Paris Olympics chief cancels press convention 20 MINUTES earlier than begin
- The ceremony is set to be the first not to take place in stadium in Games’ history
- It will instead take place river-side, with concern over the weather in the capital
- There have been various concerns heading into the start of Games this weekend
The Paris 2024 Olympics chief has suddenly cancelled the press conference discussing the opening ceremony less than 20 minutes before it was set to begin.
The Games will officially get underway this evening following the ceremony in the French capital, which will be the first time in the history of the event that it has not been held inside a stadium.
Instead, it will take place outside of a closed stadium, with Paris to host a never before seen water parade for the Olympics.
The open-air spectacle will take place along a 6km stretch of the Seine River and will include a total of 160 boats, carrying 94 athletes each along the iconic river.
There are concerns over the event, however, with heavy rain falling in Paris this morning, which could cause issues around the river by the time the ceremony gets underway tonight.
The chief of the Paris Olympics has cancelled an opening ceremony press conference less than 20 minutes before it was set to start
For the first time, the opening ceremony will be held outside of a closed stadium, instead to be a never before seen water parade for the Olympics
The open air spectacle will take place along a 6km stretch of the Seine River on Friday
Fears are mounting that Moscow may be behind a ‘massive arson attack’ which has brought chaos to France’s rail network
Mail Sport understands that, although there was no explanation for the press conference being cancelled, two technical directors were called away to work on fine tuning.
The move, however, is the latest in a number of controversies surrounding the Games.
Fears are mounting that Moscow may be behind a ‘massive arson attack’ which has brought chaos to France’s rail network after an alleged Russian spy was arrested earlier this week.
Kirill Gryaznov, 40, was arrested on Wednesday and charged with working ‘with a foreign power to try and incite hostilities in France’ after being identified as working for the FSB, Vladimir Putin’s domestic intelligence agency.
Gryaznov – who denies any wrongdoing – is said to have boasted about turning the start of the Paris Olympics into ‘an opening ceremony like no other’.
Last night, with just hours to go before the procession on the River Seine, fires were started at key installations, bringing trains to a halt and affecting around 800,000 passengers.
The Eurostar is advising passengers not to travel today after its rail services between London and Paris were disrupted by the acts of vandalism, the BBC has reported, with several trains cancelled and others diverted.
An airport located at the Swiss-French border has also been evacuated and closed due to a bomb alert, the French police said
The floating barges will travel from east to west along the River Seine, passing some of Paris’ iconic landmarks
There have been a number of concerns going into the Games, including around the participation of Steven van de Velde
The president of the International Judo Federation, meanwhile, has criticised the venue that will host his sport
Elsewhere, Dutch volleyball player Steven van de Velde was jailed for four years after he flew from the Netherlands to the UK to meet a schoolgirl in August 2014 after the pair started chatting on Facebook.
The sportsman, who was 19 and knew how young the girl was at the time, was sentenced in March 2016 to four years in prison after admitting three counts of rape. He was released in 2017 having only served a year of his sentence.
But despite the judge at the time telling Van de Velde his promising career was a ‘shattered dream’, the volleyball player is set to return at the Paris Games.
Furthermore, the International Judo Federation president Marius Vizer has been left furious with the supposed state of the venue.
Judo, set to kick off on Saturday at the Champ-de-Mars Arena, is one of France’s main hopes for success at the Games as the second-most-successful country of all time in the event.
Vizer, however, slammed the cleanliness of the venue, also claiming there were issues with the mats.
Organisers were certain that the Arena would be ready for competition by the time Saturday came around.
During the parade, meanwhile, there will be over 3,000 performers in the ceremony with the delegations and passengers on the boasts.
The parade will finish in front of the Trocadero where the remaining performances and elements of the Olympic protocol will take place.
Although the floating parade was originally planned as a people’s party along the banks, the French police have intervened and for security reasons most spectators will be assigned to an area or allocated seats in fenced-off areas for the ceremony.
Each country will debut their athletes with one of their most prolific names holding their national or regional flags at the beginning of the ceremony.
More rain is scheduled throughout the day in Paris, but organisers will hope it stays away
Greece traditionally debut first as a nod to where the Olympics first originated, with the host country being last to feature.
The Olympic anthem will then ring out after the head of state of the host country announces the commencement of the Games.
The iconic Olympic flame will then be brought forward for the lighting of the main torch which is the culmination of the opening ceremony as well as the release of doves, symbolising peace amongst all countries.
More rain is scheduled for later on today in Paris, but organisers will hope that it holds off until after the ceremony has concluded.
