Paris Olympics preparations move up a gear

Preparations for the Paris Olympics went up a gear on Saturday as security teams scoured the banks of the Seine ahead of Friday's opening ceremony and top International Olympic Committee officials met in the French capital.

Police with sniffer dogs were seen checking the six-kilometre (four-mile) route along the Seine for the ceremony in which up to 7,000 athletes will sail on nearly a hundred barges and river boats watched by 300,000 spectators.

The stakes are high for the waterborne parade -- the first time the opening ceremony of a Summer Games will take place outside a stadium.

French police will be bolstered by colleagues from several countries, including Spain, Britain and Qatar.

Early on Saturday, a rehearsal for the ceremony was held on the river but security barriers and police screened it from the eyes of residents and media to keep the contents secret.

IOC spokesman Mark Adams said that although he had not seen the full plan for the opening ceremony, the show will "blow your socks off".

"I have a good idea, but not a full idea of what is in it. You can imagine it is going to be pretty amazing for the Olympic Games, first time outside the stadium," Adams said at a news conference.

The preparations for the ceremony have caused extensive disruption to residents of central Paris, who must have a pass with a special QR code to cross the Seine.

"We've had far fewer customers than usual for the last two weeks. There aren't many tourists and lots of Parisians have left town. All our local clientele has gone," said Behi Samadian, 69, in a boutique in Saint-Germain-des-Pres.

Organisers say 8.8 million tickets have already been sold, beating the record from the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and that figure will rise because tickets are still on sale for some of the 45 sports.

- 'I'm going to win' -

American sprinter Noah Lyles, one of the athletes expected to light up the Olympics, blazed to victory in the 100m at the Diamond League meeting in London on Saturday in 9.81 seconds, the fastest he has ever run the distance.

Lyles said he was confident of taking a 100m-200m sprint double in Paris: "I'm going to win, it's what I always do. I'm getting faster every week."

The IOC's top brass, led by President Thomas Bach, met on Saturday to prepare for a larger gathering of all of the movement's members on Tuesday and Wednesday.

There had been fears that the awarding of the 2030 Winter Olympics to the French Alps -- they are the only candidates -- could be delayed by a row over the French government's reluctance to give funding guarantees while the country is in political paralysis following inconclusive snap elections.

IOC spokesman Adams sought to allay those fears, saying: "It will be on the agenda on Wednesday."

He admitted though that the political situation in France "makes it a bit more complicated".

Russia will be the big absentee from the Paris Games, with just 15 Russians and 17 Belarusians accredited to compete as neutrals as most sports have turned their backs on the Russians in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

The IOC said on Saturday it was resigned to the Paris Games being targeted by disinformation attacks following recent incidents blamed on Russia.

Adams said he believed a campaign against the Paris Olympics was already under way.

"Clearly there is a campaign of some sort going on," he said.

"It's not the first or last time that the IOC will be targeted with misinformation. It's getting more and more sophisticated."

Adams was responding to a question concerning a feature-length fake documentary that emerged in 2023 titled "Olympics has Fallen" which used AI-generated audio to impersonate Hollywood star Tom Cruise.

The film, falsely purporting to be a Netflix documentary, was apparently designed to erode global support for the Olympics.