Ambassador of France to Cuba, His Excellency Mr. Laurent Burin des Roziers

Havana, Jul 2 (ACN) The French ambassador to Cuba, His Excellency Laurent Burin des Roziers, shared today with Cuban journalists details about the preparations being made in Paris for the Olympic Games, scheduled to begin on July 26.

The meeting took place at the "José Martí" International Institute of Journalism in the framework of the seminar on press preparation, which is traditionally given by the Circle of Sports Journalists of Cuba prior to the multi-sport events.

Burin des Roziers declared that his country needed an unprecedented special preparation in different sectors to be able to host this event, which is considered of an unprecedented magnitude due to the number of athletes and journalists that will be present.

"To cope with this event, the French state has mobilized strongly in advance both to increase the supply of transport and to regulate demand through information and communication campaigns," said the official.

"There are some 40 Olympic and 20 Paralympic venues to which we had to guarantee transport service for a period of 29 days. That is to say, to move some 500,000 more people on public transport around Paris," he added.

According to the main official representative of the French government in the largest Caribbean island, in terms of security, 35,000 law enforcement officers will be mobilized during the games and about 45,000 only in the opening ceremony.  

He assured that his government will make the greatest effort in this exceptional opportunity to offer to the world, and first of all to the athletes and tourists, the best possible image. 

"These will be the most decentralized Olympic Games in history and will be watched live by more than 1.5 million spectators, which is why the state has distributed 450,000 free tickets for young schoolchildren, public officials and volunteers," he said.

He also said they will be the greenest by halving the carbon footprint by being governed by the Paris climate agreements.

"We intend to change the way we look at disability and the lives of people with disabilities. The country spent several million euros to ensure universal accessibility services to public transport, stores and stadiums," he stressed.

The ambassador assured that these games will leave a unique material and immaterial legacy, because it will place sport at the heart of French people's lives and will encourage a new generation of sportsmen and women.

Finally, he praised the importance of communicators in this great mobilization effort and was delighted to meet with the Cubans on the International Day of Sports Journalists.