Paris 2024 Delivers a Riverside Extravaganza to Open the Games

Rain didn't dampen anyone's spirits during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games on July 26. It was the city's first Olympics in a century, as it last hosted the Games in 1924. 

Dancers, singers and performers put on a show designed to parade visitors through French history and while deconstructing the stereotypes light-heartedly. 

There were several particularly entertaining snippets in the show. One included a singer playing a decapitated Marie Antoinette. Meanwhile, in another, a man painted completely bright blue played the Greek god Dionysus. 

It was Paris's way of saying: "We are going bigger than ever." 

Performers Pull Out All the Stops

Lady Gaga was a highlight early on, performing a fun version of the song "Mon Truc en Plumes" by Zizi Jeanmaire. The performer sang gleefully while surrounded by pink pompoms and giant pink feathered props. 

Pop star Aya Nakamura, the most listened-to French-speaking artist in the world, performed the song "Djadja" while accompanied by a Republican guard band from the French army.

Axelle Saint-Cirel, a French mezzo-soprano from Guadeloupe, sang a poignant arrangement of the French national anthem, "La Marseillaise."

Finally, Celine Dion delivered a wondrous performance with the Eiffel Tour as the backdrop, singing Edith Piaf's "Hymne à l'amour," bringing the evening to a dazzling close. 

Paris Landmarks As the Stage

For the first time in the history of the Summer Olympic Games, the ceremony took place not in a stadium, but on the banks of a river — the Seine. 

Starting from Pont d'Austerlitz, passing by Notre Dame Cathedral and ending the Eiffel Tower, eighty-five boats carrying almost 6,800 athletes floated down a 6-kilometer course. 

The overall effect was that Paris' most iconic monuments became the stage for the ceremony's performers in spectacular ways that a stadium could never achieve. 

Dancers swirled on the rooftops. Death metal band Gojira performed from the windows of the Conciergerie building.

The Olympic tradition of singing "Imagine" (by John Lennon) took a new twist with Juliette Armanet. She sang while floating in a boat down the Seine with a piano ablaze in the background.  

Athletes and final torch bearers Teddy Riner (judo) and Marie José Pérec (400-meter sprinter) walked to the Olympic cauldron with the Louvre as a backdrop. 

When the Olympic flame was lit, the heat lifted the cauldron and attached a 30-meter-high balloon, creating a dramatic sight over the skies of Paris. 

The show was witnessed by over 300,000 on the riverbanks of the Seine. Hundreds of people watched from their windows, and thousands were seated in viewing areas scattered all around the city. 

VIP Athletes Grace the Show

During the final leg of the torch relay, a string of famous French athletes and Olympians transported the flame. 

These included the legendary Zinedine Zidane (soccer, France), nine-time Olympic champion Carl Lewis (track and field, American), five-time Olympic champion Nadia Comaneci (gymnastics, Romanian) and four-time Olympic champion Serena Williams (tennis, American). 

As a tribute to the century since the last Paris Olympics, the penultimate torch bearer was Olympic champion Charles Coste (France). A cyclist, he is 100 years old. 

A Different Kind of Olympics

As a reminder of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics held a year late in 2021, Japan is again reporting an increase in COVID-19 cases. Neverthless, the return of spectators in Paris, starting with a very public opening ceremony, signaled a welcome return to the pre-pandemic style of celebrating the Games. 

In addition, the Paris Games come at a time when the world is torn apart by the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. The Olympic message calling for unity in the face of adversity rang more true than ever. International Olympic Committee head Thomas Bach reflected this in his opening speech:

"In a world torn apart by wars and conflicts, it is thanks to this solidarity that we can all come together tonight, uniting the athletes from the territories of all 206 National Olympic Committees and the IOC Refugee Olympic Team." 

RELATED:

• High School Swimming Star Mizuki Hirai Ready to Take on the Paris Olympics
• Kosei Inoue: Team Japan Goes To The Paris Olympic Games
• Naomi Osaka Lights Cauldron In an Opening Ceremony Marked by Elegant Simplicity
  
  

Author: Arielle Busetto