France has announced plans to set up a pre-registration system for free spectators ahead of the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics on the Seine River in Paris next July.
“Those who wish to attend the opening ceremony for free will be able to pre-register via a platform that will be set up shortly in collaboration with Paris City Hall,” French Interior Minister Gerald D’Armagnac said at a press conference on Thursday.
The Paris Olympics will kick off next year on July 26 and run through August 11. For the first time in Olympic history, the Opening Ceremony will be held in a public venue outside of a stadium, on the Seine River in Paris, France. It will mark 100 years since the last Winter Olympics were held in Chamonix, France, in 1924.
The event will take place on a 6-kilometer stretch from the Austerlitz Bridge to the Eiffel Tower. 160 boats carrying athletes from around the world will pass through the opening ceremony site, creating a unique spectacle. The flame, which will burn for the duration of the Games, will be placed atop the iconic Eiffel Tower.
For the first time ever, the Opening Ceremony of the Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games will be held in public, away from a stadium and on the Seine River, which runs through Paris. Photo Captured from the Paris Organizing Committee website
Initially, the Paris Organizing Committee planned to sell paid tickets for only 100,000 seats on a section of the riverbank right next to the Seine, leaving the rest of the city open to the public without any restrictions. 토토사이트 However, due to growing concerns about security and possible safety incidents, the organizing committee decided to implement a pre-registration system for the free areas.
“We are preparing step by step with the goal of making the Opening Ceremony an open event, in order to make the Paris Olympics an open festival,” said Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo. “We expect at least 600,000 spectators, both paid and free, to be on site.”
While there are free ways to attend, paid seats for up-close views of the opening ceremony have been controversially priced. The cheapest tickets, priced at 90 euros ($128,000), were allocated in small numbers and sold out quickly. The only tickets still available are the most expensive, priced at 2,700 euros ($3,800). Local media outlets, including the BMF, are concerned that the remaining tickets will likely be sold at a premium.
For the first time ever, the Opening Ceremony of the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics will be held in public, away from the stadium and on the Seine River, which runs through Paris. Photo via Paris Organizing Committee website
As an outdoor event, ensuring the safety of participants and spectators is a top priority for the French government and the organizing committee. Authorities will mobilize more than 30,000 police, military, and security personnel to ensure security during the Games. There are plans to increase this number to 45,000 on peak attendance days such as the opening ceremony and big matches. In addition to preemptively managing dangerous people, the organization will also prepare for the possibility of new types of terrorism, such as using drones equipped with explosives.
Meanwhile, the KOC recently conducted due diligence on the Camp Guynemer facility, which will be utilized by Korean athletes as a base camp during the Paris Games, and began to establish measures to support the team. The due diligence team toured the training grounds, accommodation facilities, and the surrounding environment to check for improvements.
Camp Guynemer, which was selected as the base camp for the Korean team, is a military sports facility under the jurisdiction of the French National Center for Defense Sports. It is located in the Fontainebleau region, 57 kilometers southeast of Paris. The KOC signed a memorandum of understanding with the city of Fontainebleau, the Fontainebleau Tourist Office, and the facility’s entrusted management organization under the National Defense Sports Center in November last year to operate a pre-training and feeding support center for the athletes.
“Although it is not comparable to the Jincheon Athletes’ Village, it is a satisfactory alternative in that it is not easy to find a facility where a large number of athletes can live together for training and meals,” said an official from the due diligence team. “We will install additional training facilities for each sport and Korean food cooking facilities to minimize the inconvenience of athletes before the start of the Olympics. We are also planning a system to deliver Korean lunch boxes made at the base camp to venues and training centers around Paris.”