With the country outraged after the 2015 extremist attacks the Mayor of Paris thought bringing the Games back to the French capital would help rebound and heal.
After the country was outraged by the murders in 2015 of 17 people by gunmen acting in the name of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, the idea of organising the Olympic Games gave hope.
Anne Hidalgo says the attacks at Charlie Hebdo, a provocative satirical newspaper and a Parisian supermarket were “truly fundamental” in steering her to the idea of bringing the Games back to the French capital for the first time since 1924.
“What really scared me at that moment was to hear young people, even children, explain that the terrorists were heroes and that Charlie was guilty of having pushed freedom of expression too far,” Hidalgo says, referring to Charlie Hebdo, the newspaper that repeatedly caricatured the Muslim Prophet Muhammad.
“I said to myself that things were really, really, really bad, and that we absolutely had to find something that also provides perspective, momentum, to young people, to the country. And the Games can be this unifying moment.”
France amidst social turmoil
Paris aims to use its charms to wow audiences, starting with an unprecedented waterborne opening extravaganza on July 26, 2024.
But the context, in France and beyond, is tricky.
Rioting across France last month, triggered by the fatal police shooting of a teenager in the Paris suburbs, laid bare social, racial and political divides that undercut the image of a confident, can-do France that Games organisers want to project.
Before those six nights of violence, there were also sustained protests this year against President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reforms. Taken together, the unrest raised fears of more turbulence during the Games. Also concerning are investigations by French anti-corruption police into the awarding of a small number of Olympic contracts.
Organisers insist they remain on track to deliver safe and inclusive Games that also aim to be greener than ever, in part by using existing or temporary venues instead of building new ones.
With projected spending of 8.8 billion euros ($9.7 billion), the Games should cost considerably less than Tokyo’s $15.4 billion splurge on the pandemic-delayed 2021 Olympics.
Paris also needs dice to roll its way.
Its Games will be reliant on crowded public transport networks and on transport workers not seizing the golden opportunity to strike for better conditions.
Using Paris monuments as outdoor venues will offer striking visuals. But athletes and spectators could suffer if France endures another of its worsening heat waves.
And the planned opening ceremony for half a million spectators, most watching for free, along the River Seine has eye-popping security needs.
“The image of France is at stake,” chief Games organiser Tony Estanguet told AP during an interview.
Ban on Russia?
With Ukrainian athletes saying they would rather stay away than face competitors from aggressor Russia and its military ally Belarus, the International Olympic Committee’s ideal of sport as a vector for human togetherness is under duress.
Hidalgo is among Ukraine’s international supporters pushing for a ban on Russian athletes. But that would go against the grain for Thomas Bach, the IOC president whose fencing career was hurt by a boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games after the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. Bach could not defend his Olympic team title with West Germany.
The IOC president has sought to tiptoe through the geopolitical minefield with a pathway that could see Russians and Belarusians qualify as neutral competitors.
But that could sour the mood in Paris.
“Were Paris to pretend that nothing is happening, lots of countries, lots of Europeans, have said they will boycott,” Hidalgo warns. “There is still one year to go. I really hope that Ukraine wins. I really hope the war will be behind us.”
France has a year to conjure up a celebration that would complete its journey since 2015 and emphatically respond to the extremism that sought to silence Charlie Hebdo. Paris was also attacked again later that year with follow-up assaults on the Bataclan concert hall and other sites that killed another 130 people.
“For us, the Games have been a way of looking ahead and also of sending a message, I think, to the whole world that, ‘Yes, we were attacked. Yes, we suffered perhaps some of the cruellest things,’” says Deputy Mayor Pierre Rabadan, in charge of Olympic planning at City Hall.
“But voilà,” he adds. “We’re not giving up — not in our way of thinking, nor in the way that we are and nor in welcoming the world.”
