From hijab ban to workers’ rights: Five concerns facing Paris Olympics 2024

France has been grappling with concerns and controversies in the lead up to the Olympics 2024, which are set to get under way in Paris on July 26.

Al Jazeera looks at the five biggest talking points surrounding the hosting of the Games:

Hijab ban for French athletes

The host nation has barred its athletes from wearing the hijab – a headscarf worn by some Muslim women – while participating in the Games.

In September, then-French Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera announced that the country’s athletes would not be allowed to wear hijabs during the Olympics to respect principles of secularism and to ensure “absolute neutrality in public services”.

The move was met with widespread criticism and protests as despite being home to one of Europe’s largest Muslim minorities, France is the only country on the continent that excludes hijab-wearing athletes in most domestic sports competitions.

However, the International Olympic Committee confirmed that athletes will be free to wear the hijab at the athletes’ village.

“For the Olympic Village, the IOC rules apply,” an IOC spokesperson said soon after the ban was imposed by the French government. “There are no restrictions on wearing the hijab or any other religious or cultural attire.”

Calls to ban Israel

Palestinians facing the wrath of Israel’s war on Gaza and pro-Palestine protesters have called on the IOC to ban Israel from the Olympics.

More than 38,000 Palestinians, including at least 15,000 children, have been killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza since the October 7 Hamas attacks in eastern Israel.

Those asking for the ban say Israel, which has been accused of genocide by South Africa in its case at the International Court of Justice, must face the consequences of its actions.

However, despite the 10-month-long war, Israel faces no threat to its Olympic status before the Games.

IOC President Thomas Bach, when asked in March about Israeli teams and athletes not taking part in Paris, said: “No, there is no question about this.”

Pro-Palestine activists have continued to urge the IOC to ban Israel in the days leading up to the Games via online petitions and worldwide protests, including outside France’s Olympics 2024 headquarters in Paris.

Workers’ rights overshadow preparations

Rights, wages and working conditions of labour workers always come under scrutiny when nations prepare to host big events – and in Paris, many of the city’s grand projects for the Games have come with costs to labourers.

France ranks as the fourth deadliest country in Europe for workers and has more reported workplace accidents than any other member of the European Union, with 560,000 incidents in 2022, according to a report by France’s national health insurance system.

There have been at least 181 workplace accidents, including 31 serious accidents, on construction projects related to the Olympics, according to Nicolas Ferrand, director of SOLIDEO – a publicly funded firm established to build the permanent facilities that will remain after the event.

Workers and their unions have called for better conditions and wages.

A dispute between aviation workers and management at various airports across Paris has threatened to disrupt the Olympics as unions announced a one-day stoppage on July 17 to press for bigger Olympics bonuses and staff recruitment.

If it continues, the standoff with management could affect the Games, with athletes set to start arriving en masse on July 18 and hundreds of thousands of ticket holders flying in the run-up to the July 26 opening ceremony.

River Seine’s water quality

The River Seine in the heart of the capital has failed several water quality tests, but Paris City Hall has cleared it for swimming less than two weeks before the Games.

The quality of the water met the required standard for “11 days or 10 days” of the past 12, city hall official Pierre Rabadan said on Friday.

However, previous tests showed levels of the E coli bacteria – an indicator of faecal matter – were far above the upper limits imposed by sport federations.

On June 18, the level of E coli was 10 times acceptable levels and at no point did it fall below the upper limit of 1,000 colony-forming units per 100 millilitres (cfu/ml) used by the World Triathlon Federation.

Weather permitting, the river will be the star of the opening ceremony and will then host the triathlon and the swimming marathon.

French Sport Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera swam in the Seine on Saturday, in a bid to prove that the river will be clean enough for competitors.

French authorities have spent 1.4 billion euros ($1.5bn) in the last decade trying to clean up the river by improving the Paris sewerage system, as well as building new water treatment and storage facilities.

Constantly asked about contingency plans if the Seine remains too dirty and turbulent once the Games begin, Paris 2024 organisers publicly insist there are no alternatives to their plans.

For the open-water swimming, organisers have flexibility in the schedule, enabling them to delay the competition for several days in the event of a downpour that would lead to a spike in pollution.

In the worst-case scenario, it would be cancelled.

The triathlon can also be moved in the schedule and could become a duathlon – just running and cycling – without the swimming.

Russian and Belarusian athletes’ participation

Athletes from Russia and Belarus were banned from world sport following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, but the IOC orchestrated their gradual return under a neutral banner, subject to strict conditions.

To be invited to the Games, “neutral individual athletes” who achieved good enough results qualify had to pass a double check; first by the international sport federations and then by the IOC, to ensure they did not actively support the war in Ukraine or have any links with their countries’ armies.

The IOC said in March it expected 36 Russians and 22 Belarusians to take part in Paris “according to the most likely scenario”, compared with 330 Russians and 104 Belarusians at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.

However, only 16 Russians and 17 Belarusians have accepted invitations to compete under a neutral banner, according to the latest count on Tuesday.

The updated list, which covers 10 disciplines ranging from cycling to swimming and tennis, could change if competitors withdraw, IOC officials told the AFP news agency.

So far, the IOC has counted 19 refusals on the Russian side – including athletes who have changed their minds – and seven by Belarusians, including the world’s third- and 16th-ranked women’s tennis players, Aryna Sabalenka and Victoria Azarenka.

Russian gymnasts had announced in advance they would not be attending. Track and field competitors are all banned by World Athletics.

The IOC has also barred the two countries from any team events. Athletes will not be allowed to wear national colours but will compete under a green flag embossed with the letters “AIN”. The IOC has chosen a wordless anthem to be played if any win gold.

They will not be able to parade on the River Seine during the opening ceremony, and will not appear in the medals table.

We know how often tyrannies try to use sports for their ideological interests. It is obvious that any neutral flag of Russian athletes is stained with blood. I invite Mr. Bach to Bakhmut. So that he could see with his own eyes that neutrality does not exist. pic.twitter.com/icSdvgpD87

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) January 27, 2023