A year later, what became SMEs and start-ups that have worked for the success of the games?

Beyond sports exploits and spectacular ceremonies, the Paris 2024 Olympic Games benefited the French economic fabric. According to the Ministry of Sports, more than 2,000 tricolor companies, including almost 80% of SMEs, were mobilized during the Olympic Games, for contracts ranging from a few thousand to several million euros. An unprecedented dynamic, which was supposed to highlight tricolor innovation. But a year later, what is the inheritance of the Olympic Games for small businesses that worked for the success of these games? The visibility of the planetary sporting event has been able to open doors, generate orders, credible know-how. Some SMEs have thus seen their notoriety climb up. But in a context of economic slowdown and increased competition, others are struggling to capitalize, or even have not survived.

In Nantes, the BLAM workshop designed two of the most spectacular devices of the opening ceremony: the mechanical horse Zeus, which galloped on the Seine, and the Olympic basin, which then each evening during the Olympic Games flew in the Parisian sky. “These are the most noticed objects of the event, made in record time”prides itself on its founder, Aurélien Meyer. But the continuation turned out to be more difficult.“We have gained notoriety, but that has not yet been translated into a volume of activity. The live performance market is in crisis, public budgets collapse ”he deplores. The turnover of the workshop has thus remained “Almost the same as before the Olympic Games”. Aurélien Meyer adds, lucid: “I am an entrepreneur who had to raise his sleeves this year to support my business. Today I need state support more than ever to export our international know-how. ”

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