Just 60 days before the start of the Olympic Games, a new test of the opening ceremony on the Seine, scheduled for Monday morning, has been postponed. This was already the case last month. Should we be worried?
:quality(50)/2023/07/07/64a7df4c5fe71_placeholder-36b69ec8.png)
Published
Update
Reading time: 1 min
:quality(50)/2024/05/26/seine-66534b014a345333652522.jpg)
The planned session included purely technical tests, to measure the distance between the boats which will participate in the parade on the Seine, and their speed. “It’s not a postponement”, declares the Organizing Committee of the Games, which wants to be reassuring: several dates had been checked, including that of Monday May 27. So just wait for the next one.
In reality, due to the heavy rains of recent weeks, the flow of the Seine is much too fast: almost five times higher than in an “ordinary” May. Sailing conditions are therefore very different from those expected on July 26. “There is therefore no interest”we are told, to take a test if nothing is the same on the big day.
But a question arises: isn’t it risky to wait until the last minute to test the maneuvers and the timing of the boats? No, Cojo reassures again, because the first test carried out last summer gave all the necessary elements. The reason for this second test was above all to allow the other part of the fleet to parade at least once.
There is therefore plenty of time, assure the organizers. And if, in the worst case, we couldn’t do this test, it wouldn’t be so serious: the boat captains do this route every day on the Seine. During the opening ceremony, on July 26 between 7:30 p.m. and 11 p.m., there will be 180 people parading between the Pont d’Austerlitz and the Pont d’Iéna.
