One year after the Paris Olympics, Tony Estanguet considers the proposed reduction in the sports budget to be "a little incomprehensible."

During the festivities celebrating the first anniversary of the event, the former president of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games Organising Committee, Tony Estanguet, said on Saturday 26 July that the planned reduction in the sports budget in 2026 was "a little incomprehensible", considering that sport was "a little sacrificed" .

Unaccustomed to political outbursts, the three-time Olympic canoeing champion said it was "very, very difficult for us [the sports movement] to see the way sport is being treated in this country at the moment." The austerity plan includes a cut of nearly 18% in youth and sports funding, which he said was "a bit incomprehensible."

"We have been fighting for a long time to show how much sport is a necessity in society. We are aware of the current budgetary difficulties, but there is no reason today that could explain why sport is treated so badly when it has demonstrated its usefulness," he told the press. "I hope that sport will be preserved," he added, as the austerity plan is due to be discussed in Parliament at the start of the school year.

Sports funding has been steadily cut since September 2024, barely after the Paris Olympics ended. Sports Minister Marie Barsacq, former heritage director of the Paris Olympics, concluded a speech at the anniversary ceremony held at the Grand Palais by declaring that "the Ministry of Sports would make the same effort as other ministries, but no more."

In the first draft of the austerity plan announced by Prime Minister François Bayrou, the youth and sports budget, generally one of the lowest, is among the hardest hit. "We will continue to fight," also declared Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, former Minister of Sport and the Olympic Games and now president of the French National Olympic and Sports Committee.

To celebrate their first anniversary, the Paris Games hosted a canoe parade on the Seine River on Saturday morning, a lap of Seine-Saint-Denis, which was one of the stars of the Games. This was followed by a climb up Montmartre on Sunday by the Tour de France peloton.