On July 26, 2024, the start of the Summer Olympics will be given from Paris, on the Seine, in the open air. An unprecedented configuration in the history of this competition, which gives security players a hard time.
Does Gérald Darmanin think about it every morning while shaving? The Minister of the Interior has repeated it enough in recent weeks: it is he and he alone who is responsible for coordinating the security of the Paris Olympic Games and its high point, the opening ceremony, whose tickets are on sale for pre-registered and randomly drawn people, Thursday, May 11. “Once in a century, there is a guy who is unlucky, who is Minister of the Interior and who has to organize the Olympic Games in Paris. And then the opening ceremony outside a stadium , it’s once every 3,500 years since it never existed”he confided during his vows before the police unions Alliance and Unsa, in early January.
In fact, France has seen very large for the launch pad of the Summer Olympics: this will take place on the Seine, in the open air, on July 26, 2024. After the spectacular show of the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022 and the humorous opening ceremony so british London Summer Olympics in 2012, Paris had no choice but to stand out by betting everything on decorum. Embarked on a hundred barges, 10,500 athletes will descend the Seine over 6 km, from the Austerlitz bridge to the Trocadero. A river stroll in front of the most beautiful monuments of the capital and numerous heads of state. But this unprecedented event in the history of Olympism, a showcase of French values, is a security headache.
“Fluctuates not sink”
The artistic director of the ceremony, Thomas Jolly, has carte blanche to dazzle the whole world. The security system will stem in part from his project, prepared in the greatest secrecy with the organizing committee of the Games, the Cojo. “My task is not the easiest since I am asked to protect events that are not yet precisely defined”said Gérald Darmanin before the Senate, end of October. The authorities are walking on a ridge line: how to secure this ceremony open to the four winds without putting it under a bell? One billion viewers will be in front of their screens. “A terrorist cannot dream of a better audience”noted the Minister of the Interior from the Luxembourg Palace.
To move towards zero risk, four working groups (“high quays”, “low quays”, “Seine” and “safety”) have been meeting regularly for several months, with one watchword: “Planning.” Faced with a four-dimensional threat, nautical, land, air and cyber, the first place to protect is the river. The motto of the capital, Fluctuates not sink (“He is tossed by the waves, but does not sink”), updated after the attacks of 2015, resonates particularly.
One of the main difficulties is securing the parade with so many boats over 6 km of the Seine. Their number, initially set at 160, has been reduced to 116. Discreet exercises are planned, on confidential dates, to see how the river reacts to larger than usual water movements. The pilots have been identified and trained in tight navigation. “There are many things to create almost ex nihilo, observes Bruno Le Ray, director of security at the Cojo. The need for river and land coordination is immense because the athletes will have to be moved from point A to point B.”
A giant Tetris on the docks
On dry land, it is the reception of the public on both sides of the course, ie 12 km, which promises to be tricky. On the low quays, managed by the Cojo, 100,000 people are expected, those who have paid between 90 and 2,700 euros. On the high quays, controlled by the Paris police headquarters, the town hall and the State, the fork is the subject of bitter discussions. A senior official slips to franceinfo that the figure is around 300,000 while the town hall has not lost sight of the objective of 500,000. “This is the first time that we will be able to attend an opening ceremony of the Games for free”enthuses Pierre Rabadan, Deputy Mayor of Paris in charge of Sport, the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
According to the former rugby player, the final gauge will depend on the size of the “sections”, these access areas to the high platforms, which will then give access to the low platforms. In this giant Tetris, spectators will not be able to leave their section and move freely inside the security perimeter. To avoid a funnel phenomenon in the event of crowd movement, evacuation corridors will be set up, with access provided for emergency services.
A compromise was found around the establishment of a free online ticket office. The terms of registration on this platform open to the whole world, including a possible draw, are under discussion. These tickets, on which an arrival time could appear in order to regulate flows, should in any case make it possible to verify identities at the entrance. A titanic job, to which we must add the search of bags, palpation and metal detection, via gantries or portable bars. Will umbrellas be allowed if it’s raining and bottled water in the event of a heat wave? “We are watching all this”says a source in high places.
Avoid any “Trojan horse”
Filtering will be mainly provided by private security. On July 26, 3,000 agents will be mobilized for this mission, announced Gérald Darmanin before the Senate, acknowledging the difficulty of recruiting in a profession deserted since the Covid crisis. France does not want to reproduce the London fiasco: the main British private security company had failed to honor its contract, three weeks before the Olympics, forcing the organizers to call in the army. “This is a recurring problem. We have tried to learn from it by dividing up our calls for tenders” with several companies in the sector, explains Bruno Le Ray.
The first wave of recruitments made it possible to cover 25% of the needs for the Games, assures the Cojo. Rising wages, accelerated training, cold calling by Pôle Emploi… Everything is being done to make up for the lack of manpower. In order to avoid a “Trojan horse” scenario, in which a terrorist would try to be recruited, these agents are the subject of administrative investigations via the National Council for Private Security Activities (Cnaps). Even the 45,000 volunteers who will participate in the organization will be entered into the criminal record file.
Securing the ceremony will above all be ensured by 45,000 members of the police, according to Gérald Darmanin, who abolished the distinction between police and gendarmerie zones for the duration of the Games. The Minister made the calculation in front of the parliamentarians: “Over 12 km, this represents 3,750 men per kilometer, or almost 4 every 100 meters.” It will be necessary to add 2,000 municipal police officers and 1,000 mediators from the city of Paris. The special intervention forces, BRI, Raid and GIGN, will of course also be on the bridge.
“The national plan of intervention in the event of an attack is completed a year before, it is a first.”
A police sourceat franceinfo
In Ile-de-France public transport, “700 patrols will circulate simultaneously”also informed Gérald Darmanin.
Threats from above
The objective is to saturate the public space with law enforcement and to avoid urgent recourse to the army, mobilized on other issues in these times of war in Ukraine. The men in fatigues should however be part of it, as announced by General Thierry Burkhard. In addition to the 10,000 Operation Sentinel soldiers deployed during the competition, the Chief of Staff does not rule out a “outstanding contribution” additional French armies for the Olympic Games.
“The Olympics will be an international event, a real rendezvous for our country. It is quite logical that the armies contribute.”
General Thierry Burkhardduring a hearing before the Defense Committee of the National Assembly
The military could be tasked with guarding the barges before the parade starts. They are the ones who will watch the sky, since the fight against drones is the responsibility of the Minister of Defense and the military governor of Paris. Objective: to intercept and neutralize any drones carrying bombs.
The other concern coming from the heights is at the level of the apartments which border the perimeter of the ceremony. “One of the biggest difficulties is to check who will be staying in the buildings opposite”, underlines the elected Pierre Rabadan, while many owners are thinking of renting their homes. The precedents of the G7 in Biarritz or the 14-July parades on the Champs-Elysées will be used to create a sort of “safety sheath” around the Seine, slips a well-informed source. No less than 400 additional cameras will also be installed in the capital.
Safety before sport?
The final threat to D-Day is immaterial. The opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics, in July 2021, had been the subject of four billion cyberattacks, as recalled by the Ministry of the Interior. Hackers can attack “the ticketing tool, with QR codes, software that centralizes the technical progress of the ceremony, the departure timing of each boat”, list Pierre Rabadan. Public lighting or radio communication means can also be targeted. “We make sure to reduce all vulnerabilities and we have teams that can resolve a critical situation in the minute”, reassures a senior official. The National Information Systems Security Agency (Anssi), responsible for coordinating the entire cyber strategy of the Games, is planning several crisis exercises this year.
To concentrate efforts on the perimeter of the ceremony, it is possible that the fan zones planned in Paris during the competition are closed that evening. “There may be some disappointment among people because it may not be the big popular party that everyone imagined in the security environment we know today”regrets Armand de Rendinger, international consultant for sport and Olympism.
“How do you secure all this mess without harming the show?”
Armand de Rendinger, international consultant for sport and Olympismat franceinfo
This is counting without the social climate linked to the pension reform which weighs on the Games. And on a security budget that risks exceeding the 295 million euros calculated for all the Olympics by the organizing committee. “There will be no better secure place than Paris on July 26, 2024”, sweeps Pierre Rabadan. But the former Stade Français player invites us not to put security above all else: “Let’s not forget to get excited!”
