Inside look: France’s preparations for hosting Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics
Paris 2024 | Getty Images
The Olympic torch has arrived in France, ahead of the start of the 2024 Paris Games, in July.
The organisers say the event will be protected by an “unprecedented security operation”.
When are the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games?
There will be 206 countries represented at the Olympics, and 184 at the Paralympics.
Where will Olympic and Paralympic events take place?
The main athletics events will be held at the Stade de France, on the northern outskirts of Paris.
However, there will be 15 Olympic and 11 Paralympic venues in the city centre. For example, the Pont d’Iena will host cycling events and the start and finish points for the marathon will be at the Hotel de Ville and Les Invalides.
A number of Metro stations and railway stations will also be closed for part or all of duration of the Games.
How are France’s security forces preparing for the Olympics?
Worried about threats such as a drone attack, the government has cut spectator numbers for the Olympic opening ceremony.
The event is expected to see the national teams parading in boats along a 6km (3.8 mile) stretch of the River Seine through the centre of the capital.
The original plan was to give free tickets to 600,000 members of the public to watch from the banks. Now, however, tickets will go to only 300,000 invited guests.
Paris 2024 The opening ceremony for the Olympics is meant to feature a parade of athletes on boats on the Seine
Instead, the entire event could be held in the Trocadero Gardens or the Stade de France.
French soldiers have had special security training ahead of the Olympics
“The terrorist threat is real, it’s strong,” he said.
Has Russia been banned from Paris 2024?
Neither Russia nor Belarus are allowed to send teams, because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Belarus’s support for it.
They will not be allowed to parade in the opening ceremony and will not have their national anthems played, or their national flags raised, if they win medals.
Getty Images The Soviet Union held “Friendship Games” as a rival to the 1984 Olympics and Russia will do the same in 2024
Russia has said it is “outraged” at its athletes’ treatment and has announced a “World Friendship Games” in Moscow and Yekaterinburg in September.
The Soviet Union held a similar event in 1984, after boycotting the summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov criticised the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for not also barring Israel from taking part, because of its military operation in Gaza.
However, IOC president Thomas Bach rejected the demand and confirmed Israel’s participation.
Are the Games popular in France?
Bus and metro fares will double in the capital during the Games.
Getty Images Les Phryges’ are the Games’ mascots. Their motto is “Alone we go faster, but together we go further”
The Olympic and Paralympic Village and a new aquatics centre are in a region north of Paris called Seine-Saint-Denis – one of the poorest parts of France.
Many Parisians are irritated at the security restrictions which will be imposed in the city centre.
“Paris will be unbearable,” one resident told the BBC. “Impossible to park; impossible to move around; impossible to do anything.”
MORE: