0:00

Wonder. He plus subscribers can listen to

0:02

Usa Today's the Excerpt ad free Right

0:04

now join Wonder Plus in the Wonder

0:07

Yeah! What if we

0:09

could block a protein to stop

0:11

runaway cell division? Dana Farber laid

0:13

the foundation for Ctk for six

0:15

inhibitors drugs that are increasing the

0:18

survival rate for many advanced breast

0:20

cancers. Learn more at Dana farber.org/everywhere.

0:26

Hello! And welcome to the excerpt.

0:28

I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Sunday,

0:30

March Tenth. Twenty Twenty four. Paris

0:41

plans to make history when it hosts

0:44

the Summer Olympics this July, becoming the

0:46

first ever city's take the opening ceremonies

0:48

out of a stadium instead of bowl

0:50

parade on the sand will carry more

0:52

than ten thousand athletes, but the sims

0:54

been plagued with sewage and pollution for

0:57

decades, and swimming has been banned there.

0:59

For. More than one hundred years. Plus.

1:02

How will they manage the security risk?

1:04

And. What's going on with the menu? The

1:06

stakes are high for the City of

1:08

Light. Will they be able to pull

1:10

it off? Or guess Today is Usa

1:12

Today. Sports reporter Tom Shad. Things are

1:14

being on the excerpt on. Those.

1:17

Rubber. It's an enormous undertaking

1:19

to get the same clean enough.

1:21

For. Not only the opening ceremonies,

1:23

but also for swimming events. Is.

1:26

It possible. And how is the cleanup

1:28

effort going so far? Yeah.

1:30

This is really kind of a focal point

1:32

of the Paris Olympics the somewhere at even

1:34

when they were first proposing polling lump it's

1:36

year and bidding for the games are they

1:39

wanted to send to gotta be the centerpiece

1:41

it's and sarpy sun City they wanted to

1:43

be a surplus. The games. It's

1:45

a very audacious effort I think is that

1:47

the best word for it to clean up

1:49

this this river that as you noted has

1:52

been self the and has had sewage run

1:54

off our current dumped into it for for

1:56

more than a hundred years. Their plan is

1:58

essentially to build. Among other

2:00

things, a giant kind of tank.

2:03

Com. Or of rain water storage tank.

2:05

Now because what happens in Paris is

2:07

the sewage system is so. Dated.

2:10

That. Sometimes when they have a really heavy

2:12

rain storm the water kind of over floods

2:14

the system and then some of the run

2:16

off ends up in the set and so

2:19

they're up there. plan is to build this

2:21

gigantic tank in a tunnel system tells me

2:23

the old about thirteen point two million gallons

2:25

of run off and the idea is that

2:27

yeah they can tamp down on the pollution

2:29

sad now and then. if there's a of

2:31

to storm or something all that rafol flow

2:34

into the tank as opposed into the sand.

2:36

something that didn't work out for several years.

2:38

It's. In part still dependent upon storms

2:40

and they had a a test event for

2:43

I believe was and triathlon last year which

2:45

is going to be the first time that

2:47

they were i have a swim sad and

2:49

there's a big storm just beforehand and the

2:51

water wasn't safe enough and and they had

2:53

to postpone the events of they're definitely still

2:55

some concerns about it but in terms of

2:57

progress in terms of planning something has found

2:59

the forefront out over it as read minds

3:01

for while in the and they definitely do

3:03

have a good plan in place or terrorists

3:05

miss. Also ensure the opening ceremonies are secure.

3:08

Without. A stadium? Will that mean. Fewer

3:10

spectators, What's. That and a look

3:12

like this summer. The. Opening ceremony is

3:14

not as he noted. Gonna be in

3:16

a stadium. It's gonna be athletes on

3:19

barges floating three point seven miles through

3:21

the middle of Paris. There. Are

3:23

lots of security concerns around any sort

3:25

opening ceremony? Me? The actually airspace yeah

3:27

to control. The. Are eager Us people coming

3:29

in and out. This is he.

3:31

an even tougher challenge because you going to have.

3:34

Had. It currently stands three hundred thousand

3:36

spectators. Spread out among Three Point

3:38

Seven Miles is obviously a huge

3:40

area on both sides of the

3:42

river. That. authorities have to can

3:44

be kind enough so they're enlisting i

3:47

think it's thirty or thirty five thousand

3:49

security guards to work that just for

3:51

the opening ceremony is a huge cadence

3:53

undertaking just make shows you're adding eyes

3:56

and ears on on such a large

3:58

piece of land and that's the opening

4:00

ceremony. The other thing is the Paris games are going

4:02

to be very urbanized. It's going to

4:04

be a lot of stuff in the heart of

4:06

Paris, a lot of fans traveling

4:09

on the subway system. I mean, it's

4:11

a huge security undertaking for such a

4:13

densely populated city. So there are just

4:15

lots of layers to keep everybody safe.

4:17

So Paris has seen a share of

4:20

tragedy with regards to terrorist attacks

4:22

with almost 15,000 fans

4:25

competing and over half a million spectators

4:27

at the venues. Security for the

4:29

games is going to be a top

4:31

concern. I'm guessing they can't really say

4:33

what the plan is to keep everyone

4:35

safe. But what do we know about

4:37

that? Yeah, a couple of things that

4:39

we do know. I mean, one is

4:41

just the sheer number of police and

4:43

private security and even French military that's

4:46

going to be on the streets kind

4:48

of facilitating that effort. They want to

4:50

have a lot of boots on the

4:52

ground, again, keeping eyes and ears on

4:54

the venues and just generally ensuring

4:56

that downtown Paris is a safe place to be

4:58

during the games. The other kind

5:00

of interesting thing that they're doing is

5:02

using artificial intelligence, which obviously is very

5:04

buzzy in this day

5:06

and age and it's been somewhat controversial.

5:09

Basically, what they're trying to do is

5:11

use AI to monitor a large

5:13

number of security cameras and then flag

5:15

to human operators when there's some

5:17

suspicious activity going on. So

5:19

there have been some concerns among political

5:22

leaders in France that AI

5:24

is essentially taking screen grabs of

5:26

people on the street, kind of like a 1984

5:29

dystopian situation and French authorities have

5:32

cautioned that that's not what it

5:34

is at all. It's using this

5:36

technology to basically be able to

5:38

keep eyes on a larger number of cameras

5:40

than a human could and then flag suspicious

5:43

activity like a sudden grouping of people or

5:46

an unattended bag being left in a crowded

5:48

space, things like that. So that's one of

5:50

the things you're right, we don't know everything

5:52

that they have planned, but that is one

5:54

kind of novel thing that could be in play here

5:56

this summer. this

6:00

size, Tom? Yeah, I

6:03

mean there's a lot and we see this with

6:05

every Olympic host, you know, I think again

6:07

what makes Paris a little bit more

6:09

unique is that everything is so centrally

6:12

located. I think with a lot of past

6:14

Olympic games you've had large venues

6:16

or large swaths of the games

6:18

kind of further outside the city,

6:21

maybe opening ceremonies in downtown but

6:23

everything else is lower outside. Here

6:25

you have a lot of the competition that's taking place

6:28

in Paris, in central Paris. Obviously one of

6:30

the big things is that puts a huge

6:32

strain on the transportation system, puts

6:34

a huge strain on other, you know, modes

6:37

of travel, traffic,

6:39

hotels, you know,

6:42

it's just it's taking an already extremely dense

6:45

and well-populated city and injecting

6:47

a lot more kind of

6:49

chaos into it. It's

6:51

a lot to wrap your arms around but I

6:53

think that the hope for French authorities and for

6:55

games organizers is that yes there might

6:57

be some challenges but the payoff is that

7:00

you're gonna have this truly urban games

7:02

where the Olympics are kind of woven

7:04

into the fabric of Paris and it's gonna make

7:07

for a truly unique experience that way. Pairing

7:09

for the Olympics and other events in

7:11

the world stage can often catalyze public

7:14

projects and host cities from

7:16

cleanup projects to public transportation.

7:18

What are some of the best

7:20

examples of how residents in previous

7:23

Olympic cities have benefited following One

7:26

thing with regards to the Seine is

7:28

that the French government has talked about basically maintaining

7:30

the cleanliness of the Seine so that people can

7:32

swim in it after the game, something that hasn't

7:34

happened for a hundred years. Perhaps opening

7:36

small pools along the banks of the Seine

7:38

so that you know it would be kind

7:41

of a community gathering place, community pools. One

7:43

example from the most recent summer games in

7:45

Tokyo in 2021 was the athletes

7:47

village then after the games were

7:50

apartments and so now you have residents

7:52

in Tokyo, you know, living in kind of what

7:54

used to be the Olympic Village. With

7:56

all that said the kind of

7:58

long-term effects that of the games and

8:01

the impact is generally exaggerated, at least in

8:03

the eyes of some experts. There's

8:05

often kind of a compelling case made on the

8:07

front end for how it's gonna rejuvenate or revitalize

8:10

the city. And there's a lot of interest

8:12

in it leading up to the games and then the

8:14

games end. And it's kind of like the circus has

8:16

left town and everybody forgets about those things that were

8:18

super important months later. The International Olympic

8:20

Committee and their commission that's focused

8:22

on sustainability, are we close to

8:24

seeing an end to the construction

8:26

of single purpose Olympic venues

8:28

that are abandoned and then fall into

8:31

disrepair? I think we're getting closer, sure.

8:34

There is still some of it. And again,

8:36

the IOC has made this a priority. There have

8:38

been past games, even as recently as the Rio

8:40

Olympics in 2016, where there

8:43

were entire venues that were built and

8:45

then totally abandoned within two or three

8:47

years. That's just a bad look for

8:50

the Olympics, for the IOC. And so

8:52

they've really kind of tried

8:54

to tamp down on instances like that. So

8:56

Paris, for example, uses a lot of

8:58

existing venues, arenas and

9:01

stadiums that have been around for

9:03

decades. Some temporary venues are

9:05

being constructed, but at a low

9:07

cost, where it's just a temporary

9:09

thing that will be taken down. I

9:11

think moving forward, yeah, this is a priority

9:13

for the IOC. And I think they're looking

9:15

more and more at cities that

9:18

are potential hosts, having the infrastructure and

9:20

having a lot of the things in

9:22

place before they award the games

9:24

to that city. And Los Angeles in

9:26

2028 is a great example of this. Los

9:28

Angeles won the 2028 games

9:31

in part because they have football

9:33

stadiums. They have dorm

9:35

buildings that USC and UCLA, they

9:37

can use to house athletes. They

9:40

have infrastructure. They have a

9:42

lot of the things that you already need, and

9:44

it's kind of more of a situation where the

9:46

IOC can roll in and roll out without totally

9:49

disrupting the city. And I think

9:51

that's something long-term if they

9:53

continue to award the games in 2030s and the

9:55

2040s, there's

9:57

gonna be more of an emphasis on that. They want

9:59

cities. have existing venues. Maybe they've 26.

10:19

The Paralympic Games began on August 28th. As

10:22

you've reported, the most fun bit

10:24

of recycling is tied to this year's

10:26

medals for both games. What's

10:29

special about the medals this year? Paris,

10:31

like most Olympic hosts, is really trying to

10:33

lean into its brand and kind of what

10:35

makes it well known globally. And you could

10:38

do that in kind of hokey ways. I

10:40

think this thing with the medals is actually

10:42

pretty cool. What they've done is they've

10:44

put bits of the Eiffel Tower,

10:47

actually iron bits from the Eiffel Tower

10:49

into the medals. So athletes

10:51

that win a medal, obviously it's

10:53

a cherished possession just to have an Olympic

10:56

medal. But now they'll also have a little

10:58

piece of history. And essentially how it worked

11:00

is when they've done renovations

11:02

to the Eiffel Tower, there have

11:04

been little pieces of iron runoff that

11:06

they've saved and maintained. And now they're

11:08

just putting a little chunk right in

11:11

the medal from that runoff. So again, a

11:13

cool example. And I think a lot of

11:15

things that Paris is doing will

11:17

legitimately be cool in addition to showcasing their

11:19

country. Other hosts have done it and spent

11:21

kind of hokey. But I think this is

11:23

one one of many examples

11:26

that is actually pretty cool. It's

11:28

very cool. So most of us

11:30

when we think about Paris, the thought of

11:32

gourmet food isn't far behind.

11:34

There's also unique food vision for the

11:36

Paris Olympics. Tell us about that, Tom.

11:39

The one interesting thing is that they're trying

11:41

to ride more plant-based food than

11:43

they say previous Olympic hosts have.

11:46

The other interesting thing there is

11:48

the organizers are providing things, but also each,

11:50

I shouldn't say each, but a lot of

11:53

Olympic, National Olympic committees also provide food to

11:55

their own athletes. So this was a big

11:57

thing in Tokyo and in Beijing. The The

12:00

USOPC, Team USA, went to

12:02

great lengths to provide food

12:04

separately from organizers for

12:07

their athletes. So that if

12:09

you have an athlete who's used to eating

12:11

spaghetti and meatballs or something before a competition,

12:13

making sure that they have exactly

12:15

what those athletes like. Well, not

12:17

that Paris needs it, but the Olympics are a

12:20

way to showcase your city to the rest of

12:22

the world. Paris is obviously

12:24

full of iconic landmarks that

12:26

would make fantastic backdrops. I

12:29

know you're going to be there. What are

12:31

you most looking forward to seeing at the Paris 2024

12:33

Games? You

12:35

know, a lot of the competition venues right

12:37

downtown, close to downtown, or in a lot

12:39

of cases, at iconic landmarks. So

12:41

if you're going to watch beach volleyball

12:43

or competing beach volleyball, the Eiffel Tower

12:46

is going to be your backdrop. The

12:48

Grand Palais is going to be the

12:50

site of Olympic fencing and Taekwondo, which

12:52

is a gorgeous kind of glass ceiling

12:55

and really iconic structure. And then you

12:57

have Equestrian at Palais of Versailles, which

13:00

obviously is a little bit outside of Paris,

13:02

but again, just a very iconic space. So

13:05

I think that's going to be really cool. And that was

13:07

kind of, again, part of organizers vision

13:09

for the entire event was incorporating the games

13:11

and making it feel urban and tied into

13:13

Paris proper. I think that's going to be

13:15

cool to see that come to fruition and

13:18

to see some of these sporting events being

13:20

contested directly in front of landmarks

13:22

like the Eiffel Tower or the Palais of

13:24

Versailles. I'm looking forward to following your coverage

13:26

when you're there. Thank you, Tom, for joining

13:28

me on The Excerpt. Yeah. Thank you so

13:31

much. Thanks to our senior producers, Shannon Rae

13:33

Green and Bradley Glams Rock. Our executive

13:35

producer is Laura Beatty. Let us know what

13:37

you think of this episode by sending a

13:39

note to podcasts at usatoday.com. Thanks

13:42

for listening. I'm Dana Taylor. Taylor will be

13:44

back tomorrow morning with another episode of The

13:46

Excerpt. If

13:55

you like USA Today's Be Excerpt, you

13:58

can listen ad-free right now. by

14:00

joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Prime

14:03

members can listen ad-free on Amazon

14:05

Music. Before you go, tell

14:07

us about yourself by filling out a

14:09

short survey at wondery.com.