LONDON – British Olympic Association chief executive officer Andy Anson has expressed “concerns” over the opening ceremony for the 2024 Paris Games on the river Seine, after French President Emmanuel Macron said it could be moved to a stadium in the event of a security threat.

Mr Macron, speaking on April 15, said for the first time that instead of teams sailing down the Seine on barges, the ceremony could be “limited to the Trocadero” building across the river from the Eiffel Tower or “even moved to the Stade de France”.

The Paris organisers have devised a ceremony that is unprecedented in Olympic history, as it breaks from the tradition of the Games opening in the main stadium.

The current plans would see as many as 10,000 athletes sailing along a 6km stretch of the Seine in around 160 barges, before gathering at the Trocadero for a ceremony.

But with war currently raging in Ukraine and in Gaza, concerns have been raised that the ceremony could leave athletes potentially vulnerable to attack.

“I’m clearly concerned,” Anson told Sky News in an interview broadcast on April 17 to mark 100 days till the opening ceremony on July 26.

“It’s one of the most important things that we have to manage from a risk perspective. We’d be naive if we weren’t thinking about that. Our No. 1 priority is to keep all our athletes, our broader entourage and our fans safe.”

His comments came on the same day that Australia’s chef de mission Anna Meares admitted that, while there are security concerns, she had full confidence that Paris would put on a safe Games.

Anson added that the opening ceremony is a “high-risk environment and that’s got to be managed accordingly, but the French are very, very aware of that”.

Mr Macron had assured that the opening ceremony would take place under high security, but that organisers had contingency plans.

“This opening ceremony... is a world first. We can do it and we are going to do it,” the President said in an interview with BFMTV and RMC.

“We have put in place a security cordon which is going to be very big, where we are going to check all the people coming in and going out.”

But, he added, “there are Plan Bs and Plan Cs, we are preparing them in parallel... We will analyse this in real time”.

The back-up plans include moving the ceremony to the Stade de France, which is the main venue for athletics – the centrepiece of any Olympics. AFP, REUTERS