“A running joke in France is that the national sport is neither rugby nor pétanque, but complaining. With the imminent arrival of the Paris 2024 Games, daily protests have been taken to rarely reached levels” , mocks the American daily Wall Street Journal (conservative), in an article entitled “Can Paris save the Games?” A title that says a lot about how the foreign press perceives the organizational concerns of the Olympic competition, one month before the opening ceremony on July 26, 2024.
“Funny concern”
And for good reason, there is no shortage of fears. First on the subject of security difficulties: “These Olympic Games are taking place in a tense international context, due to wars in the Middle East and Ukraine”, worries the Spanish daily El País (progressive), which recalls the series of attacks committed on French soil since 2015. “The attack near Moscow, on March 22, reinforced fears that the Islamic State or a similar organization would commit a similar action in Western Europe”.
Added to these difficulties in maintaining order is a risk of destabilization which the organizers would have done well without: the possibility of social unrest following the results of the early legislative elections of July 7. A new concern described as “funny”, by the Barcelona sports newspaper “Mundo Deportivo“. “The main concern of the French government […] is not so much the preparation for the Games as the possible consequences of the legislative elections in France […] the secret services having warned of the risks of unrest from the extreme right but also from the ultra-left.
“Don’t come”
Without forgetting the logistical risks known for several months: “a failing public transport system which, according to the mayor of Paris herself, is not ready to absorb the increase in traffic”, explains the Wall Street Journal, which recalls that “the inhabitants of Paris are preparing for an exodus to avoid the chaos of the Games”. So much so that some even advise visitors against going to competitions: “Don’t come. Cancel everyone,” urges Franco-American Miranda Starcevic, 31, on TikTok. “No one wants the Olympic Games. It’s a real waste,” she continues, quoted by the New York Times.
The democratic daily newspaper details the many criticisms made by Parisians against the competition: countless works, disruptions in transport, exorbitant ticket prices, price increases in certain districts, evictions… “The Olympics are going to be a nightmare for Paris”, warns Tessa Bicard in English on her social network TikTok, where she goes by the name Madame Tartempion.
Diving into the Seine, “one of the biggest intrigues of the Games”
On a slightly lighter note, the Americans and Spaniards are amused by the promise to “give the Seine back to Parisians”, an equally comical idea first proposed by Jacques Chirac in 1992 and taken up by the current mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, who has declared that part of the nautical competitions would be held there. “This is the plan that has triggered a thousand headaches at the Paris 2024 committee. The question of whether the Seine will be clean enough or not has become one of the biggest intrigues of the Paris Olympics”, writes the Wall Street Journal.
In an article titled “The Seine, not so romantic”, El País joked in April about the thousands of social media posts sparked by the announcement. “The perception of the Seine by the average Parisian is far from being a postcard image,” says journalist Carla Mascia, taking up quotes from Parisians describing the river as “a mixture of shit and gasoline”. “High levels of fecal contamination due to the presence of the bacteria Escherichia coli and Enterococcus faecalis” also pose a risk to the health of athletes.”
“Restore the image of the Games”
But despite these more or less severe criticisms and jokes, the American press nevertheless recalls that “there are no completely calm and problem-free Olympic Games.” […] Even London 2012, which is considered a model of what a modern and reasonable Games can be, was viewed with deep British skepticism until the opening ceremony,” recalls the Wall Street Journal. The conservative and liberal media also highlights an improvement compared to previous editions: a “more sober” organization, due to the existence of nearly 95% of the sites which host the competition.
“After the excesses of Beijing 2008, where the bill was estimated at 40 billion dollars, Sochi (50 billion dollars) and Tokyo (more than 20 billion dollars, according to government auditors), the Paris Olympics are ‘announced more reasonable with a total cost estimated at around 10 billion dollars’, financed largely by private sponsors. The American daily sees it as a possibility of “restore prestige to the Olympic Games”, after “a decade of ceremonies going from fiasco to disaster”. Not sure that all Parisians share the same enthusiasm.