IOC President Bach: “The Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony is Symbolic and Unforgettable”
In an exclusive interview with AFP, he expressed confidence in the awards opening ceremony despite safety concerns.
Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC),
predicted that the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics,
which will be held on the Seine River in Paris, France in July,
will be a symbolic and unforgettable spectacle.
In an exclusive interview with France’s AFP news agency at the IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland on the 27th (Korean time),
Chairman Bach said, “Thanks to the meticulous and professional approach of the French authorities,
we have “We are confident that everyone will be safe at the cruise opening ceremony” he said. 카지노사이트위키
The Summer Olympics, held in Paris for the first time in 100 years,
will open on the afternoon of July 26th (local time) (morning of the 27th, Korean time) with an aquatic opening ceremony in which athletes from each country will ride a cruise ship and march 6km down the Seine River.
While 500,000 people, including those watching from nearby buildings,
are expected to gather for the Seine River opening ceremony,
concerns that a terrorist attack may occur in an open and crowded space are not decreasing due to the unstable world situation.
French President Emmanuel Macron said last week that the opening ceremony could be moved from the Seine River to the national stadium, Stade de France,
but the Paris Olympic organizing committee is maintaining that it has no intention of doing so.
Chairman Bach also said that he fully trusts the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)’s method of dealing with the doping issue of Chinese swimmers,
and expressed confidence that “WADA complied with its own regulations.”
It was reported that 23 Chinese swimmers competed in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in 2021 without receiving any sanctions from WADA despite testing positive for trimetazidine (TMZ),
an angina treatment that contains performance-enhancing ingredients and is designated as an illegal drug.
Afterwards, WADA faced strong criticism.
At the time, WADA accepted the claim of the China Anti-Doping Commission (CHINADA) that athletes had eaten contaminated food at the hotel.
The controversy grew as the US and Australian media criticized China and WADA,
strongly claiming the suspicion of ‘covering up doping’, while China responded by calling it ‘fake news’.
Accordingly, WADA appointed Swiss prosecutor Eric Cotier as head of the independent organization and began a reinvestigation.
Chairman Thomas Bach, who said he learned of the related information through reports,
drew guidelines saying, “We are waiting for the results of WADA’s re-investigation,
and if Chinese swimmers are cleared of suspicion, they can compete in the Paris Olympics.”