The city of Paris and the Games’ organizing committee are ready to host the competitions, which begin in four days but whose opening ceremony is scheduled for Friday, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said Saturday.
Keith McConnell, the organization’s sporting director, assured at a press conference that the Olympic organizing committee and the city of Paris “have kept their promise.”
“Everything is going according to plan,” McConnell said, insisting that athletes who have arrived at the Olympic Village since Thursday have found the space and atmosphere “fantastic.”
The IOC’s sports director highlighted the “incredible expectations” generated by the Games, citing the 8.8 million tickets sold for the Olympic events.
Keith McConnell said the IOC was confident the opening ceremony, which will be held outside an indoor venue for the first time, “will be spectacular”.
The opening ceremony will take place on the banks of the Seine and pass by “incredible sites like the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre and the Alexandre III Bridge, which will provide a fantastic backdrop,” McConnell said.
An IOC spokesman recalled that for calendar reasons the Olympic football and rugby tournaments start on Wednesday, warning: “Only four days left.”
McConnell, who met with French authorities and the organising committee today, assured that the computer problems caused by Friday’s global Microsoft software outage had been resolved and assured that “while the IOC is never prepared for everything”, “several security systems are in place to prevent piracy attempts”.
Paris will host the Olympic Games from Friday to August 11 and the Paralympic Games from August 28 to September 8.