Special to WorldTribune.com

By John J. Metzler, July 25, 2024

PARIS — France went into full Olympic countdown this week as the long-awaited Summer Games will begin in Paris with a spectacular evening parade of 85 boats and barges along the iconic River Seine.

The uniquely creative Opening Ceremony on July 26, with over 10,000 athletes and dignitaries from the teams, featured a resplendent Pharaonic flotilla evoking ancient Egypt as much as modern France.

The XXXIII Olympics are held just 100 years since the 1924 Paris Olympics.

The Games arrived following years of preparations, traffic disruptions, bad even by Parisian standards, and a security lockdown in large parts of the city.  Not surprisingly many Parisians have deliberately and sarcastically left the city to avoid the crowding and the traffic. Paradoxically tourism is down too and the city is quieter than usual, for summer.

Though the Games cost nearly $10 billion dollars and have gone not surprisingly over budget, they have not been as costly as recent Olympiads as in London.  Moreover, construction was integrated into preexisting venues and buildings thus causing a lower construction “carbon footprint”.

Naturally the Games have not been without their controversy; Anne Hidalgo, the Socialist mayor of Paris barred the Total Energy group as a sponsor.  Instead, there’s the luxury goods company LVMH.

Russia is formally banned, but individual athletes can compete with special IOC approval.

The People’s Republic of China is massively participating but there’s a Chinese Taipei team too.

Security is tight in the week preceding the waterborne opening ceremony; 45,000 police and Gendarmes sealed off both sides of the Seine with metal fencing for over 2 miles in an already dense and historic urban environment.  People living in the affected Zone needed special QR phone codes to access their own neighborhoods and homes in chic areas such as Isle St. Louis near Notre Dame.

Public transport was highly restricted in large parts of Paris a week before the events.

Significantly threats from Al Qaida terror networks or Russian militants remain very real.

Even pedestrian and bicycle movement was highly restricted as this writer quickly discovered.

When walking though well-known streets and haunts near the River, there were various checkpoints needing QR codes for local movement.

Municipal Police, National Police, and the Gendarmerie, often with automatic rifles, controlled access.  Such area control evoked Paris during the COVID pandemic where local lockdowns reached absurd levels.

A further 18,000 military reinforced security against terrorist threats; especially rooftop surveillance along the Seine and providing anti-drone technology.  And on the river itself, special security speedboats were deployed with SWAT teams prepared for any eventuality.

Newly-constructed spectator seating lined large swaths of the Seine, and many of the historic bridges along the river for the 2.5 by 1.2 miles zone where 10,000 athletes will stage a waterborne parade on 26 July (Friday) ending at the Eiffel Tower and the Trocadero.  About 300,000 spectators are expected to line the Seine for the spectacular event.

The Summer Games slated between July 26 and Aug. 11, followed then by the Para-Olympics, will be hosting 24,000 athletes from around the world as well as hundreds of thousands of spectators.

Among more than 30 traditional sporting competitions ranging from boxing, sailing, swimming, soccer and judo, the new sport being introduced this Olympiad by the Paris Committee is Breakdancing. The athletes will compete for 329 Gold medals.

Venues range from the skatepark in the central Place de la Concorde, to swimming in new aquatic stadiums in St. Denis, to Taekwando in the historic Grand Palais, home to the 1900 Grand Expo, to Equestrian events in the Palace of Versailles Gardens.

While most events are in the Paris region, such as Beach Volleyball at the Eiffel Tower in a new popup stadium, sailing competitions will take place halfway around the world in French Polynesia!

Some 14,000 athletes will stay at the newly-built Olympic Village in St. Denis. Following the Games, the Village will become affordable housing in this poorer part of suburban Paris.

In parallel many of the larger teams will host special hospitality venues; Team USA House is  located in the historic Palais Brongniart in central Paris.

Korea House is in the Maison de Chimie, prestigiously situated near the Parliament.  Denmark has a great place on the central Champs Elysees!  And for those without pricy tickets to see the sporting events, the Hotel de Ville (City Hall) hosts a spectacular “fan zone” with continuous video and live events.

Bruno Jeudy of the weekly La Tribune Dimanche wrote editorially, “In the end, let’s not forget the last step associated with Olympianism; Excellence.”

John J. Metzler is a United Nations correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He is the author of Divided Dynamism the Diplomacy of Separated Nations: Germany, Korea, China (2014). [See pre-2011 Archives]

  Paris Olympics, Security tight amid the Paris Olympic countdown spectacle

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