How ready is Paris to hold the 2024 Olympic Games?
Josh Milton
Bed bugs, strikes and a Moulin Rouge no longer looking its best - here are some of the biggest worries ahead of the Paris Olympics.
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Metro
Bed bugs. Faecal matter-riddled rivers. Transport disruption caused by striking workers. Security concerns. The Moulin Rouge windmill has no sails.

It’s Paris, ready to host the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games will be held in less than 100 days in the French capital.

The games begin on July 26, with the men’s and women’s football and rugby games kicking off two days before, with the Paralympic Games to follow from August 28 until September 8.

Yet polls suggest French people aren’t in the Olympic spirit. Most French people are indifferent at best to the games (36%), with 27% worrying, 23% satisfied, 12% enthusiastic and 5% just ‘angry’.

Dr Leon Davis, a senior lecturer in marketing and events management at Teesside University in Middlesbrough, doesn’t blame the French for not being too buzzed.

‘Understandably, some will doubt the city’s preparedness, given the sail of one of the most famous Parisian landmarks, the Moulin Rouge, toppled off,’ he said.

‘It’s not uncommon for cities to race against the clock, and Paris has been planning the event for a number of years so we all expect it to be ready in time.

Here are some of the biggest worries about the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Will Paris be taking home the gold for bed bugs?

They never quite walked down the runway, but Paris Fashion Week in September saw something rather unlikely begin trending: bed bugs.

They were seen riding the Paris Metro, catching the latest film at cinemas, dining at high-end restaurants and crawling around Charles de Gaulle airport.

ANSES, a government health agency, found that one in 10 French households had experienced bedbugs between 2017 and 2022.

In its report, the agency said: ‘The upsurge in bed-bug infestations in recent years has been due in particular to the rise in travel and the increasing resistance of bed bugs to insecticides.’

With travel being one reason for the rise in the blood-suckers, Paris’ tourism office estimates that close to 16,000,000 people could visit the region during July-September.

Will Olympic athletes be able to swim in the Seine?

Ask any swimmer what they’d prefer to swim in, clean water or a river riddled with ‘faecal matter’, we can take a guess which they’d prefer.

But this is the question facing Olympic athletes dreaming of taking home the gold in sports such as marathon swimming or triathlon in only two weeks.

If everything goes to plan, athletes will take a dip in the Seine – the river that has been illegal to swim in for a century due to high pollution levels.

A little thing called the marquee opening ceremony will also take place along the river, rather than at the usual Olympic Stadium.

France has spent 1.4billion euros to clean the river that runs through the heart of the capital and upgrade its creaky sewage systems for next Spring.

‘The biggest issue will be the Seine, and whether it will be ready for the opening ceremony, especially as it will break tradition for the first time by not being held at the stadium,’ added Dr Davis.

The French nonprofit Surfrider has found ‘concentrations of enterococci and E. coli’ in the river this year. Recent tests have, however, shown improvement.

Paris City Hall said the last week of June saw four days when the water was clean enough to swim in by European standards.

Heavy rain could also pose a problem. With the competition to start on July 26, rain could cause sewage to overflow.

Officials expect it to be sunny and dry for the Olympics, however, and that the sun’s UV rays could kill off any bacteria – a literal ray of hope.

Could strike action impact the Paris Olympics at all?

Organising the Olympics is a marathon in and of itself, something that requires a heap of staff to pull off.

What doesn’t help is when these staff go on strike. Major trade unions fighting for better pay amid inflation and against the now-increased retirement age have warned of strike action, fearful of longer working hours, postponed holidays and a lack of childcare.

Olympic organisers chose July 26 to August 11 for the competition as that’s when countless Parisians leave for their sacrosanct summer holidays, easing pressure off the city’s transit network.

Public sector workers, from hospital and transport workers to police officers and even those working at the French national mint, which makes the medals for the Game, haven’t been too pleased about that.

Security guards are the latest to threaten strike action, while industrial action from airport staff was avoided after bosses agreed to bonuses. Some hospital staff are refusing to clock in on the opening of the Olympics over working conditions.

One of the Olympics’ top organisers in Paris told RTL that organisers won’t ban people from striking ‘to defend their rights’, which is as French of a response as you can get.

Will the millions of tourists be able to get around Paris easily?

Speaking of, it’s not just the thought of transport staff walking out that could impact how smoothly the Olympics go.

Several key exertions to the Paris Metro station that are part of the ‘Grand Paris Express’ are complete or underway. Though the rest won’t be ready until 2030, transit officials have said most lines don’t service Olympic sites.

The Charles de Gaulle expressway, which will link the airport and the Gare de l’Est railway station, will not be ready, however.

Regardless of what Metro, bus, trams and suburb train lines are running, all will cost double what they normally do over the Olympics.

Île-de-France Mobilités, the local authority in charge of public transport companies, said this was needed so locals wouldn’t have to solely bear the cost of the influx of riders.

But they’ll have plenty of options. City officials hope to add 10,000 more bikes across some 60 ‘Olympistes’ – cycle routes with getting between Olympic venues in mind.

Paris is aiming to carry out the Olympics with 50% less planet-warming carbon emissions compared to London 2012 and Rio 2016.

Will people be safe?

Paris was already on edge after a string of bomb hoaxes in October – a threat from ISIS-affiliated groups against a Champions League Game the city was hosting earlier this month didn’t help.

France’s interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, said an ‘anti-terrorist’ perimeter will be set up around the Seine one week before the opening ceremony.

Only authorised traffic will be allowed to flow through – residents will need special QR codes to come and go – and several Metro and tram stops will shut.

But as Dr Davis says, since Paris was handed hosting rights in 2017, conflict has come to define the following years. From the Russia-Ukraine war and the Covid pandemic to the violence that has seized Parisian streets in recent years.

‘All these factors don’t seem enough to prevent a successful summer of games,’ he stressed.

Zoe Adjey, a senior lecturer in hospitality and tourism at the University of East London, told Metro.co.uk how a list of potential problems like the above is almost a guarantee when it comes to organising something as elaborate as the Olympics.

And London knows all about that.

‘In 2012, as London prepared to host the Olympics and Paralympics, a series of negative stories emerged in the months leading up to the events, which some felt would ruin the Olympics,’ she said.

‘One such scandal was the G4S debacle,’ Adjey said, referring to the private security company that, only a month before the opening ceremony, admitted it would not be able to provide enough staff.

‘The media was also filled with negativity surrounding sponsors like McDonald’s and Coca-Cola, criticising them for promoting junk food.

‘However, it is important to remember the moment when Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and James Bond parachuted into the Olympic Stadium in Stratford – at that instant, every one of those negative stories dissipated.’

London and Paris have a track record of staging successful events that bring planetary attention to them – and Paris 2024 will be one of them.

‘Instead of focusing on potential problems,’ Adjey added, ‘we should recognise the logistical marvel of executing an event of this magnitude and celebrate the Olympians who are currently training to deliver the performances of their lives.’

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