PARIS: Terrorism and cyber attacks are the two main risks the Paris Olympics faces, with a potentially highly exposed opening ceremony, but organisers are confident they will be ready to face the challenge next year.

Paris 2024 is launching the third of four waves of tenders for private security, which will result in the presence of 17,000-22,000 agents a day — including 2,000 for the opening ceremony, which will be a long parade on the Seine River attended by possibly 600,000 people.

Some 30,000 police officers and soldiers will also be mobilised to secure the surroundings on July 26.

“For the opening ceremony, there is a specific protocol with the state and the Paris City Hall. We’re confident that we’re on track, that we will reach our goals,” Paris 2024 Security director Bruno Le Ray told reporters on Thursday.

He added that the security budget of 320 million euros ($349.02 million) was unchanged.

“The first risk is the terrorist risk. We’ve integrated it, unfortunately, in all security plans,” said Thomas Collomb, security executive director for Paris 2024.

He was deputy head of safety and security for official sites at the Euro 2016 football finals seven months after the November 2015 terrorist attacks which involved a simultaneous assault by gunmen and suicide bombers on entertainment venues and cafes in Paris.

“Since 2015, the terrorist risk is being taken into account. Cyber threat is the other main risk,” added Collomb. “Drones are also a subject, armies have been facing that risk for a while now. It has been in the security plan for the Games since 2019.”

Last week, Paris 2024 called for vigilance after French security services said they had uncovered a disinformation campaign emanating from Azerbaijan that aimed to undermine the French capital’s capacity to hold the event.

In January, France’s top audit body warned that the opening ceremony on the River Seine posed a “major challenge”, highlighting concerns around a reliance on private security operators to protect the Games.

Le Ray, who was Paris’s military governor at the time of the 2015 Paris attacks, said the private security market was “tense”, with an estimated shortage of 20,000 agents nationwide, but insisted the recruitment process through tenders was “on time”.

“The opening ceremony is the biggest event from a security perspective we’ve seen in a long time in Europe,” Brittany Jacobs, sport management department chair at American Public University System, told Reuters.

“I think there will always be something that goes wrong but the question is are you ready for something that goes wrong.

“There are concerns about drones, terrorist groups, something inevitably will go wrong whenever you have an event like this in open space.”

Jacobs, however, believes organisers are nowadays “more prepared” than in 1996 when one person was killed and 111 others injured in the Atlanta Olympic Park bombing during the Games.

400,000 TICKETS GO ON SALE

On Wednesday, organisers said more than 400,000 Paris Olympics tickets will go on sale at the end of November which they added would be one of the last chances to buy them.

The sale of the tickets, some of which were kept back for commercial reasons and some of which have become available due to the configuration of sites, will begin at 0900GMT on Nov 30 on the paris2024.org website and can be bought from anywhere in the world.

“This is without doubt one of the last opportunities to buy tickets for the Olympics. These tickets are becoming rarer and rarer,” organisers said.

They will encompass the entire range of sports and sessions, including for sports that organisers have previously said are sold out, such as swimming.

Nearly 6,000 tickets will be for the swimming, 30,000 will be for athletics, 24,000 for the tennis, 14,000 for the equestrian events and 25,000 for the beach volleyball, which will have a spectacular setting at the foot of the Eiffel Tower.

Organisers said nearly 70,000 of these newly released tickets would cost 24 euros ($26), the lowest price category of any of the tickets sold for the Games, which run from July 26 to Aug 11.

‘PARIS TRANSPORT NOT READY FOR OLYMPICS’

Meanwhile, the Paris mayor said the transport system in the capital will not be ready in time for the Olympics.

With less than a year before the event, the transport infrastructure in Paris is already under huge pressure, with commuters and tourists alike complaining of poor frequency, overcrowding and uncleanliness.

Speaking on the Quotidien talk show on TMC TV, Hidalgo said that while the Games infrastructure will be ready “there are two things for which we will not be ready” namely transport and also the problem of homelessness.

On transport, “we still have problems in daily transport issues and we are still not reaching the comfort and punctuality needed for Parisians. There are places where the transport will not be ready and there will not be enough trains.”

Published in Dawn, November 24th, 2023