City battles heat, rats and sewage as the Games begin

It is forecast to rain in Paris tomorrow, and for organisers of the Olympic Games, that could be a problem.

- LAWRENCE OSTLERE

Not because the rain might put out the Olympic flame during the opening ceremony (this actually happened during a storm in Montreal in 1976, and the flame had to be reignited with a cigarette lighter), but because stormwater washes wastewater into the River Seine.

Levels of E coli bacteria in the Seine are being monitored by stressed organisers and frazzled scientists on a constant basis, and over the past few weeks those readings have been on a hygiene knife-edge. The river is meant to host open water swimming and triathlon events next week, but heavy downpours could tip readings back towards unsafe territory, as they have been for most of the year. It is no wonder the Paris mayor, Anne Hidalgo, put off last week’s swimming stunt for as long as she possibly could.

There is confidence among organisers that the dry mid-July weather has done enough to lower pollution levels and avoid the drastic option of cancelling the swimming leg and turning the triathlon into a duathlon, but it is just one of a number of issues that have weighed on them in the build-up to these Games.

Chief among them is security. These Olympics come less than a decade after the deadliest terrorist incident in French history, the 2015 attacks on the Bataclan and other sites around Paris, which left deep scars and a city on edge. This reporter was in a fan park by the Eiffel Tower at Euro 2016 when someone in the dense crowd set off firecrackers, sparking a terrifying stampede to escape what was presumed to be the crack of a gun.

The Games arrive at a time of tension in France following the snap election earlier this month, which saw violence break out on the streets after a shock win for the country’s left-wing coalition blocked the far-right from taking power. Protesters could be seen launching flares, setting e-bikes on fire and clashing with police.