Paris 2024 opening departure from tradition!

Article posted by Coliseum, February 7^th, 2024

Image: Paris 2024

The traditional opening parade of the Olympic sporting delegations for Paris 2024 is set to take place in boats on the River Seine in France on July 26^th, the first time the ceremony has been held outside the main athletics stadium.

‘FRANCE 24’ stated that after months of speculation about the size of the crowd permitted to watch the flotilla, the Minister of the Interior of France, Gérald Darmanin, said recently that “around 300,000” ticketed spectators would attend.

The 2024 Summer Olympics, commonly known as Paris 2024, is an upcoming international multisport event scheduled to take place from July 26^th to August 11^th, 2024 in France, with Paris as the main Host City and 16 other Cities spread across metropolitan France, plus one subsite in Tahiti – an island within the French overseas country and overseas collectivity of French Polynesia.

The Seine is a 777-kilometer-long river in Northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin covering most of Northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, 30 kilometers Northwest of Dijon in Northeastern France in the Langres Plateau, flowing through Paris and into the English Channel at Le Havre (City in France).

‘FRANCE 24’ further stated that he had earlier referred to around 600,000 when speaking in the Senate in October 2022, while other members of the Government and the organizers had spoken of 400,000-500,000.

Added Darmanin, “I know that we have the best security forces in the world and that we will succeed in showing that not only we can win medals (at the Olympics) but that we can play host to the world without any problems.”

The idea of the open-air ceremony has been resisted by some senior figures in the security forces because of the difficulty of managing such large crowds and the risk of terror attacks.

Authorities have also had difficulties in persuading the traditional booksellers who line the river from temporarily removing their kiosks in order to make space for the spectators.

Organizers had pushed for as large a crowd as possible in order to fulfill their vision of a “people’s Olympics” that would make the Games accessible to a maximum number of French fans.

Darmanin said that 100,000 tickets had been sold for the best vantage points for the opening ceremony on the lower banks of the river, while another 200,000 would be given free access to the upper banks of the Seine.

The figure of 300,000 people did not include others “who live and who will be able to rent to have parties along the Seine”, Darmanin added, referring to the hundreds of buildings that overlook the famed waterway.

France was at its highest alert for terror attacks from October 2023 to January 15^th after a suspected Islamist burst into a school in Northern France and stabbed a teacher to death.

Concluded Darmanin, “The terror risk is extremely strong.”

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