Paris 2024 Olympics 'almost better than home Games' - BOA chief executive

British Olympic Association (BOA) chief executive Andy Anson says Great Britain athletes are doing "incredibly well" as they attempt to qualify for what he believes will be "a truly memorable" Paris 2024.

Friday marks six months to go until the opening ceremony, and Anson says he is "very excited" about British prospects in the first Games to be held in Europe since London 2012.

"It's on our doorstep - for us at the BOA, it's almost better than a home Games," he told BBC Sport.

"Currently we've qualified 135 places. We're hoping our team size will be between 350 and 360."

Anson says security is "without doubt the thing we take the most seriously" and that "everyone's got to be aware of the risks" in the French capital.

"There's a real threat level," he warned, adding that the opening ceremony - to be staged outside of a stadium for the first time, along the River Seine - will "come with significant security risks".

He added: "We're very sure that all the right things are happening to protect Team GB."

Another top-five finish?

Last weekend, Great Britain's women's and men's hockey teams both earned wins that secured their places in Paris.

Describing the double qualification as "really important", especially after England's Lionesses failed to secure a place for British women's football last month, Anson said he was confident Team GB could achieve a fifth successive top-five finish in the medal table.

"We think [that] is a realistic, ongoing sustainable target, but what drives us is making sure all the athletes there have the best environment to prepare and train, and go into competition with the best chance of succeeding," he said.

Team GB's 376 competitors finished in fourth place at the last Olympics in Tokyo, with 65 medals, 22 of which were golds, their second-best overseas Games.

Anson said while hosts France would pose more of a threat than at Tokyo 2020, Russia's contingent would be drastically reduced to "a hundred or less" athletes in Paris after the IOC decided that competitors from the country who qualify in individual sports would have to compete as neutrals because of the country's invasion of Ukraine. Russian teams will remain banned.

Speaking at a 'Path to Paris' event at the Graystone Skatepark in Salford, Anson said he believed the urban sports in Paris would have "a massive impact" with younger viewers, especially now venues will have spectators after they were banned because of Covid in Tokyo.

"We've got some amazing skateboarding and BMX athletes," said Anson. "The break-dancers are trying to qualify.

"I look at the results we had on the track in the cycling European championships [where Britain topped the medal table], our BMX riders have been nailing it all around the world.

"You think about how well we did in the World Athletics Championships, and just the thought of all these different athletes in all these different sports hopefully being successful just makes it the most exciting possible year ahead."

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'Significant security risks'

France has been on high alert since raising its security threshold in October, when a teacher was killed in a knife attack in a school in Arras. Last month, a German man died and two others were injured in a knife and hammer attack on a street in central Paris.

European security officials have warned of a growing risk of attacks by Islamist militants amid the Israel-Gaza war.

"Security is absolutely paramount," said Anson.

"The French are very aware of the threat level in their own country. [It] is at a quite elevated level because of the attacks they've had over several years, and with the situation of the conflicts around the world.

"So everyone's got to be aware of the risks and do everything they can to mitigate them and so if you take something like the opening ceremony - it's going to be incredible seeing all the athletes going down the river on barges, but it also comes with significant security risks, which the French and other national governments are very aware of.

"Therefore we need to manage that risk accordingly and make it as safe as it possibly can be - and that's what we're all focusing on, and it's something we're taking incredibly importantly."

Last month, French President Emmanuel Macron said the authorities were prepared to move the opening ceremony to another location if necessary.

However, the International Olympic Committee has said it is confident that the event - where 35,000 security staff are expected to be deployed each day - will be safe.