The talk before the opening ceremony of the Paris Games ideally should be about its grandiose backdrop: a summer sun setting on the Seine River as athletes drift by in boats and wave to cheering crowds. But behind the romantic veneer that Paris has long curated, mounting security concerns already have had an impact on the unprecedented open-air event.
In January, the number of spectators allowed to attend the ceremony was slashed from around 600,000 to around 320,000.
