Paris Olympics: France has a ‘Plan B’ for opening ceremony on the Seine if there’s a security threat
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French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that he is confident the ceremony will go ahead as planned and be a success, but that he has alternatives in mind for the ambitious showpiece.
France’s leader said Monday that the country has alternatives prepared if security threats require changing its plans for a spectacular opening ceremony to the Paris Olympics this summer.
The July 26 showpiece is set to be the first not to take place inside a stadium, with the ambitious ceremony to instead feature 160 boats setting off along the Seine as huge crowds line the river’s banks.
The French capital’s famous waterway will host a boat for each nation competing in the games, carrying a total of 10,500 athletes on a 3½-mile route through the heart of the city. Around 120 heads of state and senior government figures from around the world will also be there, the International Olympic Committee has said.
Such a plan comes with acute security risks, particularly for a major world event taking place amid the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.
French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that he is confident the ceremony will go ahead as planned and be a success. But, he said, should a security risk arise that threatens this meticulous operation, he has a Plan B and even a Plan C in mind.
“We can do it and we will do it,” Macron told France’s RMC Radio and BFM TV on Monday morning. “If we think there are security risks, we’ll have Plan B’s and even Plan C’s,” he added.
He said that one of those alternatives could be to hold the ceremony in the Trocadero Square facing the Eiffel Tower, where the river route culminates. The plan is already for the final elements of the event to happen here.
Another option is to move it to a more traditional sports stadium setting in the Stade de France, the national arena to the north of Paris that is due to host track and field events.
Crowds of 300,000 are expected along the Seine to try and grab a glimpse of the ceremony, with dozens of giant screens to relay the action. Those plans were scaled back from initial ambitions for some 600,000 riverside spectators, most of them free tickets.
Authorities in Paris will use pioneering surveillance technology to monitor possible threats, with plans to deploy SWAT teams where necessary.
The security operation in Paris is so vast that other countries are helping.
Poland is among the 46 nations to add its military personnel to the French operation, which itself is bolstered by 18,000 French soldiers.
Speaking earlier this month, Macron told journalists that he had no doubt that Russia would target the games in some way.
“I have no doubt, I have no doubt, including in informational terms. Every day, it [Russia] fuels rumors about the fact that we could not do this or that, so it would be a risk,” he said at the inauguration of an Olympic swimming pool near Paris.
Beyond security, the Olympics are also contending with worries about the Seine’s suitability for some swimming events. But Macron set aside worries about pollution levels, saying Monday that he still planned to take a dip in the river before the Games begin.
His interview came a day before the Olympic flame will be lit at a ceremony in Olympia, Greece, setting off a relay before its arrival in Paris for the opening ceremony.
