For the first time, the more than 10,000 athletes will not parade in a stadium, but on board boats on the Seine.
A new stage for the Games: the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics will not take place in a stadium, but on the water. A first. Between the desire to offer the world a unique event and the imperative of security, the preparation of the ceremony of July 26, 2024 is a headache for the actors involved (State, Organizing Committee and City of Paris). Less than a year and a half before D-Day, franceinfo returns in four figures on this parade on the Seine.
1 6 km on the Seine
The Seine as a common thread. On July 26, 2024, 10,500 athletes descend the river by boat for 6 km. The delegations of the 206 nations will board at 8:24 p.m. sharp, at the Pont d’Austerlitz, and will pass by several emblematic places in the French capital, such as Notre-Dame Cathedral or the Louvre Museum. Arrival is scheduled for 11:50 p.m. at the Eiffel Tower.
2 600,000 spectators expected
It is a change of dimension. The opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympics will be able to accommodate 600,000 spectators, assures the official site of the Games, “about ten times the capacity of a stadium in Olympic configuration”. In November, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, mentioned 100,000 paying spectators on the lower quays and 500,000 free on the upper quays of the Seine. With the establishment of a free ticket office to control the crowd on the site. The town hall, which favored a scenario without ticketing, finally agreed with the government. “We won’t make one vsasus belli”thus assures the former rugby player Pierre Rabadan, the assistant for sports and the Olympics at the town hall of Paris.
Access to the high platforms will be divided into several zones, according to the elected official: “A ticket will allow access to an area, we will not be able to wander from Bercy to the Trocadero.” The public will also not be able to walk on the bridges. Some will be reserved for logistics, lighting or sound. Others to paying spectators. And still others to the emergency and security services in the event of an evacuation.
For the moment, the figure of 600,000 spectators is not officially in question, but, according to AFP, some are already suggesting reducing it to 500,000 or even 400,000, for security reasons.
3 Some 160 boats
“It’s about the number of boats that will make up the fleet”, according to the official website of Paris 2024. While they usually have to wait behind the scenes, the athletes will have plenty of time to admire the landscapes and greet the spectators from their boat. Some boats will be reserved for athletes, others for security and organizers.
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4 35,000 police and gendarmes
For the opening ceremony alone, Gérald Darmanin plans to mobilize 35,000 police and gendarmes. The minister is counting on an average of 30,000 members of the police force on average per day during the duration of the Games, from July 26 to August 11.
It also figures at 25,000 the need for private security agents to secure the competition sites, the responsibility of the Organizing Committee. At the end of February, only 3,000 of these agents had been hired and 1,800 were in training, according to the prefecture of the Ile-de-France region.
The General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI) and the other intelligence services will also be fully mobilized, given the very high threats surrounding world events such as the Olympics.