Towards the end of a night where the Parisian skies opened like sluice gates and did their damnedest to drown the ambitions of the most audacious opening ceremony in history, the head of the Paris Olympics had the confidence to crack a joke.
“When you love the Games, first of all you don’t let a few drops of rain bother you,” said Tony Estanguet. “Thank you to all those lovers of the Games who are with us – a little soggy – tonight!”
A few drops! If only. But while the rain soaked the skin, it did nothing to blunt the spirit among the thousands of athletes who took the 6km journey along the Seine, or the 330,000 spectators who cheered them on their way. Because for hours and hours they sang, danced and laughed like they were at the greatest party in the world.
The Dutch and Slovenians pogoed up and down on their boats. The Jamaicans sang and waved flags. And the Team GB’s flag bearers, Tom Daley and Helen Glover, played their part too, giving their best impressions of Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in Titanic.
The prime minister, Keir Starmer, as drenched as everyone else in the Trocadéro, applauded from the barely covered posh seats the British athletes, which included Sir Andy Murray. In total there were 39 Team GB members parading out of the 327 in Paris, a respectful number given the weather.
The idea of staging these Games outside of a traditional stadium was a high-wire act of spectacular proportions, but Paris somehow managed to pull it off. As Estanguet told his audience: “When you’re madly in love with the Games, you feel like you can do anything.
“We have been bold, doing things that have never been done before, like having this opening ceremony in the city, for the first time in the history of the Olympic Games,” he added. “Like every host country our ambition has been to help the Games grow stronger.
“And when you love the Games, you are ready to court the Games for 100 years for the chance to bring them back to Paris!”
The biggest reception of the night, naturally, was given to the French team. As their boat sailed down the Seine, it was greeted by an extraordinary version of La Marseillaise from Axelle Saint-Cirel, from the roof of the Grand Palais.
As she sang, 10 golden statues of women from France’s history rose from the ground, to emphasise the fact that this is the first gender neutral Olympics in history. It was a moment referenced by the International Olympic Committee president, Thomas Bach, in his speech.
“We will all together experience a more inclusive, more urban, younger, more sustainable Games,” he said. “The first Olympic Games with total parity on the competition arena.”
As he always does, Bach also gave a message of love to the host nation – and hope for a better world.
“Paris, birthplace of our founder Pierre de Coubertin, to whom we owe everything,” Bach said, alternating between French and English. “Paris, city of light, where he created the modern Olympic Games. Paris, city of love. Thank you France for this magical welcome.
“What more beautiful place than Paris to share the magic of the Olympic Games with the whole world.”
The hope in Bach’s speech? Well that came when he referenced the hope that these Games could be a force for good at a time where the horrific war in Ukraine continues to rage, and the awful images from Israel and Palestine have dominated our screens for the past nine months continue.
“Some may say we in the Olympic world, we are dreamers,” Bach told his audience. “But we are not the only ones. Olympians from all around the globe, showing us what greatness we humans are capable of. So I invite everybody: dream with us.
“Like the Olympic athletes, be inspired with the joy that only sport can give us. Let us celebrate this Olympic spirit of living in peace, as the one and only humankind, united in all our diversity.”
And then came the spectacular finale which began with Rafa Nadal, Serena Williams, Carl Lewis, and Nadia Comaneci charging down the Seine on a speedboat – and ended with lights beaming out of the Eiffel Tower, Céline Dion bringing the house down, and the Olympic flame floating into the sky.
It all amounted to a thrilling declaration of intent, especially in the final hour. The lingering applause at the Trocadéro suggested the crowd loved it too. The Games are off to a flyer.
