Paris Olympic Games 2024: Security, Controversy, and Preparations

There will be games, they are coming unstoppably. Let’s hope that everything will work out, Paris will become the second city after London, where the Olympic Games will be held for the third time. The beginning was in 1900, the second time exactly a hundred years ago – in 1924, when the founder of modern games, Pierre de Coubertin, was the last president of the IOC. The organizers have tried and if there were no emergency security measures and concerns about possible terrorism, if there were no ambiguous admission of athletes from Russia and Belarus to the Games, then it would be perfect. Quite a lot of tickets were sold, already several million, although there was also criticism about the excessively high prices. I will now sell an additional 250,000 tickets, the average price of which will not be high – around 100 euros (including such popular sports as gymnastics, swimming, tennis and beach volleyball). So far, fans from about 150 countries have bought tickets, according to the organizers.

Everything costs a lot these days, and this cost is further contributed by the enormous funds allocated to security.

You can’t do without it, even though the organizers of the games did not have a lot of expenses in construction and infrastructure development. The largest newly built sports facility – the water sports center – has already been completed. The same applies to the athletes’ Olympic village, which will make a much more attractive place to live near Sendeny in the future. The organizers didn’t bother much with the village media, there will be only 1,300 journalists, at least ten times less than the demand in Paris. The rest of the media representatives will be accommodated in hotels in various districts, some of which have a tentative connection with Paris itself, but the prices will be just like everyday in the center. The increase in prices for accommodation during the games in the whole city is very high and you will have to listen to criticism about it, but it is a market economy. At least in the West – in the last games in Asian countries in Korea, Japan and China, this trend was not so pronounced.

Safety, safety and safety again. In 1972 there was an assassination attempt against the Israeli delegation in Munich, in 1996 there was an explosion in Atlanta, in the Olympic Park. Today, the technical equipment and capabilities of terrorists are much greater. France has asked for help from 46 other countries, which will send security officials to Paris and other venues. There will be around 2,200 foreign security specialists in total. Last year, there were 160 foreign security guards at the Rugby World Cup in France, Le Monde reported.

45,000 policemen and gendarmes, 18,000 soldiers and at least as many private guards will ensure order on a daily basis.

The closest cooperation is with the Germans – a part of the French security guards will help Germany before that in the European football final tournament, and later the German specialists will go to France. French President Emmanuel Macron is very active, and has repeatedly emphasized that the country and Paris will do everything to ensure that what is planned happens as planned. First of all, this means an opening ceremony in the city center along a six-kilometer stretch on the Seine and along its banks. It is a big challenge to ensure security in such a large area in the city center – local residents and businessmen will have special passes and QR codes to enter this area already some time before the event.

Adjacent buildings with private properties are an additional concern. How and what will be controlled, we do not know, but everything is happening, and even now, although Macron has officially admitted that there is also option B. If security cannot be guaranteed or if there is reliable information about upcoming terrorist attacks, the opening ceremony of the games will be moved to the stadium. There is already a state of emergency in Paris, even though there is currently no direct threat of terrorism – this is what French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin has announced.

The Olympic torch relay will visit 400 cities in France until the Olympic flame is lit on the Seine or in the Stade de France on the evening of July 26.

Every day during the games, fires will burn in the famous Tuileries Gardens, created in the 16th century by Catherine de Medici, which became a public park after the French Revolution. The torch will burn near the Louvre Museum overlooking the Arc de Triomphe. Olympic symbolism, five huge circles are already at the foot of the Eiffel Tower.

The water quality of the Seine also causes headaches for the hosts. Swimming races in the triathlon and 10 km marathon swimming are planned for the section near the Alexander III Bridge, although the prefecture has long prohibited swimming within the Seine city limits on a daily basis. Recent studies have revealed very high levels of water pollution, including faeces. It’s no wonder that Paris invested 1.4 billion euros in wastewater treatment in recent years – something is still not working to the end. Macron, however, promised to fix everything and himself said to take a public bath in the Seine. Let’s see if anyone swims in the Seine or not.

The theme of the so-called neutral athletes will remain and probably will not subside even during the Games.

Some Russian athletes and federations still refuse to compete in this status, even though they have obtained travel tickets. Some of them will be competing, and there is currently such a paradox that Belarus could have even more athletes in Paris than Russia. Russian officials continue to curse the West and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which is nothing new. However, the Russians are also divided among themselves – some officials are in favor of participation, if possible, some are strongly against. One of the sharpest critics of participation is the head of the Russian Olympic Committee, Stanislav Pozdnyakov, who himself cannot and should not go to Paris. He has already called all Russian tennis players foreign agents. In tennis, the situation is more unusual, because no professional is dependent on the country and in fact all the best have been living, training and playing abroad for a long time.

Ukrainian Sports Minister Matvyi Bidny visited Paris at the beginning of April and once again expressed the opinion that Russian athletes cannot be welcomed at the Olympic Games. It is, but hardly anything will change in the decisions of the IOC. Maria Zakharova, the official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, has already named Thomas Bach as the main director of the sports anti-Russian campaign. It is rather amusing that many in the democratic world consider Bach even too tolerant of Russia. Regarding Zakharov, one can paraphrase Šveik – what is on the tongue, is spoken, especially if the head is not very clear.

Finally, there is criticism in many places about the bonuses officially announced by the management of the international athletics organization “World Athletics” in the amount of 50,000 US dollars for the Paris champions. The Games are going in the wrong direction, and one of the most visible critics is legendary British rower, five-time Olympic champion Steve Redgrave. Federations of several sports are also skeptical, but track and field athletes have simply decided to pay part of the money due from the IOC to the best athletes.

Times have changed, and there is no sign of the aura of amateurs in the modern Olympic Games.

The games as such are already a huge source of money for the organizers (here I mean the IOC, not the cities). Most athletes are also professionals every day, so why not get paid for an excellent job – a gold medal? The head of “World Athletics” Sebastjan Ko emphasized that track and field athletes are by no means the richest in the Olympic family, and you can agree with him. The Games are a show and a business, which some still try to mask under the name of Olympic ideals, but enjoy the luxury themselves during the Games and in other sports forums. Against this background, 50,000 every four years is just something that must be earned through hard work and great competition.

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