This photograph shows the entrance of the headquarters of the Paris 2024 Olympics This photograph shows the entrance of the headquarters of the Paris 2024 Olympics. Photo: Julien de Rosa/AFP
Football and Rugby Sevens kick off the sporting action at the Paris Olympics on Wednesday featuring a top French star and a huge police presence for Israel's first appearance.
As the clock ticks down towards Friday's opening ceremony, Olympic chiefs awarded the 2030 Winter Games to the French Alps and the 2034 event to Salt Lake City.
But in a dramatic twist they warned the US city could be stripped of the Games if American authorities kept up their feud with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
As the sport gets under way two days before the opening ceremony, Israel's footballers take on Mali in the men's competition, under the watchful eye of 1,000 police officers, with authorities erecting an "anti-terrorist perimeter" and bracing for possible disruption around the stadium.
Israel's participation in Paris has been a key talking point in the run-up, with calls from the Palestine Olympic Committee and some left-wing French MPs for the country to be excluded over the Gaza war.
President Emmanuel Macron stressed that Israeli athletes were "welcome in our country", adding it was "France's responsibility to provide them with security".
A packed Stade de France will cheer on Antoine Dupont — arguably the world's best rugby player and a pin-up of the Paris Games — as the Rugby Sevens tournament starts.
The electric Dupont is the biggest draw for the 555,000 fans expected over the six days of rugby action, but France will have their work cut out to stop double Olympic champions Fiji.
France and Fiji are in the same pool and will play the United States and Uruguay, before the pair face each other in a mouthwatering clash on Thursday.
Others to watch in the wide-open competition are traditional rugby powers New Zealand, Australia, Argentina, and Ireland.
The success of Salt Lake City's bid to host the 2034 Olympics was a foregone conclusion given the Utah city, which hosted the Games in 2002, was the only candidate.
But the International Olympic Committee said the Games could be revoked if US lawmakers and the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) were not brought into line.
John Coates, the chairman of the IOC's legal commission, said the host city contract confirming Salt Lake's right to stage the Olympics had been altered to allow the IOC to strip it of the Games if US authorities did not respect the "supreme authority" of WADA.
USADA has been a vocal critic of WADA for much of the past decade and tensions escalated this year after reports in April revealed that 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive for a banned substance ahead of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, but were subsequently cleared to compete at the Games.
The IOC handed the 2030 games to France but under the condition that Paris stumps up the required financial commitments.
Preparations for Friday's historic opening ceremony were in full swing with an unprecedented security operation for the athletes' parade along the River Seine.
Around 6,000-7,000 athletes are set to sail down a six-kilometre (four-mile) stretch of the river towards the Eiffel Tower, on 85 barges and boats.
Up to 500,000 people are set to watch in person from specially built stands, on the river banks and from the overlooking balconies and apartments.
The area around the river has been locked down before the ceremony, with snipers positioned along the route and frogmen deployed to prevent a waterborne attack.
The entertainment line-up for the ceremony, the first time a Summer Olympics has opened outside the main stadium, is yet to be fully announced.
But videos posted online showing US pop star Lady Gaga in Paris sparked rumours she will be among the performers.
American rapper Snoop Dogg will carry the Olympic flame this Friday as it makes its final rounds before the ceremony.
In the first scandal of the Games, a video emerged showing the mistreatment of a horse by one of Britain's most decorated Olympians, dressage specialist Charlotte Dujardin, who has been suspended.
The film showed the three-time Olympic champion walking alongside a horse and repeatedly whipping the animal while apparently training a young rider.
Dujardin, 39, has won six Olympic medals and was aiming to become Britain's most successful female Olympian by winning further medals in Paris.
AFP
