Preparations For The Paris Olympics Move Up A Gear

Security personnel searched the banks of the Seine in advance of Friday’s opening ceremony, while senior IOC officials convened in the French capital on Saturday as the Paris Olympics got closer to reality.

The six-kilometer (four-mile) route along the Seine was inspected by police using sniffer dogs in preparation for the celebration, which will feature roughly 6,000–7,000 competitors sailing on almost a hundred barges and riverboats in front of 300,000 spectators.

Colleagues from Qatar, Spain, and the United Kingdom will support the French police.

A ceremony practice was held on the river early on Saturday, but the public and media were kept out of sight by police and security measures.

The preparations for the ceremony have caused extensive disruption to residents of central Paris, who must have a pass with a special QR code to cross the Seine.

“We’ve had far fewer customers than usual for the last two weeks. There aren’t many tourists and lots of Parisians have left town. All our local clientele has gone,” said Behi Samadian, 69, in a boutique in Saint-Germain-des-Pres.

Team delegations have started to check into the athletes’ village but some arrivals were delayed by Friday’s global IT crash.

“Like a lot of organisations, we suffered this global Microsoft outage,” Games chief organiser Tony Estanguet told reporters on Friday.

“All of our servers were affected this morning.”

However, the accreditation systems were working again by Friday evening.

In better news for organisers, the ticketing systems were not affected.

Organisers say 8.7 million tickets have already been sold, beating the record from the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and that figure will rise because tickets are still on sale for some of the 45 sports.

Some of the athletes expected to be the biggest stars of the Games, including American sprinter Noah Lyles, will compete for a final time before the Olympics at the Diamond League meeting in London on Saturday.

Friction over 2030 Olympics –

The IOC’s top brass, led by President Thomas Bach, will meet on Saturday to prepare for the larger IOC Session later this week.

Behind the scenes, the allocation of the 2030 Winter Olympics to the French Alps—they are the only candidates—risks being delayed by a row over the French government’s reluctance to give funding guarantees.

Russia will be the big absentee from the Paris Games, with just 15 Russians and 16 Belarusians accredited, as most sports have turned their backs on the Russians after the invasion of Ukraine.

Those allowed to compete at the Games have had to meet strict criteria on neutrality, but Global Rights Compliance, a Hague-based human rights foundation, said two-thirds of the Russians selected had expressed support for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine or had links to the military.

In a statement to AFP, the IOC said Friday it would not comment on individual cases.