500 days from Paris 2024, the doubts concern safety, transport and the presence of Russian athletes

500 days since Paris 2024 Olympic Games the race against time is intensified by the organizers. Consolidate the safety of an unprecedented opening ceremony, organizing the transport of millions of viewers and the decision regarding the participation of Russian athletes in the war in Ukraine are some of the most important challenges that remain to be resolved.

For the first time in Olympic history, the opening ceremony will be held outside a stadium. It will be in the passage of the Seine through Paris, with a parade of boat delegations, sailing at the foot of the Eiffel Tower.

Of the 600,000 lucky people who will follow in the footsteps of the athletes, 100,000 will pay to settle in the part closest to the river, while the rest will be able to admire the show from above for free.

Will it be necessary to resort to the Army because private security companies are unable to recruit personnel? “Too early to answer,” Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said. “All the scenarios are on the table,” added Etienne Thobois, director general of the Games organizing committee.

He International Olympic Committee opened its doors in January for the return of Russian and Belarusian athletes, under a neutral flag, one year after the start of the war in Ukraine. Some 30 countries have asked the institute to ‘clarify’ its position, as the start of the classification period is approaching in several disciplines.

A ping pong match seems to be starting: the IOC sends the ball to the international federations, which hand it back to them, while the organizing committee also points to the supreme authority of Olympism. Without the prospect of an end to the conflict, the question of the presence or absence of the Russians will be a constant in the debates in the coming months.

Line 14 of the Parisian metro will arrive in 2024 a St. DenisWhere will the Olympic Village be built? Transport and its safety has been placed under “extreme surveillance” by the French government, with the former prime minister Jean Castex as the new head of the Autonomous Region of Parisian Transport (RATP).

Among the problems to be solved are the lack of bus drivers and the opening of this transport to competition in 2025, which could make the social climate difficult, within the framework of the political struggle between the government and the president of the Ile de France region. -which includes Paris-, Valerie Pecresse.

With the Games on the horizon, the RATP has forecast the hiring of 6,600 people, of which 4,900 on fixed-term contracts.

Launching the first phase of ticket sales has become a headache for the organization. The public sometimes found the ticket prices too high, showing their complaints on social networks.

The organization has defended itself by saying that the prices are not more expensive than in the Games London 2012a comparison that is difficult to establish due to inflation and the stages in which ticket sales for Paris 2024 are divided.

“We have difficult challenges to reconcile: generating income, while ensuring that it is a popular festival,” the president of the Organizing Committee said on Thursday, Tony Estanguetwhen it announced that 3,250,000 tickets had been sold.

For the Olympic works delivery company (Solideo), responsible for the facilities that will remain after the Games, 2023 is the key year. You will have to finish the job on time Olympic village so that the Organizing Committee receives the keys in the spring of 2024 and prepares the athletes’ rooms.

Built without air conditioning but with the guarantee of offering a difference of six degrees less than the outside temperature in case of strong heat, the Olympic Village could have portable air conditioners.

The delegations have the option of taking them, an option that the mayor of Paris does not like, Anna Hidalgo. “They won’t need it,” she said.

The budget of the Organizing Committee (96% of private origin) has increased by 10%, to 4,400 million euros (4,660 million dollars), at the end of 2022. The state and public authorities have added 111 million euros, about 118 Millions of dollars.

If Solideo’s money is added (4,400 million euros, of which 1,711 is public money), the total budget reaches 8,800 million of that currency, approximately 9,360 million dollars.

The “inheritance”, mainly promised to Seine-Saint-Denis, the poorest department of France, is watched over by the politicians of this region.

“Once the Olympic flame goes out, it won’t be Anne Hidalgo, Emmanuel Macron and Tony Estanguet those who answer to the inhabitants, but me”, warned the president of the department, Stephan Troussel.