The countdown is over, after years of preparation, waiting, pharaonic projects and secret plans, Paris now finds itself the center of the world. The Paris 2024 Olympics begin, 124 years after the first ones celebrated in the French capital and 100 after the encore, the Ville Lumière for its third time is ready to remain speechless following the boats on the Seine which - for the first time in Olympic history - they will parade in an inaugural ceremony not inside a stadium but floating on the river. All around, in a safety challenge of colossal proportions, 320,000 spectators will be crowded on the "quai", the banks of the Seine: 200 on the "high" Lungosenna, the others at river level. All eyes will be on the parade of athletes: champions like Lebron James and Gianmarco Tamberi mixed with athletes arriving from small, little-known countries or isolated islands in the ocean.
There is then talk of Céline Dion and Lady Gaga who will play Edith Piaf, but in the meantime thousands and thousands of anti-terrorism specialists, police officials from dozens of countries gathered in Paris, anti-computer piracy technicians, will spend the sleepless night. Theirs is also a kind of Olympics, an obstacle course to guarantee security: "we realized that the first objective to protect, the one which has so far suffered 300 sabotage or attack attempts, is the torch. We will have to concentrate above all on the protection of the last torchbearers who will carry it". Tension is rising, a shiver-inducing threat arrives from Israel: a plot supported by Iran has apparently been hatched to attack the Israeli delegation. Which, among other things, will sail on the Seine together with the Italian one and with a number of armed Israeli policemen, on the same boat. It is not enough. An anti-terrorism raid was launched in Belgium with the arrest of 7 people from Central Asia, self-proclaimed members of the "Islamic State in Khorasan", a faction of ISIS. The operation was launched "preventatively" on the eve of the opening of the Olympics.
In the evening the challenge kicks off under the Louvre Pyramid, where 80 heads of state and government are invited, with heads of international, sports organizations and large private groups, to a gala dinner with Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron, and the president of the IOC, Thomas Bach. The most famous museum in the world has been armored for days, police and anti-terrorism leatherheads stationed right up on the roofs and at every entry point, all that remained was the last security measure, the most spectacular: a group of "tasters" who will taste the haute cuisine delights from the most starred chef in France, Alain Ducasse, to even exclude the risk of poisoning.
In their meetings, the police chiefs of the countries present have addressed the topic of so-called "destabilization attempts" in the last few hours, such as that of Hamas's alleged threat to attack Paris 2024, which was revealed yesterday to be a fake. One consideration emerges from all Olympic security sources: "no more could have been done" to protect delegations, athletes and the public. The effort is enormous, it goes beyond 35,000 agents per day, which will become 40,000 for the key day tomorrow. To escort the boats there will be a hundred boats with leather heads, special anti-terrorism units, emergency brigades. And again, sharpshooters on helicopters, 36 boats with armed men ready to intervene at the slightest hint of danger, 100 divers who will search the bottom of the river in search of mines or terrorist devices while the boats with the athletes will slide along the fateful 6 kilometers between the Austerlitz race and the Trocadéro.
Departments are also ready to deal with scenes of panic and crowd movements, perhaps generated by fake news. All this, in a city where a ban on the circulation of any unauthorized car will come into effect at 10am tomorrow, most of the metro stops will close and checks will also be thorough for pedestrians. Some policemen will also be forced to remain in Place de la République, now the center of protest by young French people, where an opening "counter-ceremony" is scheduled for tomorrow evening. Around 300 demonstrators from the so-called "antagonist" groups are expected. On the Olympic party front, the exclamation of Thomas Bach, the patron of the IOC explains everything: "Get ready, it will be something unique!". In the imagination of the French, Céline Dion and Lady Gaga who will sing Edith Piaf, the large paintings arranged by the "creative" who created the ceremony, Thomas Jolly, which retrace the history of France. And many surprises that will end with the spectacle of the brazier lit by the mysterious, last torchbearer. That flame will be the start of the Olympics but - at the same moment - thousands of people will stop holding their breath as they have done for weeks. We will return to living in Paris, the bars and restaurants closed for days, to the great suffering of the managers, will be able to remain open all night by decision of the Prefect.
To perform, you have to eat properly. And this is obviously not the case for some athletes. According to information from our colleagues at L'Équipe, the lack of food and the speed of restocking are criticized within the Olympic village. 40,000 daily services must be provided every day. The Carrefour group, which is responsible for supplying foodstuffs to the Olympic village, confirmed that this problem was observed: "from the first assessments of the meals consumed, it was requested to revise upwards the quantities initially planned, which the group will be able to satisfy.” For its part, Sodexo Live - a partner which offers services for sporting venues and events - ensures that it takes these requests into consideration and "works actively to adapt our supplies to the rise in power of the restaurants in the athletes' village as well as to the actual consumption observed over the first days."
Even before the start of the Paris 2024 Olympics, the first cases of Covid contamination detected among the participants. Several Belgian athletes, whose number and identity have not been revealed, have recently tested positive for Covid-19 and are forced to postpone their departure for Paris, the Belgian Olympic committee doctor reported to the newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws Wednesday. “We don’t want to take any risks. We have several athletes who are on the waiting list and who are not yet allowed in because they must first present a negative test. For now, there is still some room for maneuver,” said Doctor Johan Bellemans. According to him, the participation in the Games of these athletes is not compromised. Faced with fears of an increase in the number of cases, new health measures have been taken. “The objective is that no additional athletes are affected, because if new cases were to appear now, the timing would be more difficult,” said Johan Bellemans. According to him, “all the indicators are on. There is a real fear that the coronavirus will enter the Olympic Village.” A new epidemic wave spread in June, in France as in many other countries, in parallel with the arrival of new variants within the large Omicron family.
