PARIS – Paris 2024 organisers admitted on Dec 21 that there were contingency plans for the Olympics opening ceremony after French President Emmanuel Macron revealed the event could be moved from the River Seine in case of a major security alert.
“Given we’re professionals, there obviously is a Plan B, Plan C et cetera,” Macron said on Dec 20, when asked if heightened security across Europe over tensions in the Middle East could thwart plans to hold the ceremony as planned on July 26.
France raised its security threshold in October, when a man with a knife killed a teacher in a school in northern France.
Earlier in December, however, the sports minister and Paris 2024 organisers ruled out a change of plans after a man armed with a knife and hammer killed a German tourist and left two people wounded near the Eiffel Tower.
Said Amelie Oudea-Castera then: “We have no Plan B, we have a plan in which there are several sub-plans with a certain number of variables.”
In a statement to Reuters, Paris 2024 said: “There is no single fallback plan, but rather a variety of adaptation measures – what we call in our jargon contingency plans – which are not intended to be public in any other way.
“We have contingency plans for all identified risk scenarios: heatwaves, cyber-attacks, and the ceremony is no exception.”
France expects up to 600,000 visitors when 160 boats are due to set off on July 26 from the Pont d’Austerlitz in central Paris for a 6km journey to the Pont d’Iena.
Around 30,000 police officers and soldiers will be mobilised to secure the surroundings.
“The President referred to these adjustment variables by taking an extreme scenario: A series of attacks, for example, but above all he reaffirmed his confidence in the collective ability of those involved to organise the ceremony as announced, emphasising that the event would take place with the highest standards of security and support,” the statement said.
European security officials have warned of a growing risk of attacks by Islamist militants amid the Israel-Hamas war, with the biggest threat likely from “lone wolf” assailants who are hard to track.
“For the opening ceremony, there is a specific protocol with the state and the Paris City Hall. We’re confident that we’re on track to reach our goals,” Paris 2024 security director Bruno le Ray had said regarding the threat of terrorism.
However, questions have also been asked. Brittany Jacobs, sport management department chair at American Public University System, said recently: “The opening ceremony is the biggest event from a security perspective we’ve seen in a long time in Europe.
“There will always be something that goes wrong but the question is are you ready for it? There are concerns about drones, terrorist groups, something inevitably will go wrong whenever you have an event like this in open space.” REUTERS, AFP
