Paris: A total of 326,000 tickets will be sold or given away for the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics on the River Seine, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Tuesday, giving an exact figure for the first time. Due to safety concerns, the size of the water parade has been dramatically reduced.
“On the lower bank, we will have 104,000 spectators who have paid for a ticket,” Darmanin told the Senate hearing. “Then you have 222,000 people on the higher banks (with free tickets).”
Darmanin estimated that another 200,000 people would watch the event along the river from buildings overlooking the Seine, and another 50,000 in fan zones in the capital.
Opposition from French security services and fears of potential terrorist attacks caused the number of viewers to drop from two million people.
However, the event still breaks records in terms of its size, with all previous opening ceremonies held at the athletics stadium.
The open-air boat ceremony is in line with promises to make the Paris Olympics “iconic”, with the local organizing committee looking to break with past traditions in the way the world’s biggest sporting event is staged.
A total of 180 boats are set to sail about six kilometers down the Seine, 94 of which will contain athletes, Marc Guillaume, the top security official for the Paris region, told the same hearing.
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Darmanin added: “No country has informed us that they do not want to participate… They have confidence in our organization.”
Special security
A Paris organizing committee executive in charge of planning and risk management told AFP last week that special security measures would be considered for high-risk delegations such as those from the US or Israel.
“Each delegation has its own unique conditions and we will look at solutions that are tailored to the risk,” said Lambis Konstantinidis.
The Olympics have been the target of attacks in the past, most notably Munich in 1972 and Atlanta in 1996.
France was put on high alert for terror attacks in October after a suspected Islamist stormed a school in northern France and stabbed a teacher to death.
The country has been consistently targeted by Islamic extremists, particularly from the Islamic State group, over the past decade, while Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza is seen as an escalation of domestic tensions.
Around one million people are to be pre-screened by French security forces for possible security risks, including athletes, journalists, private security personnel and people who live near key infrastructure.
