THE GREENEST GAMES CAN PARIS AVOID THE WHITE ELEPHANTS OF OLYMPICS PAST?

With temporary arenas and recycled pools, Paris is prizing sustainability above vanity projects By Oliver Wainwright

- OLIVER WAINWRIGHT

PARIS'S PLACE DE LA CONCORDE is no stranger to scaffolding, as the site of more than 1,000 beheadings during the French Revolution. Two centuries on, the scaffold has returned. Teetering mountains of metal poles now fill the ceremonial square, forming a dozen gigantic tribunes-awaiting not executions, but an extravaganza of urban sports. Where royal heads once rolled, athletes' heads will soon be spinning, as the site gears up to host almost 40,000 spectators for the breakdancing, BMX and skateboarding competitions of this year's Olympics.

It is one of the chief examples of how Paris hopes to host the leanest Games ever, using temporary staging to turn the city's famous landmarks into photogenic backdrops for the televised spectacle - and leave as few new permanent structures as possible in its wake.

The Eiffel Tower will form an imposing background for beach volleyball and blind football, while the Palace of Versailles will provide a regal setting for dressage and showjumping. The opening ceremony will take place on the River Seine itself, seeing a flotilla cruise along a Unesco-listed stage. More than any other previous Olympics, this edition will see the Games cleverly mobilised as a fortnight-long advertisement for the host city.

But what will remain once the pageant is over? What gifts, beyond an increase in already swollen tourist numbers, can Paris hope to glean from the €9bn ($10.8bn) festivities? "We saw the Olympics as a great opportunity to accelerate the city's green transformation," says Emmanuel Grégoire, who served as Paris's socialist deputy mayor for urban planning from 2014 until this month. "We have transformed public spaces, public transport, the river - without the Games, it could have taken a decade or two more."