The stadiums have been built and 8m tickets sold. Can the notoriously pessimistic French public’s enthusiasm for the Games catch up?
In a live television interview under the steel and glass roof of Paris’s Grand Palais – the centrepiece of this summer’s Olympic Games – Emmanuel Macron set out his ambitions for the country’s athletes in much the same way he might outline a political manifesto.
They had one goal: to take enough medals to be among the Games’ top five Olympic and top eight Paralympic nations. He was putting pressure on them, he said last week – previously described as “healthy pressure” – but the goal was “absolutely attainable”.
