Olympics in Paris – All You Need to Know!

The greatest spectacle of sport is finally here—the Olympics 2024 are just months away, and the world is preparing to focus on Paris.

There has been a lot of speculation and hype around the event, with Paris set to deliver a different experience to the spectators with Olympic 2024 tickets and fans around the globe.

The organizers are making all arrangements possible to deliver a magical experience that has never been seen on the Olympic stage.

The 2008 Beijing Olympics was a revelation with the spectacular connection of sport and technology.

This time, the Eiffel Tower is set to greet the world’s athletes with a fresh coat of gold, and the River Seine will be swimmable for the first time in 100 years.

But can Paris deliver its promise to those with Olympic 2024 tickets?

It was the late summer of 2017. Along with Tony Estanguet, France’s three-time Olympic canoeing champion who would later be tapped as the event’s chief organizer, Paris’s mayor vowed to deliver an Olympics unlike any other.

But just as the Paris Olympics apparatus began to unveil beautiful images of the majestic transformation the city would undergo in time for the event, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, resulting in three nationwide lockdowns and considerable delays to some of the revitalization plans.

Less than a year before the start of the Games, the war in Gaza broke out, stoking domestic and international tensions. Then, with just four months to go, a deadly terror attack shook Russia and forced France to raise its security alert to its highest level – a move that could potentially impact the star of the show: the opening ceremony on the River Seine.

Despite the hurdles, officials insist the Games are on track. As the three-month countdown begins, we examine some of the main challenges and their current status.

Will the Eiffel Tower be repainted gold?

This might not have been as much of a promise as it was an ambition – but no, the Iron Lady will not be entirely redressed in a fresh coat of gold in time for the Games.

The paint job for the 330-metre-tall monument began in 2019, and its completion was supposed to be timed with the Games and the 100-year anniversary of the death of its architect, Gustave Eiffel.

The delay includes the COVID-19 pandemic, which shaved nine months off the initial schedule, and lead being discovered in previous layers of paint, pushing the finish line even farther away.

The Eiffel Tower is not expected to shine in its new golden hue until 2025 or 2026.

Will the Seine be swimmable?

Perhaps Hidalgo’s most ambitious Olympic promise was cleaning up the Seine and making it swimmable again for the first time in 100 years. This massive challenge even attracted more individuals to make the trip to Paris with Olympic 2024 tickets, and the organizers are adamant about making it happen.

The river is set to host several Olympic swimming competitions, including open-water swimming events (200-metre freestyle and 200-metre obstacle events) and triathlons.

But the still yellow-brown water flowing through the French capital has proved far more challenging to clean than expected. At least three pre-Olympic test events had to be canceled last year after an excessive amount of E. coli bacteria was detected in the water.

In early April, French water charity Surfrider said it had analyzed six months of tests taken between September and March and that the water where the Olympic events are set to occur still needs to be cleaned.

According to the charity, which reviewed tests carried out by the Eau de Paris laboratory and environmental group Analy-Co, the occurrence of E. coli and enterococci – which both indicate the presence of faecal matter – was often double, and in some cases even triple, the limits set by the international triathlon and open-water swimming federations.

But there is still some hope: Most of the tests Surfrider analyzed were taken in winter, a period when heavy rains and flooding tend to pollute the water more than usual. Work is still underway to add more pollution-preventing measures.

The Seine will be equipped with a new stormwater facility by the end of this month, and new sewage connections are being added to its riverboats every day.

The worst-case scenario, he predicted, would be that the competition is moved up a few days.

Public Transport for Fans

With 8.8 million Olympic 2024 tickets sold, many visitors are expected to visit Paris for the July 26-August 11 Olympics and August 28-September 8 Paralympics. All eyes are on the city’s ageing Métro, which will be the main means of transport for many.

The number of daily passengers is expected to jump from 150,000 a day to 800,000.

In anticipation of the Games, the city has sped up its Grand Paris Express project, which, once it is all done and dusted, is set to add four new lines to the network and extend two existing lines. It was hoped that three of the new lines (15, 16 and 17) would be ready for Paris 2024, but organizers had to ditch those plans a few years ago due to technical issues and delays related to the pandemic.

For similar reasons, an express train line from Paris’s international Charles de Gaulle Airport must be delayed.

With three months to go, workers are rushing to finish the extensions of existing metro lines 11 and 14. Line 14 is the most important since it will connect the city to Orly airport and include a transport node near the Stade de France.

However, What is certain is that the iconic Paris Métro will be under pressure from the passenger increase, and RATP has announced it will add more trains and staff to handle it.

Opening Ceremony

Seine is set to host the opening ceremony, during which the athletes will not walk in a stadium but ride boats through the river this time.

After the Islamic State (IS) group claimed the deadly terror attack on a Moscow concert hall on March 22, France raised its security alert to the highest level. Less than three weeks later, the group issued a threat against all Champions League quarter-final matches, including one held in Paris. The developments cast doubt over whether Paris would proceed with its plan to host the opening ceremony on the Seine.

For the 2024 Olympics, Paris wanted to break tradition and host the opening ceremony outside of a stadium for the first time.

The event is planned to be held on the Seine, where the athletes will be carried along the river in a 6-kilometre-long boat parade—before the eyes of hundreds of thousands of spectators with Olympic 2024 tickets seated on the barriers.

But hosting such an event so openly outdoors requires a massive security effort. Earlier this year, authorities halved the number of spectators by the Seine to 300,000.