Navigation – Plan du site

AccueilAppels à contributionsAppels en cours"The heritage legacy of the 2024 ...

"The heritage legacy of the 2024 Olympic Games: from the tangible to the intangible"

Proposal submission date: April 15, 2026

Scientific coordination

Cécile DOUSTALY, University Professor (Comparative Cultural Policies), Director of the PICT Master's degree (International Projects in Cultures and Tourism), UMR Héritages, CY Cergy Paris Université

Marie GRASSE, Chief Curator of Heritage, Director General of the Musée national du sport, Nice

Sophie LECOINTE, Head of the Democratisation and Territorial Action Unit, Drac Nouvelle-Aquitaine

Call for papers

By the end of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games (JOP), it was clear that the event had aroused an unprecedented popular enthusiasm, combining a rare sense of unity, national pride and international dialogue well beyond the fans of the sports disciplines represented. This fervour, experienced as both a moment of communion and celebration, quickly gave way to a form of collective nostalgia. The stakeholders of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games had nevertheless sought to bridge this gap between the ephemeral dimension of the event through the permanence of its legacy, in particular related to heritage.

The success of the Games was fueled by the strong mobilisation of the cultural sector in all its diversity. Architectural creations, archival collections, heritage valorisation, cultural programmes (exhibitions, performing arts), festivals and ceremonies, rich in symbols and emotions, have become inseparable from the event and are now part of French sporting heritage. The Cultural Olympiad, initiated in 2022 by the Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (COJOP) with the support of the Ministry of Culture, has made it possible to design and federate thousands of labelled projects across the country, from the Île-de-France to Polynesia, from collection to conservation and creation. For the first time, an Organising Committee located the competitions and festivities in non-sporting heritage sites in both metropolitan and overseas French territories (Grand Palais, Concorde, Versailles, Seine, Port of Marseille, Teahupo'o, etc.). The Seine-Saint-Denis, the main beneficiary of new Olympic infrastructure, took advantage of the event to consolidate the dynamism of its urban and cultural strategies. These choices allowed to promote sporting heritage as materiel as well as living heritage and to make sport and culture dialogue in strong symbolic settings.

Hosting the Olympic Games highlighted that sports heritage in France was imperfectly known or represented in heritage institutions. This issue offers to examine the processes of heritage recognition that have been initiated, directly or indirectly, by the Games. How does the patrimonialization of objects, spaces, but also uses and memories, often inseparable from their context of experience, take place? These questions have been part of a broader reflection on the "sportivation" of places or practices rediscovered during large-scale events, such as the recognition of the Martinique skiff as Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) by UNESCO and the know-how associated with it.

Sporting events themselves generate new heritage: sports objects, posters, programmes, photographs, audiovisual recordings, stories and testimonies. The memories of the Games, fixed on media or still to be collected, have patrimonialize the moment in collective and individual history. Emerge numerous material and immaterial traces of a heritage, often popular, but still little known. A heritage in the making is then sketched out, nourished by contemporary practices.

The Games are thus part of two temporalities: the fleeting one of the event itself, and the long-term ones of its preparation and legacy. In 2020, faced with the disaffection of candidate cities, the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) "new norm" gave host cities more leeway to imagine the sustainable project that suited them. Paris 2024 identified its priorities, encouraging the practice of sport, inclusion in all its forms (youth, parity, disability, territories, identities), dialogue between sport and culture, innovation, and social and environmental responsibility. The State Legacy Plan was designed in this context to extend the tangible and intangible impacts of the Games beyond the event. This issue will thus question the effects of the Olympic Games on the links between heritage and public policies.

Finally, the Games have long been part of international circulations and allow for diachronic perspectives and comparisons between different approaches to heritage. What can we learn from past experiences (London 2012, Tokyo 2020) and what lessons can be learnt from Paris 2024 for the next Olympiads (Milan-Cortina 2026, Los Angeles 2028, French Alps 2030, Brisbane 2032)?

How have the 2024 Games contributed to redefining the contours of French heritage, both tangible and intangible? Three chronological lines of reflection emerge:

  • The Olympic project and the state of play of sports heritage before Paris 2024. What recognition for sports heritage in France and in cultural policies before the Games? What links did the candidacy intend to forge between heritage and sport? What "cultural" ambition were formulated in the Bid?

  • The time of the event: celebrating heritages? What are the discourses, mechanisms and implementations for the heritage components of the Olympic Games? Have cultural and territorial actions (in particular via the DRAC) transformed the interactions between creation, heritage and sport? Have these partnerships changed the views and practices of the various actors and attracted new audiences?

  • Legacies: first assessment of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. What legacy measures have been made permanent? Has the diversity of sporting heritage been better valued? What works, infrastructures or initiatives continue to carry the memory of the Olympic Games? Are collaborations between cultural and sports actors long-lasting? What is the outlook for future Olympic Games or major events?

Lines of reflections

1 – The olympic project and overview of sporting heritage ahead of Paris 2024

Contributions may focus on the effects of the Games on the heritage of a sport, an organisation or an infrastructure dedicated to amateur or professional practice (inventory, labelling, promotion, etc.).

The first protection of a stadium in France dates back to 1975, but just before the 2024 Olympic Games, it remained difficult to register and protect sport built heritage in the face of the needs of athletes and the reservations of certain owners. From the 1980s onwards, the creation of exhibitions and new collections confirmed the interest of museum institutions in the archaeology of sport and the collection of movable objects related to sport – both a testimony to a technique and a symbolic vector of a practice, a victory, a champion or the attachment to a club and sociabilities. Previous Olympic editions, in particular Grenoble, Albertville and London, have also revealed the challenges of preserving heritage places, objects and sports memories. Have the 2024 Olympic Games been a source of recognition, impetus or a dedicated policy for the protection, valorisation and creation of sports heritage through the actions of the Ministry of Culture and its decentralised services, local authorities and other stakeholders? We propose the indicative deadline of 2020 in order to make room in part 2 for the analysis of projects included in the State Heritage Plan (launched in 2019) and the Cultural Olympiad (2022-2024):

  • What place did sports heritage occupy at the turn of 2020 in heritage policies (public operators in general, heritage actors in particular), whether in terms of studies, conservation or valorisation?

  • What was the impact of hosting and preparing for the Games on the knowledge, policies and perceptions of sports heritage?

  • How was the "Legacy" component of the sporting event anticipated by sports stakeholders (sports associations, athletes, etc.) or by civil society?

2 – The time of the event: celebrating heritages?

The making of sports and Olympic heritage, through the prism of a major international event such as the Games, will be approached from the dual point of view of the actors and the public, taking into account the initial desire to recognise, but also to constitute, a legacy and new heritages, particularly in Seine-Saint-Denis. We will be able to analyse various territories and heritage contexts (Paris, Île-de-France, Marseille, Châteauroux, Tahiti, etc.). What histories and narratives were inscribe in the heritage processes initiated?

The following questions will be addressed, without avoiding critical analysis:

  • What role did the Paris 2024 stakeholders play in the cultural component of the Olympic Games: sports sector; OCOG; State; local authorities; cultural institutions; developers; etc.?

  • How have the Olympic Games changed the knowledge and practices associated with sports heritage?

  • Has the Cultural Olympiad achieved its objectives of bringing sport, Olympic values and culture into dialogue?

  • Did the Games lead a new audience to heritage? Have the many sporting events and festivities organized in heritage sites changed the way people perceive them?

  • What have been the effects of heritage valorisation, architectural creations and Olympic developments on the landscape, identity and composition of some neighbourhoods?

Can be analysed, for instance, through the prism of humanities and social sciences, the links between sites, territories and Olympic programming; collections (in particular citizen participation in the Great Collection of Sports Archives); digitization operations; heritage at the territorial level; the role of the performing arts and festive programmes (Cultural Olympiad, festivity zones, ceremonies). The analysis of the implementation of these types of projects can be complemented in the same article by the analysis of their legacy, in connection with the issues analysed in part 3. The projects that continue after the Olympic Games event fall under part 3.

3 – Heritages: first assessment of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games

This part focuses on the results of the Games and the changes that have begun since then. The Heritage Plan, formalised in 2019, has been the subject of analyses from 2025. Some of its measures have not been successful or have been abandoned. Others continue to respond to major challenges faced by cultural policies, in line with the priorities of Paris 2024: sustainable development, democratisation, inclusion and transition. This part will question the specific issues of sports heritage as compared to other forms of heritage: knowledge, conservation, appropriation, transmission. The transformations caused by the environmental crisis confirm the necessary acceleration of the Olympic paradigm shift, in the perspective of the Alps 2030.

  • Have the collections, exhibitions and promotion actions carried out by museums, libraries and archives made it possible to preserve the popular memory of practices that are often far from the Olympic format?

  • Have the Games contributed to the creation of a lasting sporting heritage (objects, monuments, archives, intangible heritage, etc.), to be studied, conserved, transmitted and enhanced?

  • Which research, protection and training should be favoured in a context of the changing perceptions of the heritage of sport?

  • Have new practices endured: partnerships, festive programming, mediation for new audiences – sensitized in situ or by the media – and how can they be retained?

  • Is the distinction between tangible and intangible heritage still effective?

  • What does participatory science bring to sports heritage? What are the characteristics of this civic engagement and what place can digital technology play in it?

This part will thus favour a reflective approach, facilitated by the passage of time, on the multiple effects of the Olympic Games on heritage and the growing role given to civil society and festive programming in the process of patrimonialization of the sporting phenomenon, in its appropriation and its power to represent diverse communities. It will also leave room for a forward-looking look, thinking in particular of the upcoming Olympics, in the light of the lessons learnt from Paris 2024.

Any proposal on a theme not explicitly mentioned above is obviously welcome.

Proposals for contributions

Proposed articles must contain an unpublished part of research, hypothesis or updating; they cannot reproduce the entirety of an article that has already been published. It is hoped that they will be widely illustrated, including by sound and/or audiovisual examples. They can also be accompanied by a video interview of which you will be the author.

If you would like to contribute to this issue, please send before April 15, 2026 a summary of your proposal of no more than 1,500 characters, as well as a short CV by email, entitled "IN SITU proposal", to: insitu.patrimoines@culture.gouv.fr (Nathalie Meyer-Revue In Situ, Ministry of Culture, General Directorate of Heritage and Architecture) by copying the scientific coordinators (Cécile Doustaly, Marie Grasse and Sophie Lecointe) to the following address: HeritageJO_InSitu@cyu.fr.

The texts of the articles corresponding to the selected proposals are expected by September 1, 2026.

You will be able to write your article in French or in your language of use. It will be published in its original version and in its French translation. The length of the articles should be between 15,000 and 35,000 characters, including spaces and notes. Recommendations to authors concerning the number of pages or images, iconographic rights, insertion of notes and links, etc., can be consulted on the journal's website: https://journals.openedition.org/insitu/32424

Indicative bibliography

Archives de France (interministerial service)/French National Olympic Academy, La Grande Collecte des archives du sport (2022-2024), report, Paris, 2025, online, https://francearchives.gouv.fr/file/f00c113bdb080c911023bf7a033ac4819b64d798/Bilan_Grande-Collecte-sport_2022-2024_web.pdf [link valid in January 2026].

AULAS François & LINXE Aurélie, " Muséographier le sport ou l’exposition comme terrain de jeu ", La Lettre de l'OCIM, no 175, 2018, online, https://doi.org/10.4000/ocim.1886 [link valid in January 2026].

BELTRAMO Noémie, BRÉHON Jean, CHOVAUX Olivier & DA ROCHA CARNEIRO François, Vingt ans après… Écrire l’Histoire du sport, Limoges, Limoges, Presses universitaires de Limoges, 2023.

BLANCHARD Pascal, BANCEL Nicolas, BOLI Claude et al. (ed.), Olympisme, une histoire du monde. Des premiers Jeux Olympiques d’Athènes 1896 aux Jeux Olympiques et Paralympiques de Paris 2024, exp. cat., Palais de la Porte Dorée, Paris, 26 April 2024-8 Sept. 2024, Paris, Éditions de La Martinière, 2024.

BOLZ Daphné & KRÜGER Michael, A History of Sport in Europe in 100 Objects, Hildesheim, Arete Verlag, 2023.

BOUCHERON Patrick, SOREZ Julien & LAURENTIN Emmanuel, « Écrire l’histoire du sport et des Jeux olympiques », Paris, Collège de France, conference of 25 April 2024, online, https://www.college-de-france.fr/fr/agenda/grand-evenement/les-jeux-au-college-de-france/ecrire-histoire-du-sport-et-des-jeux-olympiques [link valid in January 2026].

BROMBERGER Christian, "De quoi parlent les sports ? ", Terrain, no. 5 ("Des sports"), 1995, p. 5-12, available online, https://doi.org/10.4000/terrain.2837 [link valid in January 2026].

CAROUX Hélène (dir.), Sport et architecture en Seine-Saint-Denis. Les équipements sportifs de la banlieue du nord-est parisien, Paris, Carré, 2017.

Catalogues of exhibitions labelled Cultural Olympiad and other notable exhibitions related to sports heritage [listed by the Musée national du sport in the Stadium platform, https://stadium.museedusport.fr/stadium/fr/content/lolympiade-culturelle-et-les-musees-de-france [link valid in January 2026]]

CLASTRES Patrick & DIETSCHY Paul, Faire l’histoire de son club. Collecter les archives de l’athlétisme, Paris, Hachette, 2006.

CLASTRES Patrick & VAUCELLE Serge, "Faire l’histoire de son club. Collecter les archives de l’athlétisme", Revue de l'Association des coaches français d'athlétisme, 2023, no 250-251.

COHEN Phil & WATT Paul (eds.), London 2012 and the Post-Olympics City: A Hollow Legacy?, London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.

International Olympic Committee (IOC), "Report. Paris 2024", 2025, online, https://stillmed.olympics.com/media/Documents/Olympic-Games/Paris-2024/2024-12-IOC-final-report-on-Paris-2024.pdf [link valid in January 2026].

CRIVELLO Maryline, GARCIA Patrick & SIRINELLI Jean-François, Les Cérémonies publiques, séminaires 2016-2018, Research Notebook of the History Committee of the Ministry of Culture, online, https://chmcc.hypotheses.org/3531 [link valid in January 2026].

DAVALLON Jean, "Mémoire et patrimoine : pour une approche des régimes de patrimonialisation ", in TARDY Cécile & DODEBEI Vera (eds.), Mémoire et nouveaux patrimoines, OpenEdition Press, 2015, online, https://books.openedition.org/oep/444?lang=fr [link valid in January 2026].

DELAPLACE Marie & SCHUT Pierre-Olav (eds.), Hosting the Olympic Games — Uncertainty, Debate, Controversy, London, Routledge, 2019.

DELAPLACE Marie & SCHUT Pierre-Olav (eds.), Planning the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, London, Palgrave, 2024.

DELORME Franck & Pascal LEMAITRE, Les Sports en France de l’Antiquité à nos jours : une histoire, un patrimoine, Paris, Éditions du Patrimoine, 2023.

DOUSTALY Cécile, "Paris 2024", in GOLD John & GOLD Margaret, Olympic Cities, London, New York, Routlkedge, 2024.

DOUSTALY Cécile, "Does culture have the transformative power to make the Olympic Games sustainable? ", Local Economy, vol. 38 (4), 2023, pp. 347-368.

DOUSTALY Cécile, for the DRAC Ile de France and Choose Paris Region, Introductory conference and report of the Culture, Tourism and Sport Meetings, December 5, 2024.

DRAC Île-de-France, 24 sports sites labeled "Remarkable Contemporary Architecture" in Île-de-France, 2024, online, https://www.culture.gouv.fr/regions/drac-ile-de-france/actualites/actualite-a-la-une/24-sites-sportifs-franciliens-labellises-architecture-contemporaine-remarquable [link valid in January 2026].

FOURNIER Laurent Sébastien, "Traditional Festivals from European Ethnology to Festive Studies", Journal of Festive Studies, 2019, vol. 1 (1), p. 11-26.

GAMMON Sean, RAMSHAW Gregory & WATERTON Emma, Heritage and the Olympics, People, Place and Performance, London, New York, Routledge, 2017.

GARCIA Beatriz, "Cultural policy and mega-events", in DURRER Victoria & MILLER Toby, The Routledge Handbook of Global Cultural Policy, New York, Routledge, 2017.

GASTAUT Yvan & GRASSE Marie, "Pratiques sportives et patrimoine, une évolution permanente ", Monumental, 2023-2 ("Architecture et patrimoine du sport"), p. 8-11.

GASTAUT Yvan, Rencontres autour du patrimoine sportif et de la mémoire du sport. Communications of the 2012-2015 editions, Musée national du sport/Université Nice Sophia Antipolis, 2012, available online, https://www.museedusport.fr/sites/default/files/Introduction_Le%20sport%20comme%20patrimoine_Yvan%20Gastaut.pdf [link valid in January 2026].

GAUCHER Julie, "From Olympic art competitions to the Cultural Olympiad," PANARD, no. 5(1), 2024, pp. 70–81.

GAUCHER Julie, " La culture en héritage : Jeux Olympiques ", Jurisport: revue juridique et économique du sport, no 192, 2018, p. 16-30.

GOLD John & GOLD Margaret, Olympic Cities. City Agendas, Planning, and the World's Games, 1896-2032, 4th Edition, Palgrave, 2024.

GOUDESEUNE Romuald & Denis SOULA, "En Piste. Architectures du Sport", Ré-inventaire, no 10, 2024, https://www.iledefrance.fr/decouvrir-la-richesse-du-patrimoine/re-inventaire-10-en-piste [link valid in January 2026].

GRASSE Marie, " La place du Musée national du sport dans la politique générale des Jeux olympiques et paralympique de Paris 2024", in MONNIN Éric & TIROLOGOS Georges (eds.), Bilan et perspectives de Paris 2024, Désiris, coll. "Les cahiers d'études olympiques", 2025, p. 92-104.

GUEIT-MONTCHAL Lydiane, GUIGUENO Brigitte & VILLLE Sylvain (eds.), " Le sport : archives et histoire, avant et après les Jeux de Paris 2024", Gazette des archives, no 275, 2025.

Histoire urbaine, no. 57 ("Sports sur la ville. Une inscription spatiale des identités sociales ", dir. SOREZ Julien), 2020.

IOSA Ioana, LALLEMENT Emmanuelle & ROZENHOLC-ESCOBAR Caroline, Le Pérenne et le temporaire dans la fabrique urbaine : la place des grands événements sportifs et culturels contemporains, Paris, L'Harmattan, 2022.

LALLEMENT Emmanuelle (ed.), "Éclats de fête", Socio-anthropologie, no 38, 2018, [online], https://doi.org/10.4000/socio-anthropologie.3457 [link valid in January 2026].

LAMOTHE Mathilde, "’Passions ordinaires” ou nouveaux objets patrimoniaux ? Réflexions sur les liens entre sport et patrimoine culturel immatériel ", Ethnologies, vol. 36, nos. 1-2, 2014, p. 405-431.

LAVIGNE Chantal & RAFFIN Sylvie, Paris, ville des sports. Un patrimoine culturel méconnu, Chamalières, Guides Bonneton, 2022.

LE BAS Antoine & GRANDVOINNET Philippe, Architectures olympiques en France, 1900-2024, Paris, Éditions du patrimoine, 2024.

LOOSELEY David, The Politics of Fun: Cultural Policy and Debate in Contemporary France, Oxford, Berg, 1995.

LOUDCHER Jean-François, SUCHET André & SOULIER Pauline (eds.), Héritages sportifs et dynamique patrimoniales, Montpellier, Presses universitaires de la Méditerranée, coll. "Territoires en mutation", 2022.

MINISTÈRE DE LA CULTURE/DRAC, Bilan de l’Olympiade culturelle, en ligne, https://www.culture.gouv.fr/thematiques/developpement-culturel/actualites/la-culture-au-caeur-des-jeux-olympiques-et-paralympiques-bilan [link valid in January 2026].

MINISTÈRE DE LA CULTURE/DRAC, Bilans des DRACs (Pays de la Loire ; Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes), etc.

Monumental, no. 2 ("Architecture et patrimoine du sport "), 2024.

MOORE Kevin, HUGHSON John & WACKER Christian (eds.), Sport in Museums, Abingdon, New York, Routledge, 2022.

MOUVEMENT URBANISME CULTUREL, https://mouvementurbanismeculturel.fr/lurbanisme-culturel [link valid in January 2026].

PANARD, no. 5 ("Spécial JO : Olympiades culturelles – Quand l’art et le sport entrent en résonance "), 2023.

Paris 2024 (COJOP), Olympiade culturelle, 2024.

Paris 2024 (POCOG), Evaluation Report of the Cultural Olympiad, 2024, online, https://library.olympics.com/network/doc/SYRACUSE/3417407/rapport-d-evaluation-de-l-olympiade-culturelle-paris-2024-par-beatriz-garcia?_lg=fr-FR [link valid in January 2026].

Patrimoines, no. 19 (« L’héritage du sport »), 2024.

POLLEY Martin, The British Olympics. Britain's Olympic Heritage 1612-2012, Historic England, Sporting Heritage Collection, 2012.

PONZINI David & Zachary JONES, "Cultural heritage and mega-events: Integrating UNESCO sites in the Olympic narrative," Urban Affairs Review, vol. 57(4), 2021, pp. 623-641.

RAMSHAW Gregory, Heritage and Sport: An Introduction, Channel View Publications, 2019.

ROBINSON Mike & PLONER Joseph (eds.), Tourism at the Olympic Games, Visiting the World, London, Routledge, 2017.

Sport et citoyenneté, no 59 (« Cultiver notre patrimoine sportif »), 2025.

STAPS, no. 128 (CHOVAUX Olivier & NUYTENS Williams (eds.), "Avec la pensée de Norbert Elias. Contemporary Uses About Sport"), 2020.

TETARD Philippe (dir.), Histoire du sport en France, vol 1 et 2, Paris, Vuibert, 2007.

VIGARELLO Georges, Du jeu ancien au show sportif. La naissance d’un mythe, Paris, Éditions du Seuil, coll. « La couleur des idées », 2002.

Rechercher dans OpenEdition Search

Vous allez être redirigé vers OpenEdition Search