By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
The Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) has signed a memorandum of agreement with officials from the City of Metz in France in connection with the preparations of the Filipino athletes who would qualify to the 2024 Paris Olympics.
POC President Bambol Tolentino and La Moselle President Patrick Weiten sealed the partnership in a ceremony intended to be formal and simple, but turned into a press event with local French media covering the event.
The MOA covers the use of sports facilities for all sports, as well as food and accommodation for Filipino qualifiers to the Paris Olympics in the City of Metz, some 300 kilometers west of Paris.
“We in the POC are making sure our qualified athletes are well prepared and acclimatized for the Paris Olympics,” Tolentino said, adding that the two-month pre-Olympic training has never been done before by the POC.
The Paris Olympics is scheduled from July 26 to Aug. 12, 2024.
Weiten, on the other hand, is a veteran community leader in France and is a noted urban engineer.
Tolentino said the POC aims to help qualify for Paris more than the 19 athletes that competed at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
