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President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that France was ready to host the Paris Olympics as he visited the Athletes’ Village four days before the Games begin.
“We are ready and we will be ready throughout the Games,” Macron said.
“We have been working on these Games for years now and we are at the start of a decisive week which on Friday will see the opening ceremony and then the Olympiad which will be held in Paris, 100 years since the last one.”
He added, “This is the fruit of an immense amount of work which has profoundly changed the country, in particular the area” of Seine-Saint-Denis, where the Athletes’ Village is situated.
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach also visited the Village to the north of the French capital, where thousands of athletes and officials are arriving, with up to 14,500 expected there at the peak of the Games.
Comprising 40 different low-rise housing blocks, the complex has been built by employing innovative construction techniques using low-carbon concrete, water recycling and reclaimed building materials.
It was also intended to be free of air-conditioning with a natural cooling system, but some Olympic delegations are unconvinced and have ordered around 2,500 portable cooling units for their athletes.
Seine-Saint-Denis, where the main athletics stadium for the Olympics is also situated, is the poorest area in France and is hoping to reap benefits from the sports extravaganza.
Macron promised the area would not be forgotten after the Olympics.
“I will come back after the Games to see the legacy with you and to see how life has changed,” he said.
Meanwhile, France’s foreign minister said Israeli athletes were welcome at the Paris Games after a hard-left member of the French parliament sparked outrage by urging them to stay away because of the conflict in Gaza.
“The Israeli delegation is welcome in France,” Stephane Sejourne said in Brussels ahead of talks with his Israeli counterpart, adding that the call by France Unbowed (LFI) lawmaker Thomas Portes for the country’s exclusion had been “irresponsible and dangerous”.
