Spectator Displacement and Environmental Impact: A Case Study on Public and Individual Transportation at the Paris 2024 Olympics

The urgency to implement actions to mitigate climate change pressures organizers of major global events to reconsider their carbon footprint. Events such as the Olympic Games and the World Cup involve transportation activities — often carbon-intensive — for athletes, spectators, and the movement of support materials. Given that spectators wish to attend different activities and need to travel to competition venues, it becomes necessary to understand the carbon footprint associated with such movements. This study aims to analyze the environmental impact of spectator travel between various sports sessions at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The results demonstrate that adopting public transportation can reduce emissions by up to 87.58% compared to the same route traveled by car. Additionally, there is a 16.11% reduction in total travel time.