Muhammad Yunus, the brains behind the drive of the Paris Olympics organisers to connect the Games to less privileged parts of society, set aside his personal anguish over the civil strife in his native Bangladesh to hail the impending event as an inspiration for other sports competitions.
The 2006 Nobel Peace Prize laureat said that since becoming Paris's go-to guru on a more sustainable Olympic Games, world football's governing body Fifa had approached him to address a regional conference on the issue of social impact projects.
The 84-year-old added that the team behind the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina had also contacted him over ways to replicate and implement some of the schemes that had flourished in Paris.
"Paris has been a lightning rod," beamed Yunus. "It has been attracting attention. The people in Milan said: 'We know what they're doing in Paris, so why shouldn't we?'
"Paris was the first place," added the veteran economist and social justice campaigner.
"Milan will have an advantage as they will be able to look and see what was done in Paris and then the people benefit from that.
"So this is how it accumulates and feeds into the next event. This is what these Olympic Games in Paris are doing ... triggering the minds of people and making them creative to see how the Olympics and sports can become relevant to the people and make a permanent impact in their lives."
Circular economy
Yunus, who arrived in the French capital Paris on Monday morning from Bangladesh with his daughter and grandson, was speaking of his hopes for sporting events to generate social projects at the headquarters of the Paris-based Maison des Canaux which links businesses that want to keep goods and products in circulation for as long as possible with public and private finance bodies.
One company assisted by Les Canaux went on to provide 11,000 recycled plastic seats that will be used during competitions at the Aquatics Centre in Saint Denis, as well as a few kilometres to the south at the La Chapelle Arena.
"They were able to guide us with our project," said Le Pavé co-founder Marius Hamelot. "And they put us in touch with various bodies. It worked out.
"The seats was a really interesting project because it was kind of a manifesto of what we wanted to show on a national and international scale," Hamelot told RFI.
"And we were speaking about something with both sustainable impact and social impact."
Les Canaux chief, Elisa Yavchitz, said it was crucial for the Paris Olympic Games to show that they could benefit local populations, particularly people with disabilities or those trying to find their first jobs.
"Professor Yunus has been a wonderful godfather for us," Yavchitz added.
"He chose to support the French bid for the Olympics at a time when there were several other candidates because he knew that in France there was the fabric of the social and solidarity economy as well as large companies that had worked with him on the issue of microcredit.
"He already knew enough about France to know that it would be possible."
Tension at home
On Monday afternoon, Yunus was guest of honour at the inauguration of a square on the northern fringes of Paris that will bear his name.
"It's not just for me and my family, it's for all of the people in Bangladesh to see that something like this can happen in Paris," said Yunus.
"It's a shame that such a celebration happens with all that is going on at home," he added.
Before leaving Bangladesh for France on Sunday, Yunus called on world leaders and the United Nations to do everything within their powers to end the violence that has left nearly 200 people dead.
"The last four days has been like a prison," he told journalists in Paris.
"Twenty-hour curfews and the death toll at nearly 200 and the hospitals have not been giving out any information."
Government officials have repeatedly blamed opposition politicians and student leaders for the unrest which exploded during demonstrations against admission quotas for plum jobs in the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
