There are just over a hundred days until Paris 2024: the final stretch after almost a decade of preparations. At the headquarters of the French Ministry of Sports and the Olympic and Paralympic Games, calm reigns. If there are nerves, they are not noticeable. Or the procession goes inside.
July 26 is the opening ceremony and, faced with an event full of danger, and in a tense international context, the head of the Olympic event in the French Government summarizes her state of mind like this: “Enthusiastic, combative, impatient.”
In her office, the French Minister of Sports and Olympic and Paralympic Games, Amélie Oudéa-Castera, announced this week to EL PAÍS and the media of the European LENA network that, just over three months after the new opening ceremony with boats in the Seine River, the Government “closely follows the evolution of the threat” and “will wait until the end of spring to make eventual adjustments.” She assured that the scenes of chaos and crime in the 2022 Real Madrid-Liverpool Champions League final – an organizational fiasco that did not bode well for the Olympic Games – will not be repeated: “That final had been insufficiently prepared and anticipated, and poorly managed on D-day.”
Oudéa-Castéra (Paris, 46 years old) stated that the risks include cyberattacks and that the Government is preparing "in the event of a significant crisis on information systems." He said that neither Russian nor Belarusian symbols will be seen at the opening ceremony or during the competitions: “Neither anthem nor flag.” He defended that the ban on athletes from these countries – they will be able to participate under strict conditions – is not applicable to Israelis, as some request.
“We must be both respectful and understanding of each person's emotions and, at the same time, meet the conditions so that, in this fractured world, sport allows these great events around the values of peace and harmony,” he said. the minister of the Olympic Games. And she recalled that a UN General Assembly resolution provides for an Olympic truce, before adding: “We want it to be respected.”
In the France of strikes and demonstrations – the true national sport, it is sometimes said maliciously – and the violent riots last year, the Games “will be the opportunity to
build a nation
through sport,” he says. That is, to unite the French, for now apathetic towards the event, or complainers (controversies over ticket prices or public transport are recurrent), although she is convinced that, as has happened on other occasions, the Enthusiasm will ignite as the Olympic flame begins to travel around the country and the date approaches.
Oudéa-Castera was a promising tennis player, youth champion. She hung up her racket to train in the institutions of the French elite. At the National School of Administration she coincided with Emmanuel Macron. She is a senior civil servant, and a business and sports manager, she has been a minister since 2022. At the beginning of 2024 she assumed the portfolio of National Education. Her statements about public school precipitated her departure a few weeks later. She now returns to dealing only with her original ministry, focused once again on the Olympic Games that France is organizing for the first time in a century.
When asked what keeps him up at night one hundred days before the appointment, he answers: “No big deal.” But she admits: “There remain points of surveillance, especially the risk that we anticipate in cybersecurity.” She details that, while in Tokyo 2020 there were about 400 million cyberattacks, in Paris “between 3 billion and 4 billion” are expected.
The parade on the Seine is another source of concern. More than 300,000 spectators are expected to attend with Notre-Dame, the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower as the stage.
“It is a very difficult challenge,” says the minister, “but it is approached with extreme vigilance and extreme finesse, both in the artistic and security aspects.” 45,000 police and gendarmes will be deployed, in addition to agents from elite units and municipal and private agents. “In the event of an extreme threat, which is not at all the scenario today, we have withdrawal scenarios, which I cannot speak about because they are confidential, but which the President of the Republic has asked us to anticipate in case it worsens. the threat, especially terrorist, in a totally exceptional way.” Would the “withdrawal” be in the Seine? Or outside the Seine? “We study all the scenarios.”
Regarding the presence of Russian and Belarusian athletes, Oudéa-Castéra recalls that those who have not supported Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine and who do not have links with the Russian and Belarusian armies or with government agencies close to power may be present: “In no case will there be a Russian or Belarusian delegation of athletes that we will host.”
—Won't there be a Russian anthem?
—Neither anthem nor flag. There will also be no Russian or Belarusian flags in our stadiums. If I insist on the notion of delegation, it is because it is what explains that the Russians and Belarusians, neutral athletes, will not be in the parade on the Seine. Only the delegations parade.
There are voices, such as the leader of the radical left Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who see a “double standard” in not applying the same standard to Israelis due to the war in Gaza. Oudéa-Castéra responds: “You cannot compare the situation of Israel, which has been the victim of a terrorist attack of exceptional severity, with Russia, which unilaterally carries out a war of aggression against a sovereign country. I take this opportunity to emphasize that France's voice has always been clear about the fact that Israel has the right to defend itself, but that it must do so in respect of international law and humanitarian law. And he adds: “We welcome the Israeli delegation to Paris and invite the Palestinian delegation, each representing their sports movement. I emphasize that neither delegation has requested the exclusion of the other. I want to applaud the spirit of responsibility of both in the fact that there has been no verbal escalation to date. “There is a lot of dignity in the position of these two sporting movements.”
He speaks, at the end of the interview, about the
Rubiales case
in Spain and the “sexist attitude” and “absolutely inadmissible” of the then president of the football federation. He concludes by ensuring that his failed experience in the Ministry of Education has not made a dent in her: “I have a past as a high-level athlete. When you lose a set in tennis, the match continues.”
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