Be patient. Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, the French Minister for Sport and the Olympic and Paralympic Games, announced on BFM-TV: the definitive gauge for the number of non-paying spectators at the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Games should be partially known next month. “We’ll have answers around the Head of State as part of a forthcoming Defense Council in November,” she explained. Initially, the plan was to allow 500,000 people to attend the athletes’ parade down the Seine from the upper quays free of charge, but with tickets, in addition to the 100,000 paying spectators on the lower quays. But the first of these two numbers has often been called into question, notably under pressure from the Paris police prefecture. The figure of 400,000 people was regularly mentioned, but without any certainty. On BFM-TV, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra also spoke of the security context and its consequences for the upcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games. “Are we paying attention to the context? The answer is obviously yes, she explained. Are there any adjustment variables we’re working on? The answer is obviously yes. It would be irresponsible not to. But we want to maintain the principle of this opening ceremony. We don’t want to bury our heads in the sand, nor do we want to catastrophize. We mustn’t let terrorists prevent us from living, from celebrating our civilization.”
