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Paris Olympics chief Tony Estanguet said on Sunday that Paris was “ready” for the Olympics, while he played down complaints from some residents and businesses about the impact of the Games.
“We are ready to go into the final phase,” Estanguet told a news conference in Paris with five days until next Friday’s opening ceremony.
He added: “As long as the closing ceremony is not over, we have to remain vigilant. But today we are in a situation that we could only dream of a few years ago.”
Finishing touches are being put on venues across the City of Lights as thousands of athletes and officials pour in and the weather begins to clear up after months of rain.
In further encouragement for organisers, the water quality of the Seine, which will be used for the Games’ outdoor swimming events, has also improved significantly since early July.
Estanguet added: “All indicators for the Seine are positive at the moment.”
The opening ceremony will be held on the river, with 6,000 to 7,000 athletes traveling up the river on 85 barges and boats.
It will be the first time the Summer Games are held outside the main athletics stadium, with up to 300,000 ticket holders expected to watch from the stands and on the riverbank, and another 200,000 expected to watch from the overlooking flats.
Estanget said there are still about 4,000 tickets available for the ceremony.
Estanguet added: “We have tried to keep our ambitions as high as possible so that these Olympics can be a great occasion for France.”
– “destroy” –
However, the massive security operation for the opening ceremony has also caused some friction, with large parts of central Paris along the riverbank and around the Olympic venues off-limits to most people.
Industry groups representing Paris shops, restaurants, bars and clubs complained on Friday they were facing an “unprecedented drop in business and footfall” and blamed part of it on “strict security measures”.
“We made a completely conscious choice that the success of Paris 2024 meant that the Olympic Games would take place in this city,” Estanguet explained. “This is an unprecedented concept for Paris 2024.”
In addition to the opening ceremony in the city center, most of the events will be held in temporary venues around Paris, such as beach volleyball at the Eiffel Tower, archery at Les Invalides, and skateboarding at the Place de la Concorde.
“We can’t do it without causing disruptions. We can’t do it without imposing restrictions,” Estanguet said.
He thanked “those who understand this because it is really a tribute to our country in the most beautiful way.”
Around 45,000 members of the French security forces will be on duty when the Olympics open at 7:30 pm (17:30 GMT) on Friday.
“Safety is the top priority for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games,” Estanguet said.
Cybersecurity is also a major concern, with a global IT outage last Friday caused by a CrowdStrike software update that temporarily disrupted the Olympics certification system.
The International Olympic Committee said it was prepared to counter disinformation attacks against the Paris Olympics following recent incidents blamed on Russia in response to a near-ban on Russian athletes over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Separately, a major French Jewish group sharply criticized a far-left lawmaker on Sunday for saying Israeli athletes were not welcome in Paris because of the Gaza war.
Yonathan Arfi, president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (Crif), said at X that France Indomitable (LFI) MP Thomas Portes “is targeting Israeli athletes.”
“Israeli athletes are not welcome at the Paris Olympics,” Portes said at a rally in support of the Palestinians.
Last month, the party campaigned heavily against Israel’s actions in Gaza during the European elections.
Alfi said Israeli athletes “are already the most dangerous athletes at the Olympics,” recalling the 11 athletes who were “killed by Palestinian terrorists” at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
The region’s Hamas-controlled health ministry said on Sunday that the fighting sparked by Hamas’s bloody Oct. 7 attack has left nearly 39,000 people dead.
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