5 controversies at Paris Olympic 2024: From Hijab Ban to French rail ‘sabotage’ in the ongoing Summer Games

The much-awaited Paris Olympics 2024 began with huge fanfare and pompous celebrations on Friday. Over 6,000 athletes from around 205 countries sailed down the Seine River on boats despite heavy rainfall during the ceremony. Despite an extravagant opening of the 33rd Olympic Games, the world remained undistracted from many controversies that marred the Olympics preparation in France, including the Hijab ban, train attack, air conditioning battle, etc.

As the whole world will witness athletes from across the world competing in the prestigious, take a look at the top controversies surrounding the Olympics.

Paris Olympic 2024: French rail attack

Before the inauguration of Paris Olympic 2024, the French high-speed rail network was hit by a series of “malicious acts” aimed at paralysing the country's rail network. Due to the sabotage attempt, French rail officials had warned of travel chaos for hundreds of thousands of people on Friday.

The miscreants strategically chose the north, southwest, and east of the capital, where the Olympic opening ceremony was staged on Friday night. However, the rail workers thwarted most of the attempts.

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal posted on X, “Our intelligence services and law enforcement are mobilised to find and punish the perpetrators of these criminal acts.”

Paris Olympics 2024: Hijab Ban

France's stringent secularism laws, once again, brought it at the centre of a controversy. The country's laws deny its nationals to wear hijab. However, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) allows its nationals to wear religious attire, including hijab. The controversy erupted when France's 400-meter women's and mixed relay teams athlete Sounkamba Sylla claimed that she was not allowed to participate in the Olympics opening ceremony because she wore a hijab.

“You are selected for the Olympics, organized in your country, but you can’t participate in the opening ceremony because you wear a headscarf,” Sounkamba Sylla wrote in her social media post.

Paris Olympics 2024: Ban on Israeli athletes

Amid the ongoing Israel war in Gaza, there has been a growing demand to ban Israel's contingent from participating in the Olympics by pro-Palestine protesters. Despite constant protests, Israeli athletes arrived in France amid tight security.

Pollution in River Seine

Another major controversy likely to affect the ongoing Olympics is the polluted River Seine, which the host country chose for the opening ceremony celebrations. The river was banned from swimming for more than a century due to hazardous levels of pollution. However, the French government has claimed that the pollution in the river has been controlled, and now it is safe to swim in. The river will also host the triathlon swimming events on July 30 and 31 and the marathon on August 8 and 9.

The France government has pumped around $1.5 billion in cleaning the river water, despite this experts have raised concern about the cleanliness of water for swimming.

Paris Olympics 2024: ‘Social cleansing’ of migrants

Authorities came under fire as several migrants and homeless people were sent from Paris' centre to the city outskirts or other areas ahead of the Olympics 2024, reported AP. Activist groups and migrants have criticised the action and termed it as the practice of a form of “social cleansing”.

The migrants are being chased off the streets for sending them out of the capital city, the practice however has become more pronounced since the Olympics, Nathan Lequeux, an organizer for the activist group Utopia told AP.