It is forecast to rain in Paris on Friday, and for organisers of the Olympic Games, that could possibly be a drawback. Not as a result of the rain would possibly put out the Olympic flame throughout the opening ceremony (this truly occurred throughout a storm in Montreal in 1976, and the flame needed to be reignited with a cigarette lighter), however as a result of stormwater washes wastewater into the River Seine.
Levels of E coli micro organism in the Seine are being monitored by burdened organisers and frazzled scientists on a fixed foundation, and over the previous few weeks these readings have been on a hygiene knife-edge. The river is supposed to host open water swimming and triathlon occasions subsequent week, however heavy downpours might tip readings again in the direction of unsafe territory, as they’ve been for many of the yr. It isn’t any marvel the Paris mayor, Anne Hidalgo, postpone final week’s swimming stunt for so long as she probably might.
There is confidence amongst organisers that the dry mid-July climate has finished sufficient to decrease air pollution ranges and keep away from the drastic possibility of cancelling the swimming leg and turning the triathlon into a duathlon, nevertheless it is only one of a quantity of points which have weighed on them in the build-up to those Games.
Chief amongst them is safety. These Olympics come lower than a decade after the deadliest terrorist incident in French historical past, the 2015 assaults on the Bataclan and different websites round Paris, which left deep scars and a metropolis on edge. This reporter was in a fan park by the Eiffel Tower at Euro 2016 when somebody in the dense crowd set off firecrackers, sparking a terrifying stampede to flee what was presumed to be the crack of a gun.
The Games arrive at a time of stress in France following the snap election earlier this month, which noticed violence get away on the streets after a shock win for the nation’s left-wing coalition blocked the far-right from taking energy. Protesters could possibly be seen launching flares, setting e-bikes on hearth and clashing with police.
“Security is at the heart of everything we do,” Paris 2024 CEO Etienne Thobois advised The Independent earlier this yr. “There is a huge plan being put in place. Tens of thousands of people are going to be implemented and not one stone has been left unturned. It is not about being confident, it is about being thorough, and to limit the risks that will always remain.”
There are additionally issues round temperatures that are anticipated to soar past 30C subsequent week, making all method of occasions a critical well being threat. At the Olympic Village, lodging was constructed with out air-con in order to spice up the Games’ environmental credentials, however organisers U-turned after a backlash from nationwide associations, and a provide of 2,500 momentary items will now serve the 7,000 rooms on web site.
That response hasn’t glad everybody. Sleep is more and more thought of vital to elite efficiency and some of the wealthier nations, together with Britain, Australia and the USA, are bringing, shopping for or renting their very own air-conditioning items. “We appreciate the concept of not having air conditioning due to the carbon footprint,” Australian Olympic chief Matt Carroll stated. “But it is a high-performance Games. We’re not going for a picnic.”
Hosting the Olympics is all the time a present of gentle energy to the world, and so Paris is making an attempt to current itself in a sure mild whereas hiding some uncooked realities. One of these is rats: the metropolis has undergone a mass purge utilizing mechanical traps and chemical compounds, and shutting off sewer exit factors, led by professional exterminators referred to as the Smash Team.
In a darkish parallel, metropolis officers have been accused of social cleaning after police broke up migrant camps earlier this month and homeless folks had been systematically faraway from the capital’s streets. Since April 2023, nearly 13,000 folks on the margins of Paris – largely immigrants, folks sleeping tough and intercourse employees – have been eliminated, in response to a report by a group of human rights organisations and charities referred to as Le Revers de la Medaille (the different aspect of the medal).
While authorities and metropolis officers have been tasked with presenting the greatest of Paris, the organising committee’s major job of delivering the Games has been comparatively simple, given how a lot of the sporting infrastructure was already in place and how little needed to be constructed from scratch. The solely main new venue is the Aquatics Centre, although that comes with the weird catch that it gained’t host a single swimming race, regardless of guarantees that it will in the metropolis’s authentic bid.
Fina, swimming’s world governing physique, calls for a venue capability of at the least 15,000 seats for main occasions like the Olympic Games, however Paris’s shiny new €175m (£147m) Aquatics Centre will host solely creative swimming, diving and water polo in entrance of 5,000 followers, whereas the far greater La Defense Arena will now placed on the swimming. It has been reported that the discount in capability was determined as the venue’s finances spiralled from its authentic €70m, although a spokesman for the Paris 2024 organising committee denied this to The Independent, insisting the choice was purely logistical.
It is value mentioning that a corruption probe nonetheless hangs over the organising committee, after French police raided the home of CEO Thobois and seized paperwork as half of synchronised raids on the Olympics’ headquarters and the workplaces of firms awarded contracts to assist ship the Games. The investigation into “illegal conflict of interest, misuse of public funds and favouritism” stays ongoing, and no costs have been introduced in opposition to anybody concerned. Thobois advised The Independent he was shocked by the raids however added that “it’s part of the job”.
All of which implies organisers and metropolis officers can’t look ahead to the Games to get into full swing, and for the stars to take the stage.
This can be a yr when psychological well being is in the highlight, as Simone Biles returns to carry out below intense scrutiny following her struggles in Tokyo. Adam Peaty and Caeleb Dressel, two of the pool’s alpha swimmers, will compete after having taken time away to take care of their psychological wellbeing. Their tales will be inspirational each in glory and in defeat.
There are many potential headline acts, like the American sprinter Noah Lyles, the Canadian teenage swimming sensation Summer McIntosh and French judo king Teddy Riner. And there are all the time tales that emerge from skinny air – assume of the excessive jumpers’ shared gold in Tokyo, moments which might be seen and shared round the world in an on the spot.
A century after its second Games in 1924, Paris will change into the first metropolis to host the summer time Olympics for a third time. It can be spectacular, with a gap ceremony on the river and absorbing sport performed out in opposition to backdrops of the Eiffel Tower and the Palace of Versailles. Seven years after it gained the bid, amid a host of problems, Paris is sort of able to placed on the world’s best present. So lengthy because it doesn’t rain.
