The opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris will take place on the River Seine and there is no plan for relocation, officials of the host city confirmed on Friday.
The 2024 Olympics will begin on July 26 and, for the first time in history, the parade of athletes will take place outside the main stadium, in boats on the river. Despite this innovation, there were concerns over security, especially after the terrorist attacks in Moscow last month. France has raised its terrorist alert warning to its highest level.
Earlier this week, French President Emmanuel Macron and the country’s Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera announced the opening ceremony for Paris 2024 will not be relocated from the Seine. Emmanuel Gregoire, the first deputy mayor of the city of Paris, and Pierre Rabadan, the deputy mayor in charge of sport, both confirmed at a press briefing in Paris that there is no “plan B” for the opening ceremony location.
“We have the possibility to reduce the impact and the facilities of the opening ceremony if the international risk becomes harder,” Rabadan said. “We can reduce it, the show, the number of people. But there is no plan B.”
“Of course, we talk about hypotheses,” Gregoire added. “We are focused on preparing the situation. We are doing our best to guarantee security with major, major measures.”
According to The Athletic, as many as one million people, including residents who live near the Olympic Games sites, will be screened before July 26. The organizers revealed there will be controls on the movement of people into homes next to the Seine before and during the opening ceremony.
“The police need to check who they are in case they represent a threat to security,” Gregoire said. “They will have strong security measures days before. The idea is to maintain the possibility that neighbors can welcome friends and family. At the same time [we need to] to guarantee security.”