Current:Home > Scams'Crazy idea': How Paris secured its Olympics opening ceremony -GrowthSphere Strategies
'Crazy idea': How Paris secured its Olympics opening ceremony
View
Date:2025-04-15 09:00:57
PARIS — What seemed like a whole field army patrolled, scrutinized and locked down every doorway, window, rooftop, bridge, subway stop, manhole, backpack, handbag and water bottle. Helicopters and drones did not whirl overhead only because there was no place to whirl. The airspace was closed.
At every turn, police asked for a QR code and official ID as proof of identity. Then they asked for it again.
And again.
The Paris Olympics' opening ceremony Friday was only the first − albeit major − security hurdle organizers of the Games faced. The world's biggest sporting event has several weeks to run across an ancient and in places maze-like city, in a country where extremists' plots, terrorism and large-scale civil unrest are not uncommon.
But despite a soggy backdrop of rain and dull gray skies they appeared to clear it, and then some, as many of the world's best athletes excitedly floated down the Seine as part of an elaborate spectacle that saw a Summer Olympics opening ceremony take place outside a main athletics stadium for the first time.
2024 Olympic medals: Who is leading the medal count? Follow along as we track the medals for every sport.
MORE:Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams part of Olympic torch lighting in epic athlete Paris handoff
OPENING CEREMONY:Highlights from Paris torch relay, flame lighting
"An absolutely massive, massive deployment of security forces," is how Mathieu Zagrodzki, a security expert at the University of Versailles, who watched the ceremony unfold from Paris' city hall, described it in a WhatsApp message.
"Very well organized. Nothing really negative to say."
Yet it was a daring endeavor and even French President Emmanuel Macron at first thought it was “a crazy and not very serious idea" to hold the ceremony along the river, a very public and dynamic setting open to every kind of risk, threat and variable known to emergency planners, when it was first proposed. (Speaking this week, Macron said, confidently: "We decided it was the right moment to deliver this crazy idea.")
In the end, the "crazy idea" allowed more than 300,000 people to watch the opening ceremony from bridges and riverbanks as dancers, pop stars, tightrope walkers and others told stories in different ways about French culture and history; about global friendship and solidarity and everything in between.
Footbridges were turned into catwalks. A metal horse somehow galloped down the river, its rider wearing a cape emblazoned with the Olympic rings. An opera singer delivered a spine-tingling song from atop the dizzying heights of the Grand Palais. A laser show was beamed from the Eiffel Tower. A 100-foot tall hot-air balloon, ringed by flames, lit the sky and capped the lavish affair, though it did not obscure the scale of Paris' security challenge.
"It's complicated," said one police officer as he gestured toward the huge security perimeter that was erected along both banks of the Seine to enable 85 boats carrying thousands of athletes make their way down the river. Watching closely, in and out of public sight, were frogmen, snipers and powerful AI-assisted cameras.
The officer reminded a reporter that there's another 2½ weeks to go.
Ahead of the ceremony, there were a few scares and some jitters.
French authorities had been on alert for potential acts of sabotage targeting the Games.
The country has no shortage of adversaries. They had warned there could be cyberattacks from Russia over France's backing for Ukraine in that war, or Iran. Possibly both. Israel's authorities had cautioned that its athletes and officials were targets. They often are, but this year perhaps more than most because of Israel's nearly 10-month-old war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas' murderous attacks and kidnappings there Oct. 7.
On Wednesday, a Russian man who has lived in France for more than a decade was arrested on suspicion of plotting with a foreign power to stage “large scale” acts of "destabilization” during the Games.
'MASSIVE ATTACK':France’s train network hit by 'malicious acts' before Olympics opening ceremony
MORE:Meet the special agent guarding the U.S. Olympic surfing team in Tahiti
French police said this week that they foiled a planned attack in May near Marseille, in the south, apparently timed for the arrival of the Olympic flame in that city. The plot involved a possible incendiary device, a bomb.
For days there has been a steady drip of bomb alerts at Paris train stations.
And early Friday, saboteurs vandalized several signal boxes and electricity pylons on France's high-speed train network. The incident, described by authorities as a "massive attack," took place far from Paris but it caused disruptions to hundreds of thousands of travelers on the day of the Olympics' showpiece.
It did not impact the opening ceremony but it set a bit of a sour tone to the first part of the day for some as French media covered it non-stop and raised questions about what it might mean for the Seine event and beyond.
"I was really anxious leading up to it. I didn't want to to take the subway, I wanted to try to walk here," said Katrina Palanca, a tourist from San Antonio, Texas, who was watching the ceremony from Pont du Carrousel, a bridge that spans the Seine, connecting the Quai des Tuileries near the Louvre museum and Quai Voltaire on Paris' Left Bank.
"But after going through that pat-down I feel really safe," she said.
The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.
Follow Kim Hjelmgaard on social media @khjelmgaard
veryGood! (31)
Related
- IRS recovers $4.7 billion in back taxes and braces for cuts with Trump and GOP in power
- 5 people found shot to death in North Carolina home: This is not normal for our community
- Survivors of deadly Hurricane Otis grow desperate for food and aid amid slow government response
- 2% of kids and 7% of adults have gotten the new COVID shots, US data show
- 'Survivor' 47 finale, part one recap: 2 players were sent home. Who's left in the game?
- Javelinas tore up an Arizona golf course. Now some are arguing about its water use
- Former Premier Li Keqiang, China’s top economic official for a decade, has died at 68
- Augusta National not changing Masters qualifying criteria for LIV golfers in 2024
- Taylor Swift Eras Archive site launches on singer's 35th birthday. What is it?
- Judge in Trump's New York fraud trial upholds $10,000 fine for violating gag order
Ranking
- 'Most Whopper
- Mikaela Shiffrin still has more to accomplish after record-breaking season
- Hasan Minhaj responds to New Yorker profile, accusation of 'faking racism'
- Cost of repairs and renovations adds thousands of dollars to homeownership
- Macy's says employee who allegedly hid $150 million in expenses had no major 'impact'
- Alone in car, Michigan toddler dies from gunshot wound that police believe came from unsecured gun
- Ottawa’s Shane Pinto suspended 41 games, becomes the 1st modern NHL player banned for gambling
- Alone in car, Michigan toddler dies from gunshot wound that police believe came from unsecured gun
Recommendation
Why members of two of EPA's influential science advisory committees were let go
Arizona Diamondbacks take series of slights into surprise World Series against Texas Rangers
AP Week in Pictures: Global | Oct. 20 - 26, 2023
Week 9 college football expert picks: Top 25 game predictions led by Oregon-Utah
Trump issues order to ban transgender troops from serving openly in the military
China’s top diplomat visits Washington to help stabilize ties and perhaps set up a Biden-Xi summit
Israel strikes outskirts of Gaza City during second ground raid in as many days
Spain considers using military barracks to house migrants amid uptick in arrivals by boat