OLYMPIC GAMES: Macron deploys 4 000 troops amid fears of a state-backed attack as strained diplomatic relations between France and Russia over the war in Ukraine simmers

By Sports Reporter

President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that he fears the Islamic State jihadists have plans to attack Paris. His government has deployed an extra 4000 troops to secure the forthcoming Paris 2024 Olympic Games scheduled for July 26- August 11.

President Macron said that the Islamic State entity believed to be behind the Moscow attack – known as Khorasan, which is a branch in Afghanistan and Pakistan – had also sought to attack France. “This particular group made several attempts (at attacks) on our own soil,” Macron told reporters during his trip to French Guiana. French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal echoed this sentiment by saying that “the Islamist terrorist threat is real, it is strong” and “it has never weakened”.

He said that 4,000 extra soldiers would be deployed nationwide in the days to come. “Our fight against terrorism is not just about words. It is very concrete and our hand will never tremble in the face of terrorism, never in the face of Islamism,” Attal insisted.

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said that the Paris Olympics, which begin on 26 July, were an obvious future target. “France, because we defend universal values, and are for secularism… is particularly threatened, notably during extraordinary events such as the Olympics,” he said.

French security forces are screening up to a million people before the Games, including athletes and people living close to key infrastructure, according to the interior ministry.

France was last placed on its highest terror alert in October after a suspected Islamist burst into a school in the north of the country and stabbed a teacher to death. The alert was then downgraded in January.

The head of France’s national cybersecurity agency said the Paris Olympics would be a “target” this year including for foreign states interested in “disrupting the opening ceremony or causing problems on public transport”.

The warning from Vincent Strubel, director general of the French Cybersecurity Agency (ANSSI), comes amid strained diplomatic relations between France and Russia over the war in Ukraine.

Comments from French President Emmanuel Macron last month suggesting Western troops could be sent to Ukraine has unleashed fury in Moscow, which the French authorities have been blamed for past disinformation and hacking campaigns. “Clearly the Olympic Games are going to be a target,” Strubel told AFP in an interview Tuesday. “We are getting ready for all types of attacks—everything we see on a daily basis but in bigger, more numerous and more frequent,” he added.

These included “attacks from states that want to disrupt the Games because they are not happy for one reason or another, and who might try to disrupt the opening ceremony or cause problems on public transport”, he said on the sidelines of a cybersecurity event in Lille, northern France.

Russia has also accused the International Olympic Committee of “racism and neo-Nazism” after Russian athletes were barred from the opening ceremony of the Paris Games which will begin on July 26.

Russian athletes have been largely excluded from the sport, with only a handful of competitors expected to qualify as “neutrals”. Strubel said state-backed cyber attacks were one of the three main dangers, the others being cyber-criminals trying to extort money during the Olympics as well as “hacktivist” hackers looking to cause trouble for fun or publicity.

“For me, the worst-case scenario is that we find ourselves flooded with small-scale attacks and that we don’t anticipate a more serious attack targeting critical transport or energy infrastructure playing a vital role during the Games,” he told AFP.

Attacks could include those designed to ‘disrupt the opening ceremony or cause problems on public transport’ said Strubel. Created in 2009, ANSSI is France’s main state cybersecurity agency, tasked with preventing, detecting and responding to attacks.

Japanese telecom company NTT, which provided IT security for the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics held in 2021, reported 450 million individual cyber attacks during the last edition of the Games, twice as many as during the 2012 London Olympics. Many of those were so-called DDoS attacks, which paralyze the servers hosting a website, as well as attempted hackings, email spoofs, phishing attacks or fake websites.

Russian military intelligence services were blamed by the US for releasing the so-called “Olympic Destroyer” malware shortly before the opening ceremony of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in South Korea, from which Russian athletes were banned.

The malware deleted data from thousands of computers supporting the Pyeongchang Games, rendering them inoperable. Other experts have suggested that the electronic ticketing system for the Paris Games, or IT networks for sports venues or the results system could be targets.

A serious financial crisis has engulfed France’s leading IT services and cyber-security company Atos just as it prepares to play a crucial role during the Games.

The debt-ridden group, whose shares have lost around 90 percent of their value since last July, has been the main technology partner for the International Olympic Committee since 2002 and is a critical cybersecurity provider for the Paris Games.

DOING IT FOR WOMEN WORLDWIDE

BARKLEY MARATHONS: Jasmin Paris, 40, slumped to the ground at the finish line after running for 59hrs 58mins and 21 seconds to become first woman in history to complete the 160km race

By Sports Reporter

The first female runner to complete one of the world’s toughest races has said she did it for “women worldwide”. Jasmin Paris is one of only 20 people to have finished the Barkley Marathons in Tennessee, USA, since it was extended to 100 miles (160.9344 kilometres) in 1989.

She crossed the finish line on Friday with 99 seconds to spare before the 60-hour cut-off. Jasmin, from Midlothian, Scotland, said she wanted to test the limits of what she was capable of and inspire others. The annual race at Frozen Head State Park involves five loops of roughly 20 miles (32km), with 60,000 ft (18,000m) of ascents and descents – twice the height of Mount Everest from sea level.

The 40-year-old told BBC News how she realised she had just minutes to spare to make the allotted 60-hour completion time as she neared the finish line.

“I only had like a few minutes to get up that hill. So I ended up sprinting at the end of the end of 60 hours of burning through the forest, which felt really hard,” she said.

Her arms and legs are covered in scratches from the brambles she had to push through on the route, very little of which is on a path. “Brambles would get you and it was like having somebody cut you and that would happen loop after loop and it was like doing it back over the same scars,” she said.

Jasmin slumped to the ground as she crossed the finish line, and said she felt “overwhelming relief” that it was finally over. But she said completing such a challenge was “mind-opening” and inspires you with confidence for your whole life.

“I did it for me and I’m super happy that I achieved what I set out to do after the three years of trying”, Jasmin explained.

“But I’m glad that I kind of did it for women worldwide as well – not just runners – but any woman that wants to take on a challenge and maybe doesn’t have the confidence.

Is this the toughest race in the world?

“The idea that I might have inspired them to believe in themselves… that’s huge, especially all the young girls – you know how hard it is to keep young girls in sports.”

The Barkley course was the brainchild of Gary “Lazarus Lake” Cantrell and Karl Henn, after they heard about a famous escape nearby Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary. James Earl Ray, the assassin of Martin Luther King Jr, eluded capture for more than 50 hours, but only travelled about 12 miles (19 km). Mr Cantrell is said to have commented he could have run 100 miles in the time.

Jasmin, who was born in Hadfield in Derbyshire, said the isolation of the race was one of the biggest challenges.

“You’re totally on your own out there and most races will have checkpoints where they have, you know, some volunteers or checkpoint staff to feed you and give you a bit of a cheer and send you on your way. But this is not like that at all.”

With her history-making race completed, Jasmin already has her sights set on her next challenge, the Scottish Islands Peaks Race on 17 May, followed by the Tor des Géants in Italy in September.

Now enjoying some much-deserved rest, she said: “I’m really looking forward to getting back to see the kids tomorrow and pick them up from school and nursery and give them a really big hug.”