“The Games of discord”, “The Olympics of discord”, “2024 Olympics: the controversy is growing”. French journalists and columnists are multiplying unflattering headlines to describe the setbacks surrounding the preparation of the Paris Olympic Games, particularly the opening ceremony scheduled for July 26.
The controversy surrounding the Franco-Malian singer Aya Nakamura, expected (according to rumors) to perform an Edith Piaf song during this event, made waves. Very popular in the French-speaking world, the artist was nevertheless the target of racist insults.
The other controversy concerns the allocation of 222,000 passes to the spectators who will gather on the high banks of the Seine, where the biggest show of 2024 on a planetary scale will take place. The original capacity was 600,000. This was considerably reduced due to the resistance movement of the second-hand booksellers who wanted to dislodge them during the Games.
Tourists won’t be able to get their hands on a valuable free ticket. These are offered to various groups of residents and guests according to an extremely complex formula. But rest assured, 104,000 people will be able to obtain a paid place on the lower platforms. All standing places at 90 euros are gone. Notice to those interested, there are a few seats left at 2700 euros.
In short, the promised popular party has become an evening where you have to fight to get an invitation.
What will some Parisians do? They will try to seduce an acquaintance who has a balcony overlooking the Seine. But now the authorities are wondering if these old structures are strong enough to support groups of people. A large verification operation is planned.
In addition to preparing for this event, a host of other challenges befall the organizers. The project to build the judges’ tower off the coast of Tahiti (where the surfing events will take place) is causing concern. There are fears that its erection will destroy coral reefs.
There is also the story of the Olympic poster where the cross on the dôme des Invalides was replaced by an arrow and the French flag erased. It was enough for the right and the extreme right to evoke a gesture woke and a rereading of French identity.
PHOTO JOEL SAGET, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Two Phryge soft toys, the mascot of the Paris Games
I can also tell you about the promised transport system which will not be ready, about Phryge, the mascot of the Paris Olympics, almost all of whose stuffed toys are made in China, about the temporary facade of the Paris town hall made at cost of 1 million euros and the 2 euro collector’s coin sent to schoolchildren, an operation costing 16 million euros.
In short, every day introduces us to a new controversy about these Olympics which are expected to cost between 3 billion and 5 billion euros of public money, including 166 million euros just for the opening ceremony. I follow the thread of these twists and turns like a soap opera.
It made me wonder where this madness for the Olympics comes from. When did this transformation of the Olympic Games into a marketing mega-showcase intended to display the creative genius, technologies and avant-garde of the host country?
In fact, it all started in the early 1980s. Since then, the excess has continued to grow. It is a real spiral, a terrible trap which makes us lose the deep meaning of this event. I feel that we are not far from installing the Olympic flame on the Moon to impress the gallery.
Fortunately, the basic rituals remain: the athletes’ parade, the raising of the Olympic flag, the athletes’ oath, the entry of the torch, the release of doves, etc.
On this subject, I would like to recall that the staging of the doves symbolizing peace was revised after the 1988 ceremony in Seoul. After their release, many birds went to perch on the edge of the basin. As a result, they were burned alive when it was lit. We now make sure to do the opposite.
These rituals are accompanied by stage acts which have only one goal: to show that you are at the top of your class. These category A thrills, we get them when we rewatch extracts from the ceremonies of Barcelona (1992), where an athlete shot a flaming arrow to set the cauldron ablaze, of Beijing (Beijing, 2008), when this gymnast rose in the air to run on the stadium wall, or London (2012), when Queen Elizabeth and James Bond (dubbed by stuntmen) arrived in the stadium by parachute.
But behind this blinding grandiosity, let us not forget that these spectacles are above all inflated with pride and that they are today a vast commercial billboard draped in a false idea of global unity. Let us remember that they devour millions that could be used to defend causes often included in these same shows (racism, migratory flows, environmental problems, etc.).
We feel that Paris cannot resist the desire to also take part in this curious competition of know-how. After all, Paris remains Paris.
Bread and games, said the poet Juvenal. Over time, the bread became a large chocolate éclair filled with custard. We will be licking our lips in July (me first), our eyes drowning in the lights that will shine in the water of the Seine that we are stubbornly trying to clean up with millions.
We will contemplate this completely dazzled spectacle while chanting “Faster, higher, stronger”, granting the meaning of this motto to our own pleasure.