Here we are a few hours away from the closing ceremony of the Games of the thirty-third Olympiad of the modern era, and so far so good. The Paris region’s transport network has not been saturated, tourists have flocked in droves and, although the Beauvau services remain vigilant until the last second, no terrorist attacks have been reported. It is therefore clear that “the apocalyptic scenarios predicted by many before the Games have not occurred”, admits the business daily Financial Times.
The same one who welcomes the decision to have organized “most of the events in historical monuments”, even though this idea was “considered a risky bet only a few weeks ago”. Proof, according to our American colleagues, of the French “panache” and “creativity”. In concert with the Geneva Tribune, amazed to see Paris having “dressed up in its finest finery to seduce the grumpy”.
Across the Channel, the Guardian praised the Olympic Games as “a wonderful spectacle, intelligently organized and magnificently staged.” While their colleagues from New York Times are enthusiastic, seeing the streets of “the City of Lights” colored with football jerseys and flags of all nationalities, and animated by the “fan zones”. Like that of La Villette, which “excites every night an audience of young people celebrating the French medalists”, summarizes the Financial Times.
A “good-natured” atmosphere
With cameras trained on Paris, the world’s cameras do not miss a single bit of the spirit of joy and lightness that seems to have been floating since July 26 and the dazzling opening ceremony of the Games. Thus, the Corriere della Sera notes “the enthusiasm, the pleasure, the astonishment of the Parisians, the French and the millions of tourists who are together rejoicing in these Games”. This is true both in the stadiums and in the Paris metro carriages, and even in “the queues on the sidewalk”.
And the transalpine daily newspaper uses a very French expression, that of the “good-natured” atmosphere that reigns in the capital. It must be said that the images of the two priests playing volleyball with passers-by, or of the police officers receiving skateboarding lessons or swaying on their motorbikes while escorting the athletes’ bus are enough to amuse. The opportunity, for our Swiss colleagues from Time, to note that “the French police can be nice.” And can enjoy with locals and visitors the “daily ritual of lighting the Olympic flame and taking off the hot air balloon” that floats above the Tuileries Gardens, adds the Spanish daily The World.
In short, these Olympic Games have made Paris a real open-air party. The formula, born and popularized by the American writer Ernest Hemingway, is also taken up by many of our colleagues abroad. “Paris has become a party again,” rejoices for example the Corriere della Sera. Moreover, a “party” that “nothing seems able to spoil”, adds the Geneva Tribune. So much so that it is hard to believe, as the Financial Times, “that just a month ago, the country was on the brink of a snap and divisive election called by Macron.”
An enchanted interlude that is about to close
Proof that the Olympic truce called for by the President of the Republic “is de facto necessary”, concedes the Belgian daily The evening. And France may well be “stuck between two prime ministers,” notes the Guardian, nothing works: national politics seems frozen in the aftermath of the second round of legislative elections, relegated to the bottom of the scale of French people’s concerns. Financial Times even cites the French pollster Frédéric Dabi, who noted that the word “pride” had become more common among the French since the start of the Olympic Games, while in July, “worry” and “indifference” were the words used by almost two thirds of those questioned.
For our British colleagues, however, nothing surprising: “The Olympic Games are designed to create emotion. […] Huge amounts of money have been spent to generate this spontaneous feeling of well-being.” But thee Financial Times warns: “The idyll will probably not last, just like the halo effect that increased the popularity of President Jacques Chirac after France won the World Cup in 1998.” The analogy between Emmanuel Macron and the last of his predecessors to dissolve the National Assembly comes up regularly in the foreign press.
So, “Let’s enjoy! Let’s enjoy!”, he urged The evening at the end of the first week of the Olympic Games, who, like others, likens the event to a “golden interlude”. A sort of suspended moment, which almost makes us forget that the Middle East is ablaze and that a war is still raging on the doorstep of the Old Continent. Or that some people in Paris are not in the financial situation to enjoy this “beautiful and chic” party, according to the formula used by the Guardian.
Between polemics and controversies, the hand of the Kremlin
Our colleagues fromThe Country indeed recall that not everyone in Paris “celebrates the Olympic Games”: “There are places, like a migrant camp at the Bastille, where no one cares too much about Léon Marchand’s victories, Mondo Duplantis’ record or whether the Seine is clean enough to swim in”. A direct reference to the reluctance of several athletes to swim in the Seine. On August 8, the NGO Surfrider Foundation notably called for more transparency on water quality data.
Enough to fuel the controversies surrounding the swimmability of the river, which the fiercest detractors of the Games have not failed to seize upon. “The organizers did not hesitate to endanger the health of the athletes in order to strictly apply their own protocol!”, thus fulminates Ethnosa Greek media outlet owned by Ivan Savvidis, who is none other than a Russian oligarch, former Duma deputy and close to Vladimir Putin.
Now, it is no secret that when it comes to discrediting the West, the Kremlin pulls out all the stops. What could be better than a controversy over the notion of gender? Thus, The Republic Title: “Behind the social hype over the Italian boxer affair, there is Moscow’s hybrid war.” A quote from an interview with the editorial director of the French weekly Free-Shooterwho deciphers for our Italian colleagues the numerous Russian incursions into the Games.
Uncomfortable beds, no air conditioning… These hiccups that leave a mark
The criticism is obviously not only coming from the land of the tsars. In England, The Spectator for example, several seeds hic in the conditions in which athletes are received. The lack of air conditioning, or the lack of animal protein in the food offered to athletes. “Some teams, including Great Britain, have had to call on their own food suppliers and their own chefs,” he argues. The Spectator, who deplores that the organizers have “followed an agenda imposed by activists from the rich world.”
Less abrasive, The World nuances the logistical shortcomings, particularly welcoming the efforts made by the organization during the Games to remedy the malfunctions. After feedback from several delegations, “the quantities of meat and eggs have been increased,” insists the Spanish newspaper, which also delights in the details given by the athletes about their daily lives inside the Olympic village: painting workshops, wellness areas with the possibility of doing yoga, or even a hair salon… Enough to perhaps counterbalance the mattresses considered by some to be “uncomfortable”, or the long queues at lunchtime…