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Paper short abstract:

We aim to lean on the relation between Olympics and surveillance from the Paris 2024 edition’s standpoint. Through retracing the history of surveillance and prevention technologies in France and their swarming (essaimage) in the territory, we analyze their contingency to this event's edition.

Paper long abstract:

Since the attacks of 9/11, in every edition of the Olympic Games, different surveillance technologies have been employed in the name of a "security imperative". In Athens 2004, the C4I (Command, Control, Coordination, Communication, and Integration) surveillance system had generated scandals and polemics, fueled by the memories of the Greek dictatorship. Subsequent editions continued to employ such technologies both to securitize the hosting of the games and to leave host countries a legacy in this regard.

With the imminence of the Paris 2024 Olympics, collectives and associations denounce the "security frenzy" that is emerging: facial recognition cameras, drones, behavioral analysis. These watchwords contrast with the fact that France has always been a pioneer in these technologies, in many cases before China or the United States. Part of my research has thus been dedicated to understanding the distinction between what belongs and what does not belong to the Olympics and whether this distinction has any ontological value.

The present paper seeks in this sense to retrace the emergence of these technologies and to investigate their correlations with the hosting of the Olympics. From their gaining strength with the different attacks that struck France in the 2010s, my objective is to understand how the very preparation for this mega sporting event is accompanied by a discourse of territorial valorization, innovation and competitiveness entailed by the "neoliberalization of the city".