[LIVRE] “The hidden face of the Olympics”, chronicle of a predicted disaster

Eighteen short days: this is the very short period of time that will elapse between the appointment of the future government, the day after July 7, and the start of the great “popular festival” of the 2024 Olympic Games. An event to high risk on all fronts, if we are to believe the revelations of Sébastien Chesbeuf, who worked for six years within the Paris 2024 Organizing Committee before being fired (dismissal recognized as “abusive and without real and serious cause” by the industrial tribunal) for having raised too many alarms and asked too many unanswered questions. With Thierry Vildary, investigative journalist in the sports department of France Télévisions, and Jean-François Laville, sports journalist, he signs a worrying investigation behind the scenes of the event: The Hidden Face of the Olympics. Worried souls refrain!

Erratic decisions

Throughout the pages, the reader discovers that clouds are gathering around the organization of the event: disorganization of the Paris 2024 Committee teams, opacity of decisions, inertia of public authorities, lack of personnel to secure, absence of impact studies (in Polynesia for the surfing events), incongruous and costly choice (the relocation of the handball event to a partially open-air stadium in Lille, but air-conditioned nonetheless, raises questions) – the cup is quickly full . Especially since the security risks weighing on the opening ceremony could well, in the opinion of the authors, transform the great celebration into ” state matter “.

Opening ceremony: an affair of state?

Proof that at the start the organizers had their eyes bigger than their stomachs and that even Emmanuel Macron no longer rules out the worst, the gauge has been revised downwards. In the end, there will be only 320,000 “handpicked” guests (there must have been a million, then 600,000) to pile up on the twelve kilometers of banks of the Seine (whose solidity, according to the three authors, is cause for concern because the banks are intended to support the weight of the stands and that of the spectators) to attend the high mass. A challenge for security teams, haunted by a terrorist threat considered “serious”. The testimonies of security experts questioned on the feasibility of the opening ceremony reported in the book leave you speechless: “Between very complicated and impossible”believes one, while the other admits: “I banned my family from attending the opening ceremony anyway. » A few days before the start of the Olympic Games, the distressing declaration of Alain Bauer – “The opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games is a criminal madness” -, heard two years ago, has not aged a bit.

Obviously, the Olympics have already betrayed many promises: not very ecological (see the irreparable damage caused to the precious Polynesian coral bar for surfing), surrounded by a halo of suspicions of corruption and influence peddling (which have led the national financial prosecutor’s office to search the headquarters of the Paris 2024 Committee twice, in June and October 2023) and, contrary to what Anne Hidalgo announced (“no impact on the lives of Ile-de-France residents”), a nightmare from the start month of June for Parisians.

The real losers: taxpayers

One thing is certain: the bill will be hefty, with budgets having exploded. The cost is estimated at more than 9 billion euros (it was announced at 6 billion) at the very least, because “for the moment, everything has not yet been counted, invoiced and added up”explain Capital . In addition to its agreed participation of 3 billion euros (“at a minimum”estimates the Court of Auditors, Pierre Moscovici, its president, citing a rather wide range of up to 5 billion), the State will have to manage to find funding for security, transport and compensation for traders.

That’s not all: the affair was closed very discreetly by a handful of deputies in the National Assembly. By an amendment to the 2022 Finance Law (art. 158), parliamentarians set the State guarantee, for the loan taken out by the Olympic Committee in the event of a budget overrun, at the modest sum of 3 billion dinars. euros. A figure almost tripled overnight, because the initial commitment was 1.2 billion.

Whatever government the French choose in a month, with the 2024 Olympics it will be the baptism of fire. The JO board was well soaped by Anne Hidalgo and Emmanuel Macron.

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