Olympic organisers for Paris 2024 ‘in a cold sweat’ as problems mount

Two years almost to the day before the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, organisers are reportedly “in a cold sweat” over security, financial, venue and staffing concerns that could take the shine off Emmanuel Macron’s promised “national triumph”.

The reformist French president, who holds a meeting with key ministers on Monday for a progress report, has personally invested in the success of the Games, having energetically backed the city’s successful bid to host them for the first time in a century as an opportunity to showcase the best of modern France.

Organisers promise to deliver a new standard for mega-events with what they have said will be “the most sober, participative and sustainable” Olympics yet, thanks mainly to the use of existing high-quality venues and a relatively modest €8bn (£6.8bn) budget – by comparison, the 2012 London Olympics cost almost £9bn and last year’s rescheduled Tokyo Games had an official budget of £11bn. Just €1bn of the €8bn will come from taxpayers.

But French media reports and a recent leaked financial update suggest all may not be going entirely to plan for the Paris Games, which will bring about 9 million fans, 25,000 journalists and 14,000 competitors from 206 countries to the French capital.

Chief among organisers’ concerns is safety, with current plans for the 26 July opening ceremony involving a high-risk waterborne extravaganza in which athletes and national delegations sail down the Seine in 162 open-topped boats, watched from the river’s banks by a planned 600,000 spectators.

The unique security challenge of the opening ceremony is already giving organisers “cold sweats”, according to Le Monde. A former police chief said it would be “a dangerous moment” and the security