WHO backs IOC, France on health guide for Paris Olympics

The World Health Organization is supporting the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and France to make the world’s leading sports spectacle, which officially starts this Friday, healthy and safe.

The WHO and IOC launched the Let’s Move physical activity promotion campaign, leveraging the power of sport, and the platform of the Paris Olympics to motivate sports stars and the global public to move for better health.

“Just as athletes and fans around the world have been preparing for the Paris Olympics, WHO has been working with the IOC and the Government of France to make sure these Games are healthy and safe for everyone involved,” Tedros Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general said.

“From promoting physical activity to protecting people from a range of health threats, WHO has been proud to play its part in making the Paris Olympics a success.”

The initiative through a memorandum of understanding was first signed in 2020 and renewed this year.

In line with this campaign, the French government has introduced a programme of 30 minutes of daily physical activity for school students in France to ensure a lasting, healthy legacy is left from the Paris Olympics.

WHO health security experts at its Geneva-based headquarters and European Regional Office in Copenhagen have also been actively supporting national and regional authorities to safeguard people’s health during the planning and staging of the Games, as well as after.

This includes preparing for potential health-related scenarios such as heatwaves, infectious disease outbreaks, food and water safety hazards, terrorism, and crowd management.

Joint public health advice has been developed in collaboration with ECDC and France for travellers attending the Paris Olympics and Paralympics, which start on 28 August.

Guidance on vaccines travellers may need before undertaking their journeys, protecting against various illnesses, such as respiratory diseases or mosquito- and tick-borne illnesses, and staying cool and hydrated has been developed for the millions of people visiting France for this pinnacle event on the sports calendar.

WHO has participated in the IOC Paris 2024 simulation exercises to test public health plans, established Olympics-specific health event-based surveillance, and is producing daily situation reports, in collaboration with the ECDC.

These reports are geared towards capturing early signals of any heath events detected and supporting any needed timely responses and are provided to the IOC and other partners.

Dr Tedros is among local and global figures taking part in the Olympic Torch Relay on Friday, a day after speaking at the Paris Summit on Sports for Sustainable Development, hosted by the French Presidency and the IOC.

During the Summit, WHO will make commitments to mobilize for nutrition ahead of next year’s fourth Nutrition for Growth Summit in Paris, and expand support to countries to improve diets, promote physical activity, and provide services to diagnose and manage obesity, intending to reduce obesity prevalence in targeted countries by 5 per cent by 2030.