Emmanuel Macron said for the first time on Monday the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics could be moved from the River Seine to the national stadium, in the event of a security threat.
Instead of teams sailing down the Seine on barges, the ceremony could be “limited to the Trocadero” building across the river from the Eiffel Tower or “even moved to the Stade de France”, the French President said.
The Paris organisers have devised a ceremony unprecedented in Olympic history, breaking from the tradition of the Games opening in the main stadium.
But with war raging in Ukraine and Gaza, the event on July 26 leaves teams potentially vulnerable to attack. French authorities have, for example, mentioned the possibility of an attack by drone.
So far, organisers have denied it could be moved to a different venue, if authorities believed there was a possibility of it being targeted.