Is Paris ready for the 2024 Olympics - and which Kiwi athletes are hoping for gold?

Olympic glory. We'll talk about those athletes later with Newstalk zedb's Jason Pine, but first on the Front Page, we're joined from Paris by New York Times International correspondent Katherine Porter to discuss how the city is preparing for the event in the midst of an election, security concerns, and a costly river cleanup. Catherine, can you tell me what the vibe is like in Paris at the moment, excited about the Olympics coming.

the town. The rings just were affixed to the Eiffel Tower. But you know, the president is called a snap election and that has kind of distracted everyone that they're talking more about politics at this moment than they are about the Olympics.

it might change in terms of the atmosphere. You know, there's lots of talk about what Jordan Berdella, who's from the far right party here if he is in fact named prime minister, and he's very I mean his main platform is anti immigration. He's very suspicious and is very much anti Islam in France, and so what that will look like to host an international event that is all about peace building and bringing people together when you have a new government that is run by a far right

prime minister. That that's a question that many people are asking.

is being used by the Toronto basketball team now. One is squarely in the suburbs, the northern suburbs of Paris that are known for much higher rates of poverty, high rates of immigration. You know, almost all of the riots that have started around policing of minorities have started in

that area, and that's where the money's gone. Now. There was this idea that the Olympics would help bring more justice, equitable justice, and more access to swimming pools, more access to the subways even and a new subway station just opened this week. The other thing that the city and the country spent some money on was cleaning the sin and the idea was that it would be for the Olympics. There will be two events, both a long ten kilometers swim and part of the triathlon in the Sen River,

which runs right through the heart of the city. But the idea was it would be clean enough that the following summer there would be swimming areas for Parisians to enjoy, and that idea of a legacy of the games. And I think people you know are still wondering whether it will happen, but generally have bought into that that these games, you know, will benefit the country. And there is not the kind of griping you here in Paris about overspending that we heard in many previous Olympics.

so it could be treated. That's a pretty expensive and big thing to do. It's a large infrastructure project and they have so far, you know, completed it. The question people have is will the weather cooperate?

of a stadium. It is going to be held in the open on the seen and will float athletes down boats and a raid of seven kilometers down the Seine through the middle literally the heart of the city, passed things like you know, the Notre Dame and the Louver and all these famous ancient buildings that people know all that around the world. And to secure seven kilometers of the scent on each side, so you're talking about securing fourteen kilometers when you're going to have hundreds of thousands

of spectators. That has been the big question and the big concern for many because you know, Paris is a city that also has known terrorist attacks and big ones dating back to twenty fifteen, and much smaller ones that are more one offs and low wolves. Since I followed the plans to secure that opening ceremony and they're really, really robust. In fact, they likely would be a police officer every square meter, so more police that you'll ever

see there than anywhere else in the city. They will be special ups up on the top of every building. There will be drone police. They're going to clear the river a week beforehand. Within the Olympic perimeter. I live just a few blocks from the SEIN and right across from a square that will be where athletes will come and show their metals. It's kind of like a fan zone, they're calling. And so this whole area on both sides

of the SEIN will be in a red zone. And if you want to come in the day and leading up to the Olympics, you will need a QR code that shows that you have been checked, and you've had to fill out quite a number of forms, which we've just done to prove that we live here and be able to pass through. It's a huge security plan that has been talked about a lot, and I think once that's through and if it's fine and it goes well,

people will heave a sigh of success. We've already seen an increase of army members on a patrol with their giant machine guns walking through the square. That's been the case for a number of months. Paris has been back and high alert of terrorism since the attacks in Russia.

So I think for many Parisians too, since twenty fifteen, they've grown quite used to the threat of terror and used to the site of police officers or army members with guns around them, and it will feel a bit more like a police state, I believe, in the days before the games, and we'll see what happens that day of the opening ceremony. Most analysts experts think it will be absolutely fine because of the number of officers and specialty forces that will be there and army. But then afterwards,

the Olympics is set throughout the city. If you want to go and see beach volleyballs under basically in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. If you're going to be into breakdancing, that's in the square where you know, right by the Tuiliri Gardens where Marie Antoinette and Louis the sixteenth had their head chopped off during the revolution. But right in the middle of the city. These things will

be right throughout the city. We'll see, I mean. It will also be very interesting because if the government changes, we'll have a new Minister of Interior. The Minister of Interior has been the one who's been talking about the Games, talking about the security plan, the face of it. If we have a new security head of security, you know, we'll see how that changes things. But this plan has been in place for more than a year.

a really good chance for gold in Paris. The men similarly won silver four years ago or three as it turned out, and will be gunning for one better in Paris. Then you look at our greatest ever Olympian in terms of medals, collector, Dame Lisa Carrington already has six, including three golds in Tokyo. She'll be there again, but up against another key who's beaten her a couple of times recently in the K one five hundred. That's Amy Fisher.

So we could be looking at a gold silver Quinella here in the K one five hundred, in the canoeing. And then you look across the sports where I guess we've been dominant historically, and they tend to be ones that involve a bit of water. We are surrounded by it, of course, so the rowers I mentioned, our canoers, the sailors will obviously have something to say. Then into the pool as well, Lewis Clairbird and Erica Fairwa. They lead our charge in the swimming pool, and I really like

the look of triathlete Hayden Wilde. He won a bronze in Tokyo and has been named actually to compete in Paris. He's been at the top of his triathlon game for a while now. So there's a few to look out for others as well, and we always get surprises, that's the great thing about Olympic Games.

the Olympic movement. You have to move with the times. And while you know some of these sports might not seem like traditional Olympic sports, they're certainly not you know, breakdancing as they say in sport, climbing, a couple of new sailing classes quite foiling. You know, there are a lot of new and interesting and contemporary sports these days at the Olympics. Look, I'm all for it. I must say.

If there are more eyes on the Olympics, and if there are more pathways to representation of your country at Olympic Games, then I'm absolutely all for it. I think what tends to happen during Olympic Games as we become experts on sports that ordinarily we have no idea about. It only takes a couple of three hours of watching one of these sports and already you become an expert as to what the competitors should be doing. So you're looking forward to seeing some of the newer sports as well.

are capable of winning a medal. But alongside that they have an emerging talent clause and this is for sailors who they believe are good prospects of winning medals at future Olympic Games. So they say, well, let's get them to this Olympics, give them some experience and hope that they win a medal for US at the next Olympics. And under this criteria, sailors need to show that they are a top sixteen prospect and Lucas Walton Kean was one of these. He was seeking selection under the emerging

talent clause. He was twelfth in the European Championships last year. It was initially denied by Yachting New Zealand despite those results, but the tribunal upheld the appeal and they ordered yacht in New Zealand to revisit the selection process because they said, you've overlooked a couple of facts here, You've made a couple of errors in your determination and so it's been overturned. So Lucas Walton kem will now go to the Olympic Games.

And that's great for him, fantastic news. But it's not the greatest build up, is it, you know, to we go to an Olympic Games. You have to really to the nth degree have your preparation all mapped out for you, and the fact that he didn't actually even know that he was absolutely going until a short time ago can't have helped him too much. So sometimes I think the criteria is a little bit inconsistent, not just across sports but also within sports, and I think that's what's happened here.

not involved in sprinting at all anymore. Thankfully, Zoey Hobbs wasn't put off by her non selection last time. She went to the Commonwealth Games of course in Birmingham and performed very very well there in reaching the final and now has made enough progress for her to earn selection for her first Olympic Games. So again it's the great

balancing act. Do you send athletes because they have ticked every box and they are a genuine medal chance, or do you also just widen that criteria and say, look, on a given day, that athlete or that team or whoever it might be could do something pretty special. Because let's not forget not all of our great Olympic moments. You know, people ending up on the top of the podium, a lot of them are, but there are a lot of other great Olympic moments as well well.

athletes going off and being there on a junket. I'm not saying that any of them would, but part of me thinks, if you can make someone an Olympian, a genuine Olympian, and it's not circumventing any process, and they've shown enough talent and enough commitment to the core, why wouldn't you make somebody an Olympian. It's a huge moment in anybody's life to represent their country at all, let

alone at an Olympic Games. So if you can give someone that opportunity and reward them for what is often years and years and years of grind of blood, sweat and tears of commitment and sole focus on a particular discipline. Then I don't know why you wouldn't do that?

I mentioned some of the possibilities before, and some of them you feel almost certain that the sevens teams, for example, will win a medal of some color. You think Dame Lisa Carrington is surely going to be there or thereabouts, and then you look across the others and you say, on any given day, a number of these athletes could find themselves on the podium. Tom Walsh in the shop, but he's already been an Olympic medallist Hamish Kerr in the high jump is one of the best going around

the world at the moment. Our cyclists Elise Andrews got a silver in Tokyo. Aaron Gate got four gold medals at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, so he's got to be a chance. So yeah, if I had to make a prediction, I'd always try and be optimistic. I think twelve medals and if three or four of those could be gold, I think that'd be a really cool return.