Opening ceremony, transport, swimming in the Seine… Amélie Oudéa-Castéra tries to reassure 7 months before the 2024 Olympics

“We’ll be ready!” At the microphone of BFMTV Monday evening, the Minister of Sports was reassuring a few months before the 2024 Olympic Games.

Between July 26 and September 8, France will host the Olympic and Paralympic Games on its territory. On the first day of the year, the Minister of Sports was interviewed by BFMTV on Monday evening. The opportunity for her to reassure the worried and to contradict the detractors of these two world events. “The Games are in 207 days now, so a little less than seven months,” she immediately stated, before firmly assuring: “We will be ready in all dimensions of the organization : security, transport, welcoming tourists, the construction of the Olympic and Paralympic structures which is already extremely well advanced.”

Welcoming the teams who are working “very hard to be ready”, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra affirmed that the event will be “a very beautiful popular celebration”, but also that it will make it possible to “leave to the French a lasting, useful heritage, with notably a strengthened place for sport in our society”.

“Adjustment variables” and “plans B and C”

Quickly questioned on the subjects that anger her, the Minister of Sports was optimistic while remaining realistic. The opening ceremony on the Seine? “We have a certain number of adjustment variables that we can play with, such as the gauge [des spectateurs ndlr.]the volume of festivities which will be authorized around the Seine in Paris. […] We also have elements of adjustment on the parade and on the artistic dimension of this ceremony.” Herself mentioning an extreme scenario, such as terrorist attacks, she affirmed that “there must be alternatives”. Concerning swimming events in the Seine, the minister declared that the authorities are “today completely optimistic about [leurs] abilities to have its trials” in the river.

Finally, on the subject of transport, a point on which the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, threw a spanner in the works on November 22, saying that we would “not be ready”, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra recognized that it was This is a “most difficult” and “most demanding” project. But here again, she reassured, the teams are hard at work: “We know that we still have work ahead of us, but today we are not behind in the delivery of the various infrastructure.” The minister took the opportunity to discuss the “very important” work currently being carried out to make transport accessible to all, as well as “transport plans which are designed to have plans B, plans C or alternatives”. And to conclude: “All the sites of the Olympic and Paralympic Games will be served in satisfactory conditions with 100% public transport solutions.”