them you had no option other than to have them served in an open topped plastic cup, which you paid a 2 euro (refundable) charge for. Yep, they were poured out of the plastic bottles with lids, which were discarded as waste, into another plastic cup, which frustratingly then had a decent chance of getting kicked over and split as people shuffled in and out to their seats – and to get the 2 euros back you had to join the same long lines that had been required to make the original purchase. The only winners here in this insane piece of greenwashing were the kids who sprinted around the venues at the end of each event collecting all the cups that had been left behind, and then cashing them in! But as mentioned above, when the water refill stations where in short supply to refill the little water bottles you were allowed to take in, you had no option other than to buy a drink to avoid dehydration in the heat.
All in all the Paris games have set a very high benchmark, and I’m sure provided plenty of inspiration and food for thought for the Brisbane 2032 team as they get ready for a very busy 8 years!
This is very good feedback from your experience at the Paris Olympics.
I’m uncertain if sustainability means the same to everyone & how best to incorporate that into our daily lives.
When recently in Greece & more specifically on the islands, the advice is to not drink the tap water so you have to purchase many bottles large & small. When empty, due to their light nature they blow off from the full rubbish bins from the winds. Despite their focus on sustainability, I don’t believe that this is well managed.
And don’t get me started on the non sale of plastic grocery shopping bags when there are plastic bags to put the fruit & vegetables into!!
My suggestion is for the manufacturers to produce biodegradable products to assist with sustainability.
With reference to transactions, I guess your tip would be to go prepared as the sponsors would like to capitalize on their sponsorship dollars but perhaps those people that were unprepared could have gone into a separate line as to not have held up everyone else with trained volunteers on hand to expedite the process.
What is your feedback on the opening ceremony & the different locations used??