THE global computer glitch that hit airlines, banks and major companies on Friday could not have come at a worse time for the organisation of a Games: the days when athletes are arriving in the Olympic Village ahead of next week's opening ceremony.
The outage, which followed a crash caused by an update to Microsoft's anti-virus software, came at a time when the Olympic Games are struggling to cope with a crucial moment such as the arrival of athletes in Paris, an event of this scale that involves a registration and accreditation process that necessarily relies on computerised records.
"All our servers were affected this morning," Tony Estanguet, Head of the organisation, told the media in Paris on Friday. He explained that the outage prevented the delivery of accreditations not only to athletes but also to officials arriving in the city.
Thousands of flights are arriving in Paris these days for accreditation, as well as issuing badges and uniforms to 45,000 volunteers. Operations were back to normal by 17:00 (15:00 GMT), but extra hours had to be worked late into the evening to deal with the backlog of accreditations.
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On the plus side, the IT problems did not affect ADP, the Paris airport operator, but the interconnected nature of thousands of global flights that had to land in the heart of Europe meant that the arrival of some delegations was affected by flight delays.
We are one week away from the Opening Ceremony, which is already ambitious in itself with the unprecedented fact that, for the first time in the history of the Games, the gala will be held outside the Olympic Village, in venues such as the iconic, River Seine.
The venues are ready, the weather has improved and the rain has improved the quality of the water in the Paris River to allow the planned swimming events to take place.
-Insidethegames.biz
