We gorged on Olympics sports tapas. Who pays the check?

I’m Lara Williams and this is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a modern pentathlon of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. On Sundays, we look at the major [Bloomberg]( I’m Lara Williams and this is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a modern pentathlon of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. On Sundays, we look at the major themes of the week past and how they will define the week ahead. Sign up for the daily newsletter [here](. [Gold Rush]( The feast of [sports tapas]( will come to an end tonight with the Olympic closing ceremony. Over the past couple of weeks, Paris 2024 has kept us fed on [photo finishes]( [sweet]( [podium]( [moments]( [iconic athletes]( and [surprise whales](. We won’t have to wait long before we can once more couch rot in front of incredible athletic feats: the Paralympics start in Paris at the end of August. In addition to showcasing the very best of human ability, the Olympics has also flaunted the very best of its host city. With the opening ceremony taking us on a journey around the city center and down the freshly-laundered Seine (ahem, more on that later), the Eiffel Tower perfectly framing [Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel]( he crossed the finish of the road race solo and the historic Château de Versailles forming the backdrop for the equestrian events, I couldn’t help but wonder how much it all cost. Well, give Paris a [medal for budget management](. While Tokyo 2021 exceeded its proposed budget by somewhere between 128% and [283%]( and the 2016 Rio Games cost 352% more than the initial proposal, according to an University of Oxford study, spending at the 2024 Paris Olympics is expected to be between 25% and 115% percent over budget — depending on whether you side with this [S&P Global Report]( or the folks at Oxford. Either way, with total spend reportedly coming in under $10 billion, it’ll be a much cheaper Games in terms of absolute costs compared to recent years. That’s in part thanks to the fact that 95% of the venues already existed — proof that being green can pay financial dividends. Even so, many critics are asking whether all of the spending was worth it. Take the [$1.5 billion effort]( to make the Seine swimmable, featuring the construction of a new super-sewer south of the city, a cathedral-sized run-off basin, and financial incentives to stop households and houseboats discharging waste directly into the river. The result has been a river that’s swimmable only some of the time. The [men’s triathlon was rescheduled]( after pollution levels were found to be too high and [several athletes fell ill after swimming in the Seine]( though it’s not clear if the water is to blame. Adam Minter still [believes that the initiative was worthy](. After all, even when mega-projects fall short, they “still improve the environment in some way, and provide a positive example for future Games and cities.” Minter recalls a $12 billion effort to clean up Beijing’s smoggy air. During the 2008 Games, it was hailed a great success. After the Olympic flame was extinguished, the pollution came right back. But five years later, China embarked on a nationwide clean-air plan that adopted many of the techniques used for the Games. Today, China’s air is far cleaner than it was in 2008. Without the Olympics, how much longer would it have taken? Part of the clean air effort of 2008 was no doubt for China to show off the merits of the Communist Party to the West. [Sixteen years later, that tradition of investment is still going strong.]( A 716-athlete-strong Chinese contingent is competing in 30 sports, 42 disciplines, and 236 events, a record according to the foreign ministry — and it’s working. At the time of writing (Friday, 3 pm Paris time), China has won 74 medals in Paris — 30 of which are gold. Between 1996 and 2020, China netted a total of 226 gold, 157 silver, and 137 bronze Olympic medals, putting it in second place in the total tally, behind the US. But it’s a strategy that requires deep pockets. China’s budget for sports this year totals more than $1 billion and Karishma Vaswani notes that citizens are openly questioning why so much money is being spent on airfares and hotels, when many at home are facing bleak economic prospects. The country is currently dealing with high youth unemployment, a collapsed housing market and trillions in local government debt. It’s a very different environment to 2008, when the economy was booming and China was framing the event as the start of a new golden era. The airports of Paris have been enjoying a short golden era of their own, and I don’t just mean shipping 10,500 athletes and millions of foreign spectators in and out of France. They’ve also been inundated with private jets. Data from aviation consultant WingX showed that the Olympics [has drawn record numbers of business jets to France](. On the day of the 100-meter men’s final, arrivals into Le Bourget (the main Parisian hub for private jets) were up 73% compared to the same day in 2023. In the first full week of the Games (29th July - 4th August), business jet arrivals were up 19% compared to the same period in the previous year. Must be nice to pop to Paris on a luxurious plane to witness the world’s fittest people competing against each other! But doing so is something that only about 0.0008% of the global population can afford. Meanwhile, as I wrote in [my column this week]( private flights are five to 14 times more polluting than regular flights, and 50 times more polluting than trains. I wonder if the private jet passengers flying London to Paris even considered the (also rather luxurious) Eurostar? I pondered a bunch of ways to get high-flying CEOs and superstars to consider even just taking a regular flight, but came to the conclusion that regulation will be the most effective way to control the sector’s emissions. Taxing them more heavily could raise funds to help spur innovation that could help the entire aviation sector decarbonize — and starting around 2030, fossil-fuel powered private jets ought to be banned. There should be much cleaner planes on the market by then. Or, at least, I hope so! After all, 2030 is only one-and-a-half Summer Olympics away. Bonus Medal-Worthy Reading - [Olympians Must Resist the Return of Spurious Gender Tests]( — David Fickling - [Simone Biles Is Redefining Resilience]( — Lisa Jarvis - [Paris Is Enjoying an Olympic Bounce. But for How Long?]( — Lionel Laurent [What’s the World Got in Store]( - US CPI report, Aug. 14: [Goodbye Grocery Greedflation and Shrinkflation. Hello Deals.]( — Andrea Felsted - Euro Area growth data, Aug. 14: [Think Making Cars is Hard? Try Being a Supplier]( — Chris Bryant - India Independence Day, Aug. 15: [Modi Can’t Build India’s Military This Way]( — Mihir Sharma Notes: Please send gold medals and feedback to Lara Williams at lwilliams218@bloomberg.net. Follow Us Stay updated by saving our new email address Our email address is changing, which means you’ll be receiving this newsletter from noreply@news.bloomberg.com. 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