“Five hundred days to succeed”: Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday started the countdown before the Paris Olympics and sounded the “national mobilization” in the face of the financial, security and transport challenges that are accumulating for the biggest sporting event global.
“These 500 days are the start of a countdown that comes after years and years of effort,” said the head of state in a video posted on social networks. “These 500 days will also be those of national mobilization,” he added.
“We will try to receive the planet in the best possible conditions of security, organization, social and ecological responsibility,” he said. “We will also try to get as many medals as possible! »
The president received Tuesday at lunch at the Elysée the partner companies – 30 in total for the time being – which will contribute up to 1.2 billion euros to the organization of the Olympic Games, i.e. a little more than a quarter of the budget.
Anticipate possible pitfalls
He also spoke with Tony Estanguet, head of the organizing committee, and Thomas Jolly, artistic director, of the opening ceremony which promises to be unprecedented with a parade on the Seine.
Accompanied by the Ministers of the Interior Gérald Darmanin and of Sports Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, he then met half a thousand officials involved in the organization of the Games at 4.30 p.m. at the Paris prefecture.
Emmanuel Macron “wishes to ensure that everyone is at work” and that “possible pitfalls are known and anticipated”, underlines the Elysée.
For the first time in Olympic history, the opening ceremony will not take place in a stadium, but outside, on the Seine, in the heart of the capital, an unprecedented security challenge.
“We learned all the lessons from the events at the Stade de France”
On July 26, 2024 at 8:24 p.m., more than a hundred boats carrying delegations of athletes will descend the river, from the Pont d’Austerlitz to the Eiffel Tower. Six kilometers under the eyes of some 600,000 spectators, according to the current gauge.
“We have learned all the lessons from the events at the Stade de France”, assured the Minister of Sports on France Inter on Tuesday after the fiasco of the final of the Football Champions League in May 2022 in Saint-Denis, at the gates of Paris. .
“We want to show the best of France (..) There is no infeasibility (…) but there are still adaptations to be made”, for his part conceded Tony Estanguet in an interview granted to the AFP.
“We are on time”
Transport chaos is undoubtedly the other nightmare of the organizers, after the dysfunctions of recent months in the Paris region and a tense social and political climate around the management of buses. Will airports be able to handle the millions of expected visitors? Will the necessary adaptations to the mobility of people with disabilities be satisfactory?
Will there be strikes, which many foreigners consider a French specialty? An impression still reinforced today by the images of trash cans piling up in the streets of Paris against a backdrop of conflict over pension reform.
On sports and housing infrastructure, “we are on schedule, everything will be delivered between December 2023 and the spring”, assures Amélie Oudéa-Castéra on the other hand.
A budget of 8.8 billion euros
Based on ticketing revenue, sponsors and a contribution from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the budget of the organizing committee (96% of private origin) is also the object of all attention while the initial envelopes explode traditionally in these kinds of events and that inflation complicates the situation.
It increased by 10% to 4.4 billion euros at the end of 2022, for a total cost of 8.8 billion euros including the budget of Solideo, the delivery company for Olympic structures. “The costs are absolutely contained,” nevertheless considers the minister.
It is almost certain, however, that the Seine, which has been prohibited for swimming since 1923, should serve as a framework for open water swimming and triathlon events. “We are on the way to succeed”, welcomed Emmanuel Macron on Monday before evoking, in his Tuesday video, this “small revolution” and, beyond, the “tremendous heritage” that will also represent “5,000 new sports” and “transport infrastructure”.