Support is stronger among young people, with 71 per cent of those in the 18-34 age category said to want the Games, which will take place in the centenary year of the second and last time the Olympics were held in the French capital in 1924.

However, the BVA poll, conducted last month among a representative sample of 991 individuals aged 18 and over, also suggested that the majority - 64 per cent - doubted that France would win.

Their pessimism perhaps reflects expectations, already apparent with more than a decade still to go before the 2024 Olympic Cauldron is lit, of a strong field.

The United States, whose broadcasters and corporations remain the financial bedrock of the Olympic Movement, is widely thought to have its best chance of winning in years.

Rome, which last hosted the Summer Games in 1960, is also felt to have the potential to mount a strong bid, while one or more well-resourced candidates may in addition emerge from the Muslim world.

French doubts about their capacity to win are probably also a function of the five consecutive unsuccessful bids the country has made for Summer and Winter Games since Albertville's victory in the 1992 Winter race.

Disappointment was particularly strong in 2005, when Paris lost the star-studded 2012 contest to London.

François Hollande has already met with Thomas Bach to discuss a potential bid from Paris ©AFP/Getty Images


In an article accompanying the Le Parisien poll, swimmer Laure Manaudou describes herself as "part of that generation disappointed not to have had the 2012 Games in Paris".

French President François Hollande met the new International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach to discuss a potential bid in November.

It has since emerged, however, that President Hollande will not attend Sochi 2014, something that is unlikely to go down well with IOC members.

The choice of host city would normally be made by IOC members at the IOC Session in 2017.

This timing would allow France the opportunity to use the Euro 2016 football tournament, which it will host, as a means of demonstrating its capabilities.

Paris has had one recent bidding success for a multi-sports event to celebrate: it last year won the right to stage the 2018 Gay Games, against a field that included London.

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