The excitement is already rising and the heart is beating - a three-year wait has come to an end today. At 20:30 (Israel time), the eyes of the world will be on Paris, or rather the Seine River, where another chapter in Olympic history will be recorded with the first opening ceremony in history to be held outside the stadium. 10,500 sportsmen and women from 206 delegations will sail down a six-kilometer section, on 94 boats, from the Austerlitz Bridge to the Jena Bridge in the sixteenth arrondissement, near the Eiffel Tower, to kick off the biggest sports celebration in the world, in the 33rd Games. Their journey will only last 45 minutes, but it has taken years to plan, just like all the games themselves, which have encountered a long list of problems along the way, starting with many concerns about security, weather, logistics, facilities, demonstrations and the safety of the athletes.
Although the opening ceremony will take place on a small section in the heart of Paris, it requires a complex security operation. The length of the Seine is 776 kilometers, it originates north of Dijon, through Paris and the English Channel at Le Havre. It is a large area to monitor, and the original plan spoke of 600,000 spectators, but the organizers realized that this was too concentrated an operation and reduced it to 326 thousand spectators (104 thousand standing next to the river, and 222 thousand on elevated banks). Paris airspace will be closed for five hours on the opening night of the games. Those living on boats will be limited to 12 people in their homes on the night of the ceremony, and the municipality has required those living along the Seine to limit the number of people on their balconies, amid fears that the old buildings will not be able to accommodate a large number.
The troubles of the Seine 'star' not only in the security of the opening ceremony. Swimming in the famous river was banned in Paris as early as 1923 due to the quality of the water, but a little more than a century later, and in the Olympics, it is intended to be used for triathlon and open water swimming. A preparatory event planned for last summer was canceled due to sewage problems, and a recent test by the water organization showed levels of E. coli higher than the permissible levels set by the sports federations. But the Paris municipality worked to help deal with the problem, Mayor Ann Hidalgo approved a $1.5 billion plan in 2017 to clean up the river. Near the Austerlitz metro station, huge underground storage tanks were built, capable of containing 46,000 cubic meters of sewage, 30 meters deep and 50 meters in diameter.
In addition, two repetitions of the opening ceremony were postponed - the first on April 8, and the second on May 27, due to bad weather and high water levels. Further afield, we saw another water-based argument. The surfing competitions will not be in France or even in Europe, but in Tahiti. Not everything went smoothly there either. The construction of the judges' tower drew outrage among the local community, fearing that it would damage the coral reef. The plans have changed and some of the basics have been adjusted to minimize the impact. The decision to move surfing to Tahiti was to include in the hosting of the games French territories based overseas. The competition will also be spread throughout France, with football matches taking place on the fields in Nantes, Bordeaux, Marseille, Nice, Saint-Etienne and Lyon.
Within Paris, there is a variety of facilities from east to west and north to south. Like the 2012 London Olympics that focused on the restoration of the east of the city, the efforts in 2024 are anchored in the Saint-Denis area. In this area, the Olympic Village was built on a 52 dunam plot, with a nursery facility for parents and children, which was established for the first time. After the games, 2,800 apartments will go to young couples and two new schools will also be built there. The organizers focused on renovating old stadiums and facilities and using temporary structures, instead of building huge new stadiums that will eventually stand empty (white elephants) as happened in Rio 2016. As a result, ninety-five percent of the facilities are existing venues or temporary structures.
The gaming security operation is huge by any measure. According to the data, 18,000 soldiers will be deployed in the Paris area along with 35,000 security personnel during the days of the games, not including 45,000 ushers and security guards assigned only to the opening ceremony. In addition, police boats will constantly patrol and the French Air Force will also provide protection from above to prevent drone attacks. Many European countries sent help. Poland is providing sniffer dogs and 313 soldiers, while Britain and Germany have sent police. Other countries, including Israel, brought in counter-terrorism experts. The threat of a cyber attack is also at the forefront of the organizers' minds, especially in light of the fact that millions of visitors are expected to arrive.
Now that we can count the hours until the opening ceremony, we should hope that once the fire of the games is lit, it will be possible to put all the problems aside and deal only with the sport itself, where the best athletes in the world will try to challenge the limits of their physical and mental abilities.
