PARIS – French police tested their security plans for the Olympic torch relay on March 22, with a multi-layered ring of 100 officers set to be deployed to keep protesters at bay.
Authorities are nervous about the potential for disruption of the relay, which will begin once the flame arrives in Marseille on May 8 ahead of the start of the Games on July 26.
Environmental groups such as Extinction Rebellion, anarchist networks or pro-Palestinian demonstrators are seen as potential risks, while the security forces remain on high alert for terror attacks.
“For the party to be beautiful, it needs to be safe,” said chief Paris 2024 organiser Tony Estanguet, during the drill in the Aube area of Paris that saw officers in plain clothes jog alongside the torch bearer.
Anti-terror and riot police in vehicles as well as anti-drone specialists will be permanently, but discreetly, deployed as the torch moves around.
The Olympic flame is set to travel through 400 towns and dozens of tourist attractions during its 12,000km journey through mainland France and overseas French territories in the Caribbean, Indian Ocean and Pacific.
It will first be lit in Olympia in Greece, then brought by boat to Marseille. Some media reports have suggested it will finish atop the Eiffel Tower, but organisers are keeping its resting place for the duration of the Games and the identity of the final torch bearer a secret.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin is desperate to avoid a repetition of the chaotic scenes in 2008 during the torch relay ahead of the Beijing Olympics which travelled through multiple countries.
French authorities were forced to repeatedly extinguish the flame because of protests by pro-Tibet activists and critics of China’s human rights record, and ended up cutting the relay through Paris.
The Games’ opening ceremony is another major risk for French authorities, with athletes set to sail down the River Seine in an armada of boats – the first time the Olympics have opened outside of the athletics stadium.
More than half a million people are set to watch in person, including 326,000 with tickets and an estimated 200,000 who will be able to observe the parade from buildings overlooking the waterway.
Paris 2024’s organising committee, meanwhile, has also said that it will rely on a 30,000-strong team of volunteers for the Olympics, with 15,000 mobilised for the Paralympics which start on Aug 28.
There were 70,000 volunteers at the London Olympics in 2012, while Tokyo 2020 had planned on having 110,000 before the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The number of volunteers mobilised for the Paris 2024 Games is in line with our needs and our project, with the aim of giving volunteers a real mission and making them feel useful,” the organisers said. AFP, REUTERS
