French President Emmanuel Macron launched the 500-day countdown to the 2024 Paris Olympics and Paralympics on Tuesday, bringing the public up to date with his government’s hopes for the Games, including the ambitious use of the Seine.
Macron addressed hundreds of officials at a “speech of thanks” in the Paris police headquarters(总部), saying that though plans are advancing, “nothing should be taken as a guarantee.” “All that remains for us are 500 short days that separate us from the extraordinary events that are the Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games, where we are going to host the world,” Macron said. In the speech, Macron thanked the 45,000 volunteers taking action to make the Games “a success” and again talked proudly about the 5,000 new sports grounds that are in the works. Also, officials are pushing to get infrastructure(基础建设) and sites ready in time.
Macron also made reference to the ambitious 1.4-billion-euro plan to clean the polluted waters of the Seine. “The Seine River will be made swimmable,” he said. Making the Seine fit for swimming is an old Parisian dream. In 1988, former French president Jacques Chirac, then the city’s mayor(市长), famously promised to make the river swimmable “in three years”. It has become a pledge he never delivered on. The dream has become a necessity now that Paris has formally promised to organize several Olympics events, including the 10 kilometre swimming marathon, in the Seine.
Organisers even plan to take the opening ceremony out of its traditional stadium setting and organize it on water. However, some security experts have voiced concerns, warning about the dangers of uncontrolled crowd movements close to the water. They point to the chaotic(混乱的) scenes at last year’s Champions League final in Paris, when Liverpool fans found themselves in a crush outside the stadium, as a reminder of the dangers of badly organised sporting events.
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