Participants were upset by the “Paris-style operation” that “made …… a target of terrorism! The Real Opening Ceremony of the Olympics not shown on TV

Lady Gaga sang and danced, Zidane passed the torch to Nadal, and Celine Dion closed the ceremony. The opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, decorated with celebrities from around the world and creative staging, was still spectacular.

But …….

The venue operations weren’t functioning at all,” he said. In particular, the Trocadero Plaza, which is the terminus for the athletes and where the Olympic flag is flown, was terrible. The only people who visited here were the media, Olympic Association officials, and VIPs from all over the world. They were all angry at the management of the event,” said a reporter from a national newspaper who covered the event.

The problem began even before the ceremony began. The problem began even before the ceremony began: only two security gates had been set up for the approximately 6,000 people who were expected to enter.

A long line had formed near the entrance three hours before the ceremony began, but it was slow going. It started raining halfway through the event, and when the frustrated participants from different countries asked in English why the line was not moving forward, the staff answered in English, ‘I don’t understand English,’ and then in French, ‘I don’t understand French,’ and they responded in French, laughing. We must have been completely taken for fools, because we were chatting with another staff member in English and French.

Finally, the American broadcaster exploded in anger.

We’ve been waiting for almost two hours!　That’s enough!

As the female anchor shouted angrily, five strong men wearing T-shirts with the word “Securite” on the back appeared and began to open the third security gate.

I thought, ‘No, you can’t do that (laughs).’ What was even more surprising was that the line still didn’t move forward. People crowded together for such a long period of time would be an easy target for terrorists. An hour before the start of the event, they must have gotten impatient, because they allowed half of the people in line to enter without a security gate. They didn’t even have their press passes or admission tickets checked.

The staff said, “We decided to let people with small luggage through because they are less likely to be carrying dangerous items,” but clearly there were people carrying large luggage going through, and people with nothing were being told to go through the security gate. In the first place, it is too careless to let people with large luggage through when there was vandalism on the railroad the same morning. The security system was so sloppy that at first a small group of people couldn’t handle it, and at the end a large group of people had to deal with it. It was a very sloppy operation.

What awaited those who finally managed to enter the venue was heavy rain.

One by one, they left the stands, unable to stand the cold. Furthermore, the monitor showing the athletes crossing the Seine by boat blacked out due to equipment trouble. Those of us waiting at the end of the stage had no choice but to simply wait, not knowing what was going on. Puddles had formed on the main stage where the opening declaration was made, and it was impressive to see the staff working hard to scrape the water off the stage. Since the opening ceremony was held outside, we should have expected at least some rain. ……

Such “Parisian-style operations” had been seen in many places even before the opening ceremony.

The day before the opening ceremony, I went to the media meeting that was to be held to introduce the inside of the athletes’ village. However, no one showed up 20 minutes after the scheduled time, and when I thought one finally appeared, I was told, ‘We’ve decided to cancel the meeting because we don’t have enough people to do it today. Journalists from the Netherlands said, “This is the Paris style?

(A sports journalist covering the Paris Olympics.) Nevertheless, it is a fact that the opening ceremony went off without a hitch, and people from all over the world were fascinated by it, despite the “clumsiness” of the management that was exposed.

The athletes were soaking wet that I was worried they might catch a cold, but they seemed to be enjoying themselves from start to finish. In the end, I think the key is not to aim for perfection, but to allow small problems while preventing big ones. However, it is a consequence of the fact that the spectators could see the flashy performance but could not get a good look at the players’ faces, and nothing happened. At this rate, it would not be surprising if some kind of incident occurred during the Games.

Will the Paris Olympics be able to come to a successful conclusion? The opening ceremony left some uncertainty.