Paris Olympics Chief Tony Estanguet assured on Sunday that the city is fully prepared for the Games, dismissing concerns voiced by some residents and businesses about its impact.
“We are ready as we enter the final phase,” Estanguet stated during a press briefing in Paris, just five days ahead of the opening ceremony next Friday.
He emphasized, “Until the closing ceremony concludes, we must remain vigilant. But today, we are exactly where we would have hoped to be several years ago.”
Final adjustments are being made to venues throughout the City of Light, with thousands of athletes and officials arriving, and improved weather following months of rain.
Additionally, organizers received positive news about the water quality of the river Seine, slated for outdoor Olympic swimming events, which has significantly improved since early July.
“All the indicators for the Seine are positive at this stage,” Estanguet added.
The river is set to host the opening ceremony which will see 6,000-7,000 athletes sail down it on 85 barges and boats.
It will be the first time a Summer Olympics has opened outside the main athletics stadium, with up to 300,000 ticketed spectators set to watch from stands and on the river banks and another 200,000 expected to watch from the overlooking apartments.
Around 4,000 tickets are still available for the ceremony, Estanguet said.
“We’ve always tried to maintain as high a level of ambition as possible so that these Games make France shine,” Estanguet added.
‘Disruption’
The vast security operation for the opening ceremony is causing some friction, however, with large parts of central Paris along the banks of the river and around Olympic venues off-limits for most people.
Trade groups representing Paris shops, restaurants, bars and clubs complained on Friday that they were facing an “unprecedented slump in business and footfall”, blaming in part the “heavy security measures”.
“It was always a choice made in full conscience that the success of Paris 2024 would mean having the Games in the city,” Estanguet explained. “That was the completely unprecedented concept for Paris 2024.”
Read Also: Bukayo Saka shared insights about his Nigerian Heritage, meaning of his Yoruba name
As well as the opening ceremony in the heart of the city, much of the sport is set to take place at temporary venues around Paris, with beach volleyball at the Eiffel Tower, archery at the Invalides and skateboarding at the Place de la Concorde.
“We can’t do it without some disruption. We can’t do it without some restrictions,” Estanguet said.
He thanked “those who have understood this because it’s really to honour our country in the most beautiful way.”
Around 45,000 members of the French security forces are set to be on duty on Friday when the Olympics kick off at 7:30pm (1730 GMT).
“Security was the number one priority for Paris 2024,” Estanguet said.
Cybersecurity is also a major concern, with a global IT outage last Friday caused by an update to CrowdStrike software leading to temporary disruption to accreditation system for the Games.
The International Olympic Committee has said it is bracing for disinformation attacks targeting the Paris Games following recent incidents blamed on Russia, in response to a near-ban on Russian athletes because of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
In another development, a major French Jewish group on Sunday slammed a hard-left MP for saying Israeli athletes were not welcome in Paris because of the war in Gaza.
Yonathan Arfi, head of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (Crif), said on X that France Unbowed (LFI) lawmaker Thomas Portes was “putting a target on the backs of Israeli athletes”.
Portes had said at a rally in support of Palestinians that “Israeli sportspeople are not welcome at the Paris Olympic Games”.
Opposition to Israel’s actions in Gaza featured heavily in his party’s campaign for European elections last month.
Arfi said Israeli athletes were “already the most in danger at the Olympic Games”, recalling the 11 “murdered by Palestinian terrorists” at the 1972 Munich Games.
The territory’s Hamas-run health ministry said Sunday that almost 39,000 people had been killed in the fighting, which was sparked by the bloody October 7 attacks by Hamas.