Paris Olympics face tough hurdles with two years to go

PARIS: As he left the Tokyo Olympics last August, Tony Estanguet, head of the Paris 2024 organising committee, told AFP he was "prepared to run a marathon at 100m speed."

The stopwatch is ticking, and with two years to go before the Games open on Jul 26, 2024, it has become a 100m with hurdles.

Security is one big headache, but here AFP Sport looks at three other serious issues facing the Paris Olympic Organising Committee (COJO) and the French government.

Controlling the budget, as so often with the Olympics, was proving a battle even before COVID-19 and the recent surge in inflation.

In September 2020, organisers, blaming the pandemic, announced 400 million euros in cuts from a budget then estimated at 3.8 million euros.

Now the problem with expenditure is inflation.

On the income side, ticket sales do not start until December and COJO has not yet filled all its last major sponsorship slots, although organisers hope French luxury goods titan LVMH will sign up.

"They are very tense in terms of the budget," a source close to the matter told AFP.

Last summer, the company set up to oversee the construction of Olympic venues and other permanent infrastructure, including bridges and motorways - the Societe de Livraison des Ouvrages Olympiques (Solideo) - upped its budget estimate to 4 billion euros (US$4.01bn).

Of that, 1.55 billion euros comes from the public purse.

After worrying about supply chain issues earlier this year, inflation is now the issue for Solideo.

Its position is that someone is going to have to foot the extra costs.

In all probability that will be the French state which has provided the financial guarantees. But in tough times, overspending risks squandering public support for the Games.

One reason for staging the