Soldiers patrol outside Gare du Nord train station at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Friday, July 26, 2024, in Paris, France. Hours away from the grand opening ceremony of the Olympics, high-speed rail traffic to the French capital was severely disrupted on Friday by what officials described as “criminal actions” and sabotage. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
Via AP News
PARIS (AP) — The 2024 Olympics are getting off to a rough start in Paris, with suspected acts of sabotage targeting France’s flagship high-speed rail network and cloudy skies and forecast rains ahead of its sprawling, ambitious opening ceremony.
Macron welcomes world leaders, delivers message of peace
French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed several dozen of heads of state and government at the Elysee presidential palace Friday afternoon.
Macron’s office said the Elysee reception was “an opportunity for France to deliver a message of peace and tolerance as 10,500 athletes from around the world gather to take part in the world’s biggest event.”
About 100 world leaders, government officials and heads of international organizations were expected to attend the ceremony.
Fans are making their way to the banks of the Seine River
At Pont au Change, an iconic bridge close to the Châtelet theatre and Notre Dame cathedral, dozens of spectators are slowly making their way to the shores of the Seine River ahead of the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics.
The atmosphere is subdued for now, with just a few police sirens wailing in the distance as spectators go through police screenings without complaining.
How will Olympic athletes board their opening ceremony boats?
Organizers have devoted a vast area along the banks of the Seine River where athletes will board their boats for the opening ceremony. The space in the east of Paris has room for several of the 90 boats carrying around 6,800 athletes to dock at the same time. The parade officially begins at the Austerlitz Bridge.
Celeb alert!!! Pharrell Williams carrying Olympic torch
French TV is showing Pharrell Williams carrying the Olympic flame atop the cathedral of Saint-Denis, on the northern outskirts of Paris.
The town of Saint-Denis has a long relationship with royalty — and it hasn’t always been kind. In all, 42 kings, 32 queens and 63 princes and princesses were buried over the centuries in its basilica — only to be dug up again during the French Revolution and tossed into mass graves.
The Olympic flame was also lit under cloudy skies
The weather also worked against the Paris Games when the Olympic flame was lit April16 in Greece.
Cloudy skies blocked the sun, meaning its rays couldn’t be harnessed to light the flame, as is traditional. Had all gone to plan, an actress dressed as an ancient Greek priestess would have dipped the fuel-filled torch into a parabolic mirror which focuses the sun’s rays on it, and fire spurts forth. But this year, she didn’t even try, going straight for a backup flame, kept in a copy of an ancient Greek pot.
The flame arrived May 8 in France and has toured the county and French territories overseas before arriving in Paris for the opening ceremony.
Rain is expected to pick up during the opening ceremony
France’s national weather service, Meteo France, is forecasting up to 12 millimeters (roughly half an inch) of rain in Paris during the opening ceremony.
Rain is expected to pick up around 6 p.m., roughly 90 minutes before athletes begin parading down the Seine River.
Security along the Seine
Police officers in flak jackets wandered the shores of the Seine as people on Olympic floats practiced for their big debut in the opening ceremonies.
Streets, brimming with police vehicles, were blocked off with multiple layers of security and bag checks. French authorities appeared on high alert for a potential threat in an event set during a moment of larger global tensions.
Celia Perez Cuenca, a Spanish fencing champion visiting to support the Spanish Olympic team, was among those by the Seine as the ceremony geared up.
She said the high level of security was a welcome sight.
“It’s an important event where many different nations gather together,” she said. “I think this kind of security at this moment is very necessary to assure that all the competitors are safe.”
Coco Gauff to be female flag bearer for US team, joining LeBron James
Tennis star Coco Gauff will join LeBron James as a flag bearer for the U.S. Olympic team at today’s opening ceremony.
Gauff, the reigning U.S. Open champion, is set to make her Olympic debut and will be the first tennis athlete to carry the American flag. She and James were chosen by Team USA athletes.
▶ Read more about the U.S. team flag bearers
The opening ceremony is near. And there’s still lots of work to do
They’ve been preparing for the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics for years.
Evidently, it’ll go down to the wire.
Around the Trocadero, at the foot of the Eiffel Tower and essentially the finish line of the ceremony, workers were still scrambling to get things done late Friday afternoon, not long before the event was to begin. Equipment was being driven in on forklifts, workers were stapling a covering — presumably no-slip, since rain is expected — to the stage and even some vendor booths were still under construction.
All that, with the start of the ceremony about three hours away.
Meet Thomas Jolly, the artistic director behind the opening ceremony
He’s an actor and a stage director, and no stranger to spectacles on a grand scale.
Thomas Jolly was tapped two years ago as the artistic director of the opening and closing ceremonies for the Paris Olympics and Paralympics.
Plans for tonight’s ceremony were kept closely guarded, but Jolly told The Associated Press beforehand that he wanted to share France with the world.
“France is a story that never stops being constructed, deconstructed, and reconstructed. It’s alive, it remains alive,” he said.
▶ Read more about Thomas Jolly
Camping out for the opening ceremony
People arrived hours before the start of the opening ceremony along the Seine River, seeking the best spot at the viewing areas. Some brought folding chairs, books, sandwiches and water.
Monica Merino, 57, came to Paris from Madrid for the Olympics and said it would be her first time watching the opening ceremony in person.
“We have visited Paris many times, and it is very different now because it is empty of people and full of military and police,” she said.
Giannis skirts train troubles
Greek basketball star Giannis Antetokounmpo, selected as one of his country’s flagbearers, avoided Friday’s train issues altogether.
He left Lille on Thursday, traveling in a convoy of buses alongside players from a few other teams. A team spokesperson said multiple teams chose to travel at the same time for security purposes.
Germany’s men’s team boarded buses bound for the ceremony Friday morning, having never planned to travel by train. The plan was to then to immediately head back to Lille for Saturday’s game against Japan.
The Paris Olympics have sold a record 9.7 million tickets — but more are available
After getting off to a rocky start last year, Olympics 2024 organizers said the Paris Games have broken the record for the most number of tickets sold or allocated in the event’s history. And yet, tickets are still available.
Organizers say 9.7 million tickets were sold or allocated for this year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games, with 8.7 million sold for the former and 1 million for the latter.
For Paris, a total of 10 million tickets were put on sale for the Olympics — meaning that despite the historic popularity of the sporting events and unprecedented scale of this year’s competitions, there will still be many empty seats remaining.
The total ticketing figure will, however, likely rise because tickets are still on sale for some of the 45 sports.
Snoop Dogg keeps it lit
The rapper-turned-NBC Olympics correspondent was one of the final Olympic torch bearers before the opening ceremony. He carried the flame in Saint-Denis, just outside Paris.
In an interview before his leg of the relay, Snoop Dogg vowed to be on his “best behavior.”
“I’m going to be on my best athleticism. I’ll be able to breathe slow to walk fast and hold the torch with a smile on my face, because I realize how prestigious this event is,” he said.
Two trains carrying Olympic athletes stopped en route to Paris
Two trains carrying Olympic athletes to Paris on the western Atlantique line were stopped hours before the opening ceremony, rail company SNCF said.
One train was canceled, and authorities hope the other will become operational.
How to watch the 2024 Olympics opening ceremony
The ceremony will air on NBC and stream on Peacock and NBC Olympic platforms — NBCOlympics.com, NBC.com, NBC app, NBC Olympics app.
A preview will air on NBC at noon EDT, with live coverage beginning at 1:30 p.m. and an enhanced prime-time encore at 7:30 p.m.
About 220,000 invited and security-screened spectators are expected to fill the upper tiers of the Seine’s banks, and an additional 104,000 paying spectators will watch from the lower riverside and around the Trocadéro plaza. Those in Paris who could not get tickets will be able to watch the ceremony on 80 giant screens set up throughout the city.
▶ Read more about how to watch the opening ceremony
Who will light the Olympic cauldron?
Even the person or people who will have that honor still didn’t know they were been picked just hours before the opening ceremony, the Paris Games chief organizer said.
Speaking Friday morning on France Inter radio, Tony Estanguet said only he knew the identity of “the personality or athlete” he’s picked, in an attempt to keep the secret, and that “he or she doesn’t know.”
“I really waited until today. I plan to tell the last carrier (of the Olympic torch) today, to try to maintain this confidentiality,” he said.
Viewing areas along the Seine River ready to receive thousands of fans
Security officials received their last instructions before one of the viewing areas along the Seine River becomes packed with people for the Olympics opening ceremony.
As police boats patrolled the river, Olympic staff and volunteers placed on each seat a set of small flags of participating countries that fans could use to cheer on athletes who will later appear in a parade of boats.
Paris resident Linnett Hernandez Valdes, who was preparing her food truck for visitors, says she understands the level of security “considering the event of such magnitude.” She didn’t experience any trouble getting in despite the sabotage to the train.
“I don’t have any fear that something could happen,” she said, adding that she is very fortunate to be present at the ceremony and plans to enjoy it.
Paris Olympics moving forward with opening ceremony despite train, weather concerns
The Paris Olympics are getting off to a rough start.
In addition to suspected acts of sabotage targeting France’s flagship high-speed rail network, the French captial had a dreary feel Friday amid cloudy skies and forecast rains hours before its ambitious opening ceremony.
On a day of utmost importance for the country, with dozens of heads of state and government in town for the Olympic opening and a global audience topping 1 billion expected to tune in, authorities were scrambling to deal with widespread rail disruptions caused by what they described as coordinated overnight sabotage of high-speed train lines.
The train delays and drizzly weather underscored potential vulnerabilities of the host city’s bold decisions to break with Olympic traditions and stage an opening ceremony like no other.
▶Read more about the Paris Olympics opening ceremony
French train service picking back up
France’s Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete told TV network TF1 that train traffic is finally picking up.
Vergriete said services are resuming, especially on the Atlantique high-speed line, which had been completely halted due to the sabotage.
“At Montparnasse station and Bordeaux station, which were the most affected, we should find one in three trains running this afternoon,” he said. “Things are already improving.”
Rail workers thwarted at least one sabotage attempt
Jean-Pierre Farandou, CEO of rail company SNCF, said railway maintenance workers managed to thwart a suspected sabotage attempt along tracks on the South-East line.
Workers on the night shift spotted intruders and alerted police, Farandou said.
“These people left, of course, very quickly when they realized they were spotted. So, thank you to the railway workers,” Farandou said. “Unfortunately, we couldn’t do it everywhere.”
Farandou said repairs were being made as police conducted forensic examinations and searched for the perpetrators. He said there was little else he could say about the investigation.
French PM says rail attacks had ‘clear objective: blocking the high-speed train network’
Outgoing French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said sabotage and arson that hit key parts of France’s rail network on the eve of the Olympics had “a clear objective: blocking the high-speed train network.”
He said the vandals strategically targeted the main routes from the north, east and west toward Paris, hours before the city hosts the Olympics opening ceremony.
Speaking to reporters Attal said there will be “massive consequences,” with “hundreds of thousands” of people stuck while trying to visit Paris for the Games or vacations.
Eurostar canceling a quarter of its trains through the weekend
Eurostar says one in four trains through the weekend will be canceled.
The rail network said all high-speed trains are being diverted, adding 90 minutes to each journey.
“Eurostar expects this situation will last until Monday morning,’’ it said in a statement.
Rail workers examining cut, burned cables along train tracks
BFM television footage showed more than a dozen workers from rail company SNCF in orange uniforms examining damage to cut and burned cables along the train tracks in Croisilles, a village in northern France where one of the sabotage incidents occurred.
A half dozen police officers, some carrying yellow evidence markers, were at the crime scene.
Cancellations, delays for trains between France and Germany
Germany’s national railway operator, Deutsche Bahn, said there were short-notice cancellations and delays of trains between France and Germany as a result of the damage.
In Berlin, government spokesperson Christiane Hoffmann said that “the German government condemns these acts in the strongest terms.”
Some train passengers not stressing delays to Paris
Eurostar passengers leaving from London seemed relaxed about delays on the French rail network.
Kate Fisher, 37, a teacher from Louisiana, was traveling with five friends in hopes of getting to Paris to soak in the atmosphere.
“We knew this is absolutely the worst time to go to Paris because of the Olympics, so we’re prepared for it to take longer,’’ she said.
Eurostar diverts Paris-bound high-speed trains to standard lines
In Brussels, Eurostar said that all high-speed trains going to and coming from Paris are being diverted via the standard line.
“This extends the journey time by around an hour and a half,” the company said.
When a train to Paris was announced, many travelers whose journey had been canceled or delayed took the option to board without a valid ticket. The train controller warned them they would have to stand at the bar for the whole journey. Once inside, the train barista handed over free bottles of water.
Paris prosecutor’s office: Rail arson crime carries up to 20-year prison sentence
The Paris prosecutor’s office has initiated an investigation, saying it had “jurisdiction over crimes involving the deterioration of property that threaten the fundamental interests of the nation.”
This crime, it added, carried a potential 15-year prison sentence and fines of 225,000 euros.
Further, it said crimes involving “degradation and attempted degradation by dangerous means in an organized group” can carry a 20-year prison sentence and fines of 150,000 euros.
German showjumpers to miss opening ceremony because of train delays
Two German athletes in showjumping were on a train to Paris to take part in the opening ceremony but had to turn back in Belgium because of lengthy delays. They will now miss the ceremony, German news agency dpa reported.
“It’s a real shame but we would have arrived too late,” rider Philipp Weishaupt, who was traveling with teammate Christian Kukuk, told dpa. “There was no longer a chance of making it on time.”
Passengers stuck without water, toilets or electricity
The Montparnasse 2 station was packed with passengers affected by delayed or canceled trains, including some who spent hours stuck on the tracks because of the disruptions.
Maiwenn Labbé-Sorin said she waited hours on the train before it returned to Paris. There was no news on when she would be able to continue her trip.
“We stayed two hours without water, without toilets, without electricity,” she said. “Then we could go out on the track for a bit and then the train returned. Now I’m not sure what’s going to happen.”
“It’s a hell of a way to start the Olympics”
Travelers at Gare du Nord train station looked up at departure boards for Eurostar trains to London showing delays of up to an hour and a half.
“It’s a hell of a way to start the Olympics,” said Sarah Moseley, 42, as she learned that her train to London was an hour late.
“They should have more information for tourists, especially if it’s a malicious attack,” said Corey Grainger, a 37-year-old Australian sales manager on his way to London, as he rested on his two suitcases in the middle of the station.
In Bordeaux in southwest France, those who couldn’t find a seat in the Gare de Bordeaux Saint-Jean sat on luggage and clothing on the floor and looked at their phones while others curled up and slept on benches.
French intelligence services mobilized after ‘prepared and coordinated’ attacks
“Our intelligence services and our law enforcement agencies are mobilized to find and punish the perpetrators of these criminal acts,” French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said in a post on X.
Attal characterized them as “acts of sabotage” which were “prepared and coordinated.”
Rail company CEO says acts showed ‘a desire to seriously harm’ the French
Jean-Pierre Farandou, CEO of rail company SNCF, said on French TV network BFMTV that the acts showed “a desire to seriously harm” the French, and their nature implied “a premeditated, calculated, coordinated attack.”
Farandou said that the locations targeted were rail track intersections.
“For one fire, two destinations were hit,” he said on BFMTV.
Train delays could continue ‘all weekend,’ French rail company says
Passengers at St. Pancras station in London were warned to expect delays of around an hour to their Eurostar journeys. Announcements in the departure hall at the international terminus informed travelers heading to Paris that there was a problem with overhead power supplies.
French rail company SNCF said it did not know when traffic would resume and feared that disruptions would continue “at least all weekend.” SNCF teams “were already on site to carry out diagnostics and begin repairs,” but the “situation should last at least all weekend while the repairs are carried out,” the operator said. SNCF advised “all passengers to postpone their journey and not to go to the station,” specifying in its press release that all tickets were exchangeable and refundable.
Valerie Pecresse, president of the regional council of the greater Paris region said “250,000 travelers will be affected today on all these lines.” Substitution plans were underway, but Pecresse advised travelers “not to go to stations.”
‘Criminal’ acts paralyze the French rail networks ahead of Olympics opening ceremony
As Paris authorities geared up for a parade along the Seine River amid tightened security, three fires were reported near the tracks on the high-speed lines of Atlantique, Nord and Est. The disruptions particularly affected Paris’ major Montparnasse station. Videos posted on social networks showed the hall of the station saturated with travelers.
The incidents paralyzed several high-speed lines linking Paris to the rest of France and to neighboring countries, according to Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete.
Speaking on BFM television, Vergriete described people fleeing from the scene of fires and the discovery of incendiary devices at the site. “Everything indicates that these are criminal fires,” he said.
Travel to and from London beneath the English Channel, to neighboring Belgium, and across the west, north, and east of France was affected by what the French national rail company SNCF called a series of coordinated overnight incidents.
Government officials denounced the acts, though they said there was no immediate sign of a direct link to the Olympics. National police said authorities were investigating the incidents. French media reported a major fire on a busy western route.
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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games