The first French athlete to have won three Olympic titles across three different Olympiads, Tony Estanguet has been the President of the Organizing Committee for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Guided by boldness, adaptability, and teamwork—values drawn from his sports career—Tony Estanguet has ushered the Games into a... Read more
The first French athlete to have won three Olympic titles across three different Olympiads, Tony Estanguet has been the President of the Organizing Committee for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Guided by boldness, adaptability, and teamwork—values drawn from his sports career—Tony Estanguet has ushered the Games into a new era.
Behind these record-breaking Games, it is his constant pursuit of performance that shines through and explains the success of the greatest project ever undertaken in France.
A driving force: boldness
“Let’s keep trying, failing, and getting back up, let’s keep doing! Let’s keep believing! And above all… let’s keep daring.” With these words, Tony Estanguet concluded the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games on September 8, 2024, at the Stade de France, after nearly two months of celebration, sharing, and sports festivities in France and around the world.
The Paris 2024 Games broke all records: a record number of tickets sold (12.1 million compared to 10.9 million in London 2012), a record number of global TV viewers (5 billion) and in France (60 million for the Olympic Games, 49 million for the Paralympic Games), a record atmosphere in the stadiums and beyond…
Tony Estanguet, President of the Organizing Committee for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, is the key architect of this success, which has been praised by 87% of the French (Harris Interactive study, October 2024).
The driving force behind this success is boldness, a quality that has defined Tony Estanguet throughout his athletic career and that he has continuously instilled in his teams to successfully carry out the exceptional Paris 2024 Games project.
Tony Estanguet’s journey with the Olympic Games began with direct competition against his older brother, Patrice, who was the world number one in 1999 and a bronze medalist in canoe slalom at the 1996 Atlanta Games. Tony eliminated his brother and qualified for the Sydney Games. He succeeded and won his first Olympic title at just 22 years old.
This formative episode would shape him until the end of his career in London in 2012. After his failure at the Beijing Games four years earlier, where Tony was the flag bearer for the French delegation and expected to win, he rose again. With his brother Patrice, now his coach, Tony achieved what no other French athlete had yet managed: winning three gold medals in three different Olympiads (Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, London 2012).
At the same London Games, he had the audacity to run for a spot on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Athletes’ Commission, despite several much more well-known French athletes from more mainstream sports having failed before him. This was while balancing his campaign for the IOC and the final stretch of his preparation for his third Olympic title. He was elected by his peers and fully committed himself to the international sports movement.
After the London Games, with the five previous French bids for hosting the Games (Paris 1992, Lille 2004, Paris 2008, Paris 2012, Annecy 2018) all having failed, he had the audacity to embark, alongside Bernard Lapasset, on a new bid to host the 2024 Games. On September 13, 2017, Tony Estanguet and Bernard Lapasset helped France reconnect with its Olympic history, 100 years after the last Summer Games held in France.
Unanimously chosen by the representatives of the five founding members of the Bid Committee – the City of Paris, the Île-de-France Region, the State, the CNOSF, and the CPSF – to lead the Organizing Committee, Tony Estanguet tirelessly began, in 2018, to fulfill the ambitions and commitments made during the bid. Above all, he aimed to create a Games of firsts: the first opening ceremonies held in the heart of the city, the first Park of Champions, the first gender-equal Games, the first events open to public participation, and the first Games held in the heart of the city, with breathtaking competition sites at the foot of Paris’s most iconic landmarks, as well as in Tahiti.
These innovations, celebrated worldwide, have significantly transformed the Olympic and Paralympic experience and the public’s relationship with the Games.
The Paris 2024 Games, also the most environmentally sustainable in recent history, will set a new standard in the organization of major events.
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Tony Estanguet was born on May 6, 1978, in Pau (France). He holds a degree in Sports Teaching and a Master’s in Sports Marketing and Business Strategies from ESSEC. He is a Commander of the Legion of Honor and a Commander of the National Order of Merit.
Sports Achievements – Canoe-Kayak / Slalom (C1)
• Three-time Olympic Champion (2000, 2004, 2012)
• Three-time World Champion (2006, 2009, 2010)
• Three-time European Champion (2000, 2006, 2011)
• 15 World Cup victories