As a record-high 25 current and former Princeton students gear up to compete in the 2024 Paris Olympic games, the cohort of current students — in the city for internships, classes, and research — have had to navigate bustling Paris amid its Olympic preparations. While these Tigers won’t be found competing for Olympic glory, their work and studies will still be significantly impacted as hundreds of thousands of visitors descend on the French capital.
Each year, Princeton supports a range of summer programs for its students, including the International Internship Program (IIP) — which facilitates global internship opportunities with University backing and funding — and study abroad courses from several departments. As one of the largest and most influential cities in the world, many of these international opportunities bring Princetonians to Paris, meaning that the impending Summer Olympics will pose challenges to both offerings.
For many students, however, several program cancelations meant they never got to have their Parisian. Several summer classes, that were expected to be held in 2024, were postponed due to logistical operations surround the Games.
“Plato in Paris,” a philosophy class run by Chair of the Philosophy Department Benjamin Morison, was postponed. According to Global Programs System (GPS), the class is normally offered every other year and was last held in Summer 2022. The class page stated that “a possibility for Summer 2025 is considered.”
The class, which spends five weeks examining Plato’s “Republic,” holds its seminars in Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris and houses students in Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris, two locations in the southern half of the city.
“‘Plato in Paris’ was not cancelled, but was moved to summer 2025,” Morison wrote to the ‘Prince.’ Morison cited “concerns [that] both student and faculty accommodation would be either difficult to find, or too expensive, because of the Olympics.”
“The French Revolution: Politics, Philosophy, Culture,” a class co-taught by the Department of Politics and the Department of French & Italian, was also rescheduled. Assistant Professor of Politics Gregory Conti was set to co-teach the class.
“The course was not intended to be offered this summer, precisely because the Olympics were taking place,” Conti wrote to the ‘Prince.’ “It was always our plan to offer it next in 2025.”
Flora Champy, the director of Undergraduate Studies, associate professor of the Department of French & Italian, and co-instructor of the course, cited housing difficulties as the driving factor behind the decision to cancel the course.
“It would have been too complicated to find accommodations and schedule course trips. Other universities have cancelled their Paris summer programs as well (Rutgers for instance) for similar reasons,” wrote Champy.
Some Princeton-sponsored programs are going on despite the Olympics, including 12 IIPs, according to GPS. These internships range from art history to law to biological research, reflecting Paris’s culture and diversified economy.
As the city gears up to host the 2024 Summer Olympics, which will begin on July 26, Princeton interns in Paris have seen preparations unfold firsthand.
“It’s been really interesting to be in Paris the two months leading up to the games to watch the city transform. Several metro stations are already closed and the construction for the Olympic sites has blocked off a lot of areas at this point, including most of the platforms on the Seine River and the Champ de Mars field in front of the Eiffel Tower,” Justin Anderson ’26 wrote to the ‘Prince.’ Anderson is an intern through IIP at Emerton, a consulting firm based in Paris.
Interns have also seen preparations affect prominent Paris landmarks. The Monnaie de Paris, a museum exploring metalwork, has stated that it will see “exceptional closures” on July 25 and 26 due to the Olympics Opening Ceremony. The Tuileries Garden, managed by the Louvre Museum, will be either partly or entirely inaccessible from June 17 to Sept. 25.
Ines Robertson-Lavalle ’26, an IIP intern with the consulting and market research firm Matisse International told the ‘Prince,’ “I really tried to get my museums in beforehand.”
Despite interruptions and detours, students are still looking forward to the rest of the summer, and the once in a lifetime opportunity of catching the Olympic games in person.
“Personally, I’m super excited for the Olympics. It’s really a once in a lifetime opportunity living here this summer,” Anderson wrote.
Isabella Dail is a staff News writer and head editor for The Prospect for the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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