Macron launches 500-day Paris Olympics countdown

French President Emmanuel Macron launched the 500-day countdown to the 2024 Paris Olympics and Paralympics on Tuesday. Macron calls for "national mobilisation" in the face of the financial, security and transport challenges that are piling up ahead of the world's biggest sporting event.

Macron thanked the 45,000 volunteers mobilising to make the Games “a success” and again trumpeted the 5,000 new sports grounds that are in the works.Macron also hopes to ditch tradition by staging the opening ceremony on water in an ambitious plan that will see craft floating on the Seine by the Eiffel Tower watched by millions.The Paris Games’ budget is at 4.7 billion USD, according to an Elysee official.