Macron says France ready to host Olympics

‘This is fruit of an immense amount of work which has changed the country’

PARIS:

President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that France was ready to host the Paris Olympics as he visited the Athletes’ Village four days before the Games begin.

“We are ready and we will be ready throughout the Games,” Macron said.

“We have been working on these Games for years now and we are at the start of a decisive week which on Friday will see the opening ceremony and then the Olympiad which will be held in Paris, 100 years since the last one.”

He added: “This is the fruit of an immense amount of work which has profoundly changed the country, in particular the area” of Seine-Saint-Denis, where the Athletes’ Village is situated.

International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach also visited the Village to the north of the French capital, where thousands of athletes and officials are arriving, with up to 14,500 expected there at the peak of the Games.

Comprising 40 different low-rise housing blocks, the complex has been built by employing innovative construction techniques using low-carbon concrete, water recycling and reclaimed building materials.

It was also intended to be free of air-conditioning with a natural cooling system, but some Olympic delegations are unconvinced and have ordered around 2,500 portable cooling units for their athletes.

Seine-Saint-Denis, where the main athletics stadium for the Olympics is also situated, is the poorest area in France and is hoping to reap benefits from the sports extravaganza.

Macron promised the area would not be forgotten after the Olympics.

“I will come back after the Games to see the legacy with you and to see how life has changed,” he said.

Meanwhile, France’s foreign minister said Israeli athletes were welcome at the Paris Games after a hard-left member of the French parliament sparked outrage by urging them to stay away because of the conflict in Gaza.

“The Israeli delegation is welcome in France,” Stephane Sejourne said in Brussels ahead of talks with his Israeli counterpart, adding that the call by France Unbowed (LFI) lawmaker Thomas Portes for the country’s exclusion had been “irresponsible and dangerous”.

“We will ensure the security of the delegation,” Sejourne added.

Portes drew an angry response from French Jewish groups and both political opponents and allies.

Yonathan Arfi, head of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (Crif), said the comments were “putting a target on the backs of Israeli athletes”.

Arfi said Israeli athletes were “already the most in danger at the Olympic Games”, recalling the 11 “murdered by Palestinian terrorists” at the 1972 Munich Games.

Meanwhile, French security forces were continuing preparations for the unprecedented opening ceremony on Friday, the first time a Summer Olympics has opened outside the main stadium.

Between 6,000 and 7,000 athletes are to sail down the river on 85 barges and boats, with a backdrop of world-famous monuments including Notre-Dame cathedral, currently being renovated after a devastating fire in 2019.

The athletes will disembark for the culmination of a ceremony at the Trocadero opposite the Eiffel Tower that organisers promise will be spectacular.

Up to 300,000 ticketed spectators will watch from stands and on the river banks and another 200,000 are expected to watch from the overlooking apartments.

Turning to the sport, Slovenian cyclist Tadej Pogacar is setting his sights on Olympic gold in the road race after winning the Tour de France for the third time on Sunday.

“We are living in the golden age of cycling,” Pogacar said after completing a commanding victory in Nice, where the finish was moved to because of the Olympic preparations in Paris.