Rule-breaking, revolutionary, riveting, rainy, resilient - Paris 2024 Olympic Games opening ceremony
A river, a robotic rider, rings of steel, and a rare performance by Céline Dion ...
Rule-breaking, revolutionary, riveting, rainy, resilient – a river, a robotic rider, rings of steel, and a rare performance by Céline Dion.
Right on time, the celebrations commenced at 7:30pm in the Paris rain on Friday 26 July 2024. It deterred no-one. Soccer star Zinedine Zidane – ZiZi – kicked off the Paris 2024 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony with a short film as the French colours – blue, white, and red – went up in smoke.
Along the River Seine, vessels of all sizes carried the Olympic athletes in a floating parade to the Trocadero and the site of the Eiffel Tower, resplendent in dancing lights and the Olympic rings. Greece, by tradition, led the parade of boats, followed by the Olympic Refugee team.
For almost four hours of ceremonial singing and dancing, their songs and steps told the history of France. Lady Gaga – with pink pompoms and feather fans – sang in French to Zizi Jeanmarie’s Mon Truc en Plumes – My Feather Thing. The performance was soon following by a pink heart-shaped trail of smoke above the bridges of the Seine.
Theatre director Thomas Jolly put on a spectacular rendition of the history of France, featuring blood red flurries spurting from a building lining the river – depicting the French Revolution. The rooftop Torchbearer wore a mask and was hooded in black and gold representing a range of French characters, such as the Man in the Iron Mask from the theatre production Phantom of the Opera.
Most stunning was the woman draped in the Olympic flag riding a robotic steel horse propelled along the river. Arriving near the Eiffel Tower, the silver metallic horse morphed into a real white horse on the parade grounds. The Torchbearer passed on the flaming torch to waiting celebrities, the most notable was Charles Coste, the oldest living French Olympian – now 100 years old – who competed in the 1948 London Games, winning a gold medal in the team pursuit in cycling with Fernand Decanali, Pierre Adam, and Serge Blusson.
After lighting the gold basin, the cauldron was lifted in a hot air balloon where the flame will not expire until the end of the Games on 11 August.
Canadian singer Céline Dion closed the ceremony, standing on the Eiffel Tower, singing in French Edith Piaf’s Hymne à l'amour – Hymn to Love.
And so, the first opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in history to be held outside a stadium came to an end, heralding a spectacularly successful beginning to the 33rd Olympiad of the modern era. Let the Games begin!
