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28-07-2024
PARIS: The 2024 Olympics opened in Paris in spectacular style with thousands of athletes sailing along the River Seine past lively performers on bridges, banks and rooftops in an ambitious take on an opening ceremony.
Swapping a stadium for a waterway for the first time to open the “greatest show on Earth”, the near four-hour spectacle culminated in French judo great Teddy Riner and sprinter Marie-Jose Perec lighting a cauldron shaped like a hot air balloon that rose high into the Parisian sky.
Blue, white and red fireworks had raised the Tricolore above Austerlitz Bridge before 6,800 athletes from 205 delegations travelled on 85 boats and barges past some of the French capital’s most famous landmarks.
There were surprise performances through the ceremony, including a cabaret number from US singer-songwriter Lady Gaga, as well as an emotional return of Canadian icon Celine Dion.
The day had started with major disruption when the French train network was hit by arson attacks and heavy rain in the evening put paid to the original plan by artistic director Thomas Jolly to use the Parisian sun to “make the water sparkle”.
The lashing rain may have forced athletes to add rain ponchos and umbrellas to their planned outfits but it did not detract from the lively journey through French history, art and sport told by some 2,000 musicians, dancers and other artists.
The last two boats to parade first the US as the next hosts for Los Angeles 2028 and then France had the largest numbers of athletes on board, while other barges carried several delegations together.
Rower Helen Glover and diver Tom Daley were Great Britain’s flagbearers in Paris, which is hosting the summer Games for a third time and the first time in 100 years.
In opening the 33rd summer Olympics, which are taking part against a difficult international and domestic political backdrop, International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach told athletes they were now “part of an event that unites the world in peace”.
More than 10,500 athletes will compete across 32 sports at the Games, which will close on 11 August.
When organizers first revealed plans to hold the opening ceremony along the river in the heart of the city, rather than in a stadium as is usual, there were some raised eyebrows and questions over how they would manage such a huge security operation.
The Seine itself had been under scrutiny for water cleanliness, while simply the logistics of transporting thousands of athletes along a six-kilometre stretch of river without a dress rehearsal seemed ambitious but on Friday evening, backed by a security operation involving tens of thousands of police, Paris pulled off its plan in dazzling fashion. At times it was bizarre, one moment Lady Gaga surrounded by pink and black feathers was singing in French, the next Bangladesh’s athletes were being introduced on their boat.
A lot of the time it was brilliantly frenetic and occasionally emotional.
Given the miserable weather after what had been a sunny week in Paris until now, it seemed fitting that the storyline at the start of the ceremony was about the arrival of the Olympic flame in Paris not going according to plan.
The torchbearer did not get the memo about it not being in the Stade de France, and then Zinedine Zidane’s metro train broke down while he was transporting the torch.
There followed ballet, cancan, opera, famous artwork coming to life and even Minions – and every so often a masked torchbearer was shown running across rooftops and even zip-lining, while the flotilla made its way from Austerlitz Bridge to Pont d’Iena. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
