The exercises of the special anti-terrorist team for the biggest sporting event in the world have been completed. The Paris becomes a lobster, but a minimum of danger always lurks. About 50 khaki-clad men in a black armored truck approach an abandoned office building on the outskirts of Paris and blow out a second-floor window with an explosive device. They clear the shards of glass from the window frame and enter the building through the opening in search of hostages – actually members of the gendarmerie – held inside.

This is an exercise carried out in preparation for the Olympic Games on July 26 and the Paralympic Games in August. Members of the so-called “Intervention Group of the National Gendarmerie” (GING) with an operational focus on combating terrorism participated.

Olympics, the biggest sporting event in history

“This type of exercise for us that we want to work on during the Olympic period is about attacks in environments that are large, with a significant number of people involved, hostages and even terrorists,” says one of the elite team, which wants to keep the his anonymity. “So for us, the most important point of the mission is to practice an attack that is fast, dynamic, to neutralize the terrorists as quickly as possible and above all to preserve as many lives as possible.”

It was one of the last preparedness exercises for a scenario no one wants to happen. Their mission is extremely important and the degree of responsibility is enormous. Are the Olympics the biggest security event in the country’s history?

“Undoubtedly, yes,” says the commander Ghislaine Reti. “Because the Olympics are already the biggest media event in the world and they only happen once every four years. There is a special geopolitical context, I don’t need to mention it. It is the first time that thousands of soldiers of the elite group will be mobilized without any interruption, no day off, especially for the day of July 26.”

This particular group was founded 50 years ago after the so-called massacre at the 1972 Olympic Games. Members of the Israeli delegation were kidnapped by the Palestinian organization Black September. The kidnapping resulted in a failed police intervention and the death of Israeli athletes, a policeman and five of the kidnappers. In the event that a similar incident occurs in Paris, then the “Intervention Team of the National Gendarmerie” will be called.

100% security does not exist

For Ghislaine Reti, however, it is also an important jubilee. “It is a nod to history,” he describes characteristically, “because we are going to celebrate our 50th anniversary this year during the year of the Olympic Games in France. Our team was created after the Olympic Games in Munich, so it comes full circle.”

Paris is on high alert following the 2015 Islamist attacks that left 130 dead and hundreds injured. The Olympic Games, and especially the opening ceremony, present an unprecedented security challenge. With 300,000 people watching from the banks of the river and millions more on television, the ceremony is set to take place on ships and barges along a six-kilometre route on the Seine. Reti revealed that he will station two men in plainclothes to avoid disturbing spectators on each of the barges that will transport the athletes, while 350 GIGN police officers will be on duty for the opening ceremony.

Snipers will be installed on the roofs of the majestic buildings along the Seine, while forces will also be deployed in the streets of the city. In total, some 50,000 French police and soldiers will patrol Paris during the Games, with additional help from a few thousand foreign security officials.

The wars in Ukraine and Gaza have complicated security planning, and President Macron has suggested scrapping the riverside ceremony and reverting to backup plans. So what would the head of the elite team tell everyone to come to Paris?

“I would like to tell them that it will be a great event, that you should not be afraid to come to France. Of course absolute safety obviously does not exist and it would be dishonest to say that there is, the risk is minimized as much as possible. So we will have great matches, it will be a great event, it will be a great celebration and France is a great country. You should take the opportunity to visit this wonderful country.”

AFPTV, Reuters, AFP