World leaders pledge billions to sports and sustainability at pre-Olympics summit

PARIS — World and business leaders have pledged billions of dollars in financing and committed to supporting various sporting initiatives aimed at accelerating sustainable development, one day before the Olympic Games officially open.

About 500 participants, including 50 heads of state and government, attended Thursday's summit championed by French President Emmanuel Macron and International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach near the Louvre Museum.

The leaders agreed on commitments in the fields of education and employment, health and nutrition, equality, inclusion and sustainability, among other topics.

A coalition of public development banks and other financial institutions pledged to invest $10 billion across the world for community-based, inclusive and sustainable sports infrastructure by 2030.

The French Development Agency said it will release 500 million euros ($543 million) for sustainable development in sports by 2030.

Rémy Rioux, the agency's general director, said the unprecedented summit enabled the beginning of a dialogue between potential investors and the world of sports.

Sports used to ''come after the rest, that is school, health, infrastructures,'' he noted. ''That's what we want to break. You have to insert factors of sport in your development fabric, that's the point.''

FIFA President Gianni Infantino announced the international soccer's body pledge to install at least 1,000 sustainable soccer pitches across the world in the coming years. The NBA said it will work with partners to build 1,000 basketball courts in Africa over the next decade.

With his country slated to host the 2026 Youth Olympic Games, Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye said ''the international system is being challenged and there is an urgent need to reform it to make it more inclusive, fairer and more transparent.''

He also called participants' attention to ''the unbearable scourge of racism and racial discrimination that continues to plague sport in a context of normalization of hate speech.''

''We must stand firm and uncompromising,'' he added.

The summit was also meant to underline the importance of the Olympics' climate-related commitments.

Georgina Grenon, director of sustainability for the Paris Olympics, said ''it was important to share that with the world ... what Paris 2024 has done. We turn these games into a laboratory in a sense, to prove that we can organize sports events in a more sustainable way.''

''And if our solutions can inspire others, it'll be great because it will be a way of leaving an even more important legacy for this Games,'' she added.

Some environmental advocates say the Paris Games should have gone further in reducing emissions and finding more ways to make sustainability a central fan experience. Some have also questioned the climate track record of big sponsors.

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