IN front of the Eiffel Tower, stands emerged from a mass of scaffolding, while at the historic Place de la Concorde, forklift trucks moved quickly carrying building materials.
Across Paris, plans that have been in place for seven years since the city won the right to host the 2024 Olympics are starting to become a reality, 100 days until the start of the world’s biggest sporting event.
A flurry of activity, including the installation of the giant Olympic rings on the Eiffel Tower, gave Parisians their first look at how the 17-day event would change the city.
“You can see them putting up the infrastructure,” sports fan and Paris resident Valentin Fargier, 27, told AFP. “The city is being cleaned up and the monuments are clean. It’s going to be great.”
In contrast to previous Olympics, only two new permanent sports venues are being built for Paris 2024 as part of a deliberate shift in strategy to make the Olympics cheaper and more “simple.”
An 8,000-seat arena that will host badminton and rhythmic gymnastics was inaugurated in a disadvantaged northern part of Paris in February, while President Emmanuel Macron inaugurated a new aquatics center in a nearby suburb on April 4.
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Elsewhere, 95% of sport will take place in existing venues, or in temporary stands that are popping up like mushrooms ahead of the start of the Olympics on July 26 and the Paralympics on August 28.
Beach volleyball matches will take place in front of the Eiffel Tower, with archery at the Invalides monument. Skateboarding will take place at the Place de la Concorde and the Chateau de Versailles will host equestrian events.
In total, 200,000 seats are being installed in temporary venues.
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The Seine will host open water swimming – if there is no pollution – as well as a spectacular opening ceremony which will see teams sailing along the river in a fleet of boats in front of up to half a million spectators.
Terror threat
Organizers insist everything from infrastructure to their budget is under control.
“We are ready for this final stage,” chief organizer Tony Estanguet told reporters at a news conference to mark the 100-day countdown last week. “We’ve built a lot of confidence and peace of mind.”
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He noted that construction work is often “the biggest challenge that poses problems for holding the Olympics.”
“The time schedule has been perfectly respected, which is a relief for us,” he said.
The main doubts relate to the grand opening ceremony in the water – the first time an Olympics has opened outside the main athletics stadium.
The security challenge is enormous, with 45,000 French troops due to be deployed, fly zones prohibited, and much of central Paris off-limits to all but residents and essential workers a week earlier.
“We want to hold a big Olympics, a spectacular Olympics,” explained Estanguet.
“We never back down from this. We always show courage.”
Some security experts see such ambitions as naïve, given the recent rise of the Islamic State group and international tensions caused by Israel’s attack on Gaza.
French authorities also believe Russia poses a threat through disinformation or cyber attacks.
When asked earlier this month whether the Kremlin would target the Olympics, French President Emmanuel Macron said he had “no doubts.”
Ephemeral
While the French capital’s world-famous architecture would make a stunning backdrop for a workout, the city’s often hard-to-satisfy residents don’t seem to be feeling up to partying just yet.
Media coverage in recent months has been dominated by ongoing complaints about high ticket prices, costs to taxpayers, threats of strikes, as well as plans for fare increases on Paris’ aging metro system during the Olympics.
Many wealthier Parisians plan to vacation during the event, often to take advantage of the wealth on offer on apartment rental sites such as Airbnb.
Will it be a case of cities and nations finding collective pride when a global TV audience of billions begins to admire landmarks, the sparkling waters of the Seine, or the newly rebuilt bell tower of the burned-out Notre-Dame cathedral?
“If everything goes well at this difficult moment, if the organization is good, if French athletes win medals, it might create a moment of national pride,” French sports historian Paul Ditschy of the University of Bourgogne-Franche-Comte told AFP.
But he warned that it would be “temporary, like sport itself.” (AFP/Z-3)
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