Time to say au revoir from the 33rd Summer Olympic Games’ opening night in Paris. Here’s a roundup of our coverage, featuring Céline Dion’s comeback, boat-loads of sporting legends, a steampunk hot-air balloon – and rain, rain, rain.
Here’s Sean Ingle on a rainy night in Paris lit up by an Olympian message of hope.
Five highlights from the opening ceremony, from Lady Gaga to a confusing subplot:
There was a moment, about an hour into Paris 2024’s Grand Opening Spectacular, as the rain soaked through shoes, trousers, socks and eventually skin, hair and bone; as yet more boats of waving people chugged down the Seine, like watching an endless series of weirdly nationalistic office parties; as some men did some dancing in a place, for reasons that frankly seemed quite remote at that point, where a thought occurred. Maybe this wasn’t just the worst Olympic opening ceremony ever. Maybe this wasn’t the worst outdoor event ever. Maybe this was the worst thing ever.
Fast forward to 11.25pm local time and Paris 2024 basically brought on Messi. There may have been better moments in the history of opening ceremony entertainment than Céline Dion halfway up the Eiffel Tower, 56 years old but an absolute sonic force, belting out a jaw-dropping rendition of Édith Piaf’s Hymne à l’amour. But, well, none spring to mind right now. Sport: never over ’til it’s over. Hardest game in the world, Vegas-style big ticket showmanship. But what a way to rescue the night.
Has the never-ending Olympic opening ceremony got you in the mood for some actual sport? Well, take a look at our planner for the first full day of action, which begins in just under eight hours’ time.
The Paris Olympic Games opened on Friday night with a high-kitsch, riverside spectacle, as an armada of boats carried athletes along the Seine, dancers dangled from high poles, drag queens paraded on bridges and the Olympic rings lit up the Eiffel Tower – all under unrelenting, torrential rain.
France had promised its opening ceremony would be the biggest open-air show on Earth. More than 300,000 people watched from the riverside and bridges – and hundreds more stood at windows and balconies – as a show of dance, live-music and acrobatics unfolded along more than 6km of river from the Pont d’Austerlitz to the Eiffel Tower.
More on Celine Dion’s comeback performance from the Eiffel Tower…
… and a bumpy ride for four sporting legends with the Olympic torch…
Summary of the night in Paris …
Emmauel Macron has declared the Paris Olympic Games 2024 open in an unconventional ceremony that saw athletes parade in boats down the River Seine, and dancers and theatrical performances take place along the route
The Olympic flame was lit by three-time judo champion Teddy Riner and three-time gold-winning sprinter Marie-José Pérec in a cauldron in the Gardens of the Tuileries in central Paris underneath a stylised hot air balloon. It then rose spectacularly into the sky in what is destined to be seen as an iconic moment in Olympic opening ceremony history
Rafael Nadal, Zinedine Zidane, Nadia Comăneci, Serena Williams and Carl Lewis were some of the sports stars taking part in a ceremony which finished with a surprise return to live performance by Céline Dion. Lady Gaga also featured during the show, as did rapper Rim’K, metal band Gojira, and Aya Nakamura, the most-streamed French-speaking artist in the world
IOC president Thomas Bach said the Games would bring together the world at a time of conflict, without specifically mentioning any one conflict. France’s flag-bearers Florent Manaudou and Melina Robert-Michon took the Olympic oath on behalf of the competitors
The Games begin in earnest on Saturday morning in Paris. You can find a full schedule here. We will have live blog coverage throughout the event.
Céline Dion closes Paris Olympic opening ceremony with surprise comeback performance
Céline Dion closed the Olympic opening ceremony with a surprise rendition of Edith Piaf’s L’Hymne à l’amour. It was her first public concert appearance since revealing that she is living with stiff person syndrome.
Olympics: 🤩 @celinedion is spectacular and Paris sparkles with the Olympic spirit! ✨
— Paris 2024 Olympics (English) (@OlympicsParis) July 26, 2024
Paris 2024 is here!!! 🎉#Paris2024 #OpeningCeremony pic.twitter.com/xPKwr1UJHa
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While I was watching the ceremony via TV in London, my colleague Alexandra Topping was taking in the atmosphere with the crowds in Paris. Here is her report:
“C’est Zizou!” went the cry as one of France’s most beloved sons appeared on the screen next to the Seine – and with a blaze of red white and blue, they were off.
As a procession of boats carrying more than 8,000 of the world’s top athletes in a sporting armada along 6km of the River Seine began their journey, the visitors to Paris 2024 not among the 300,000 people allowed to watch from the bridges and riverbanks crammed into bars and restaurants to cheer as their team went by.
In Au Trappiste, a central Paris bar on the rue Saint Denis, the tables were packed with people from around the globe, sporting flags and their country’s colours. A cheer went up from the crowd as the befeathered vision of Lady Gaga appeared on screen, but it was eclipsed by a group of four Brazilian sisters when their boat appeared.
“We are just so excited to be here!,” shouted Fabiola Rodrigues Martins, 26, as she and her three sisters got stuck into a bottle of vin blanc. “We are going to see Marta in women’s football. It’s going to be amazing!”
They had stopped trying to get close to the river several hours ago and had instead made the decision to ensconce themselves in a bar with table service. “We’re not moving,” she said.
It was a sensible decision. In the hours before the opening ceremony, increasingly irate French men and women and visitors to the City of Light wandered the streets around the Hotel de Ville, where the fanzone was strictly QR-code only. “Do you know where there is a big screen?, asked one disconsolate American. “We’ve tried three places!”
Read more from Alexandra Topping in Paris here: Spectators soak up Seine spectacle as rains pours on Paris
In all the excitement I forget to mention that ultimately it was three-time judo champion Teddy Riner and three-time gold-winning sprinter Marie-José Pérec who lit the cauldron for Paris 2024.
Just an incredible finish to that ceremony with the lighting of that cauldron.
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I was going to say that the ceremony had mostly lacked goosebump moments up until now, but the combination of 100-year-old Charles Coste taking a turn with the Olympic flame, and then the cauldron rising once lit in the air as if under a hot air balloon, have delivered some much-needed wow factor right at the end. Paris was the location, in 1783, of the first ever hot air balloon flight, by the Montgolfier brothers.
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Oh my word the cauldron has taken off under the balloon and risen into the air. If you will excuse my French, what a coup de grâce after a bit of a mixed bag of an opening ceremony where rain has dampened proceedings somewhat.
Olympic cauldron lit in Paris as 2024 Games begin
The Olympic cauldron, stylised as a flaming hot air balloon, situated in the Gardens of the Tuileries in central Paris, has been lit, signalling the official start of the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics.
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Wow. The cauldron looks like it is topped by a statue of a hot air balloon.
Charles Coste, who is 100, and who uses a wheelchair, takes the flame. He was a cycling champion in 1948 and is France’s oldest living gold medallist.
There is a rapid exchange of the torch between a series of famous French athletes including Jean-François Lamour and Émilie Le Pennec.
Staging this opening event in these world famous locations is obviously painting a brilliant picture of Paris, but the lengthy period that the area around the Seine in central Paris has had limited access for the public has been the cause of quite some annoyance to local residents.
The procession has now reached the Gardens of the Tuileries, next to the Louvre.
The torch procession has now reached the Louvre. Rafael Nadal and Zinedine Zidane’s work appears done, but this is what it looked like.
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The flame is leaving the boat. The details are under wraps. Rain drops cloud the camera. We can just about make out it is Amélie Mauresmo. She is an Olympic tennis silver medalist and the French Open director. Apparently there is quite a relay of different athletes now to take the flame, which I am concerned is going to be quite a test of my instant recognition skills …
Breitbart News just sent out an email alert “The Olympics Opening Ceremony Is a TRAINWRECK”, so good to know that whoever is organising for Los Angeles in 2028 will be able to do that in a perfectly reasonable environment.
It was Nadia Comăneci who was also in the boat with Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams and Carl Lewis and the Olympic torch. TV hasn’t shown us them for a while, as they escort the flame to the mysterious location for the cauldron.
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They sure know how to put on a light show around the Eiffel Tower …
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Serena Williams has the torch! The Eiffel Tower is surrounded by lasers! Carl Lewis is in the boat with Williams and Nadal too.
A choral/disco version of Cerrone’s Supernature has struck up, and the torch has got back on a boat with Rafael Nadal … where is the cauldron? They have stored up some drama for the end here.
Lasers! This section feels more solidly choreographed than some of the earlier bits down by the river to be fair.
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A lightshow is now starting on the Eiffel Tower. The Olympic rings are lit up at its base.
Zidane is handing the torch – not flag, d’oh! – to Rafael Nadal. *checks notes* He’s not French.
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The mystery torch bearer hands the torch to Zizou …
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France’s flag-bearers Florent Manaudou and Melina Robert-Michon have taken the athletes’ oath. Now we are at the flame lighting moment. Zinedane Zidane is back. He got off that stuck train after all.
Here is that galloping horse I was waxing lyrical about earlier.
The 2024 Olympic Games are open
The French president Emmanuel Macron has been invited to declare the Games of the 33rd Olympiad officially open. He does so.
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Thomas Bach says “In a world torn apart by wars and conflict it is thanks to solidarity that we can all come together tonight. We unite the athletes from the territories of all 206 National Olympic Committees and the IOC refugee Olympic team. Welcome to the best athletes of the world. Welcome Olympians.”
And he quotes John Lennon’s Imagine, “Some may say we in the Olympic world are dreamers. We are not the only ones.”
He says the Olympics are an event that “unites the world”. He says “in our Olympic world there is no global south or global north”.
Bach praise Paris for its welcome, and tells the athletes this is the “pinnacle” of their journeys, and that they came as athletes, but now are Olympians.
Thomas Bach promises a more sustainable, younger, inclusive games, and the first with gender equality in sports. That is certainly true in number of overall competitors although my dull factchecking brain is aware that in some sports – football for example – there isn’t total gender parity.
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Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee is speaking. He says finally the moment has arrived from the Games.
Some poor soul is holding up an umbrella over Tony Estanguet, and is in shot on TV as he speaks. They are only one ill-advised facial expression away from become an international meme.
As I’ve mentioned already, I’m not entirely convinced this staging has worked for TV, but there is no doubt it has really showed off central Paris.
Tony Estanguet praises hosting the ceremony in the city rather than a stadium. He also says the Games can help the country come together.
Tony Estanguet is welcoming the world back to Paris after it last hosted the Olympics here a century ago. He says carrying the legacy of France’s relationship with the Games is a huge responsibility. Pierre de Coubertin, obviously was the driving force behind the modern Games.
There are always some odd bits of Olympic opening ceremonies where it suddenly goes a bit “local council board meeting”, and there is currently a video segment handing out the Olympic Laurel award in recognition of commitment to making sport a vehicle for positive social change.
Tony Estanguet, president of Paris 2024, and Thomas Bach, president of the IOC, will give speeches next.
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Brands doing this ubiquitous Charli xcx meme is rapidly becoming a bit “How do you do, fellow kids?”*
Olympic Opening Ceremony 2024. #ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/oVPnEx7U3B
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) July 26, 2024
[*unless I had thought of doing it first]
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The Olympic flag is being raised, and the Olympic anthem is playing.
The Olympic flag is now being handed over. And as that is happening, my colleague Jack Snape in Paris has already filed his review of the night from the perspective of our Australian friends …
The ceremony has been going down well in Paris, at least where my colleague Alexandra Topping has been watching it from. The French team got a rapturous welcome.
Massive cheer for the French boat in the bar on rue Saint Denis where I’ve hidden from the rain to file #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/KVVfZfPszK
— Alexandra Topping (@LexyTopping) July 26, 2024
They’ve swapped the metal horse for an actual horse, and all the national flags are filing in behind it.
I must confess I am a longtime Olympics aficionado and this combination of a montage of historic moments, the horse delivering the Olympic flag, and the anticipation of the flame being lit is giving me the feels.
We are now getting to the more formal part of the ceremony, with flags from the barges being lined up near the Eiffel Tower as the metal horse arrives.
As the horse is galloping down the river, symbols of doves are being shown. The Olympic opening ceremony doesn’t feature a release of live doves any more, which it usually did in a tradition stretching back to 1920.
However, to get the 1988 Seoul Olympics under way, a flock of doves was released into the stadium. When the cauldron was lit, several doves were flame-grilled live on TV in front of billions as they’d picked an unfortunate place to settle down and roost. We’ve avoided that tonight.
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I am expecting this next bit to be spectacular as we see someone galloping a horse down the Seine. Yes, you read that right. She is carrying the Olympic flag. It’s a metal horse on a boat, but still, it is visually stunning. Definitely one of the iconic pictures to come from this evening you would imagine.
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While you imagine an Olympic ceremony that doesn’t feature this song, there is a lot of sport to be looking forward to tomorrow. Shooting, fencing, basketball, swimming. You can find the live schedule here …
This next section is about all the troubles in the world, and how young people are going to dance their way through it. I regret to inform you that the most predictable song in the history of Olympic opening ceremonies is about to crop up again. Sofiane Pamart on piano and Juliette Armanet voice will be performing … oh, you know …
That dancefloor looks treacherous in this rain now. I’m not 100% sure about the way this has all been staged like this, but it is producing some spectacular still images.
Elements of tonight’s show have definitely had a bit of Eurovision about them, and we are now getting a Europop-themed dance show.
It is Freed From Desire – YOUR DEFENCE IS TERRIFIED!
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Hosts France definitely saved the biggest and best boat until last, and why not, it is their party after all.
Here they come, Team France, the host nation! 🇫🇷
— The Olympic Games (@Olympics) July 26, 2024
And while we're at it, let's sail across the waters, to Tahiti, where the surfing competition will take place. 🌊#Paris2024 #OpeningCeremony pic.twitter.com/P3U5McBRuR
The host nation are now the focus of attention, with the sound of huge cheers accompanying them on the last part of the route down the river.
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We are back with the mysterious flame carrier now. They are at the fashion catwalk, which has been set like a banquet table. And here is a satellite link-up with Tahiti. The weather looks a lot better than Paris to be fair.
The team from Australia are here. Brisbane will host in 2032. Tokyo gold-medal winning paddler Jess Fox and Kookaburras veteran Eddie Ockenden are holding the flags. Team USA are close behind. Los Angeles is host 2028.
While we wait for the athletes parade to wind down with Australia, then the US, then France, here are some more pictures …
Coming up in a bit will be the Ukraine delegation, sharing their barge with Turkmenistan, Tuvalu and Uruguay. Nick Ames in Paris has this report on their preparations.
If you were thinking of popping out to make a cup of tea, now might be the moment. There are about another 15 barges before the ceremony bits resume …
The last two delegations in the parade, Team USA and France, have already set off at the start of the route.
The Palestine delegation has just gone by. They are sharing a barge with Panama, Papua New Guinea and Paraguay.
For some competitors being on the water for the ceremony is a bit of a busman’s holiday …
This is not the first boat they’ll be on these next two weeks…
— Team USA (@TeamUSA) July 26, 2024
The U.S. Olympic Sailing Team, everyone‼️
📺: @NBCOlympics & @peacock #ParisOlympics | #OpeningCeremony pic.twitter.com/Cvimo46iOQ
Paris is nothing if not fashion, and we are now being treated to a catwalk show of celebrities who have been dressed by young French designers. It is on the Debilly Footbridge.
I have bad news if you are not a fan of athletes waving flags in boats. I think after this is done, the next section has 69 further national delegations to go by.
This is Rim’K rapping now, with a track called King, which I think just referenced Snoop Dog, who was carrying the Olympic flame around Saint-Denis earlier.
Snoooooop 🙌
— Paris 2024 (@Paris2024) July 26, 2024
The Torch is in safe hands 👀
-
Palalalala, mais qui voilà ? 👀
La Flamme est entre de bonnes mains.
Suivez l’étape du jour en direct sur @FranceTV : https://t.co/TWcSUAw0vu#Paris2024 @SnoopDogg @Olympics @NBCOlympics @TeamUSA
📹 Paris 2024 pic.twitter.com/v6l2nhNI4T
Here are some more pictures from the ceremony …
A few more pictures from an increasingly wet Paris…
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My colleague Sean Ingle is – unlike me – actually in Paris, and he has written this evening about the prospects for Team GB …
I see in the comments people questioning the absence of Australia. Rest assured, you haven’t missed them. The final three delegations are Australia (2032 hosts), USA (2028 hosts) and then France (hosts).
The next bunch of barges being featured go from Japan to Madagascar, and then Jakub Józef Orliński will perform. After that there are another 24 barges due, and after that another 70. We will be here for a while yet.
New Zealand breaking out the rhyming couplets on social media here …
On the Seine in the rain, proudly representing New Zealand! 🌿#TheFernIsAllOfUs#Paris2024 #OpeningCeremony pic.twitter.com/p24XwbSmXG
— The New Zealand Team (@TheNZTeam) July 26, 2024
The next section is about the history of sport in France and I feel certain one thing that won’t get mentioned is that the denouement of the Tour de France this year got bumped from Paris to Nice for the first time ever because of the Olympics.
Golden statues of ten women from France’s history are rising out now. The organisers were at pains to point out that in Paris there are about 260 statues of men, and just 40 or so statues of women. This is an attempt to redress the balance. They include figures born from the 1700s to Simone Veil, who campaigned for abortion rights, and who died as recently as 2017. The statues will be offered to the city afterwards in a bid to give them a permanent home.
I have found the Despicable Me franchise to be a series of diminishing returns after the first one was great. However, maybe I’m easily pleased, but the Minions doing slapstick Olympics while evoking every French stereotype possible has made me laugh a lot there. Immediately followed by The Marseillaise being sung by mezzo-soprano Axelle Saint-Cirel. You wouldn’t say there had been a consistent tone, would you?
A huge fan of any Olympic opening ceremony that includes the Lumière brothers’ train actually bursting out of the screen. This is a great little sequence referencing films, and then the Minions turn up! Did they just say “Ooh la la!”?
Shane Lowry and Sarah Lavin are carrying the flag for Ireland. They are sharing a barge with Iraq. The boat ahead carried Iran. The boat behind carries Israel. You imagine the organisers may have done quite a bit of spreadsheet juggling about boat capacity to end up with that result.
The next section is going to be “a tribute to the art of filmmaking and French science fiction”. Meanwhile the mysterious hooded flame bearer has discovered the Mona Lisa has been stolen, which is actually also the plot of a 1970s Doctor Who story written by Douglas Adams. The Lumière brothers’ moving pictures and Georges Meliès’ A Trip To The Moon are going to be referenced.
The final torchbearer discovers that the Mona Lisa has disappeared!?#Paris2024 #OpeningCeremony pic.twitter.com/l6yAYOXNvY
— The Olympic Games (@Olympics) July 26, 2024
Great Britain, Grenada, Guam and Guatemala are sharing the next barge. It looks like it is absolutely tipping it down in Paris now.
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Here is that mysterious torch bearer making their way through the Louvre.
Olympics: The final torchbearer passes through the world's largest museum! The Louvre Museum holds treasures from all cultures and connects France to world. #OpeningCeremony #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/yb1juBqsLC
— Paris 2024 Olympics (English) (@OlympicsParis) July 26, 2024
Meanwhile on the television coverage it is the music of Claude Debussy and we have got up to countries that start with the letter ‘E’. That may give you a clue as to how much more of the ceremony is to go.
Here are some more pictures as the evening unfolds …
Next up is a section in the Louvre, with the mysterious flame bearer. They took the torch from the children, who took the torch from Zinedine Zidane. Are you following? The mysterious torch holder looks like they have escaped from a French edition of Assassin’s Creed, and appears to be the main developing subplot of the ceremony. Will they get the flame to the cauldron to be lit in time. Probably, it would be a bit of bad planning if they didn’t.
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The official Olympic social media channel is highlighting a quote from Victor Hugo to go with the last section on equality – “The freedom to love is no less sacred than the freedom to think”.
The freedom to love is no less sacred than the freedom to think.
— The Olympic Games (@Olympics) July 26, 2024
-Victor Hugo#Paris2024 #OpeningCeremony pic.twitter.com/LDCO7nXNoR
Aya Nakamura, the most-streamed French-speaking artist in the world, is here. She will be singing with 60 musicians of the Republican Guard and 36 choristers of the French Army. We are on the Pont des Arts for this segment, which is themed around equality and celebrating the modern French language.
While we are watching the opening ceremony some world leaders have obviously got their phones out. Justin Trudeau and Narendra Modi have been giving shout outs to their delegations.
Team Canada, this is your moment.
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) July 26, 2024
Good luck to all of our athletes at the #Paris2024 Olympic Games. We’ll be cheering you on from back home. 🇨🇦
Best wishes to the Indian contingent. #Olympics #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/0elaM3xT6g
— PMO India (@PMOIndia) July 26, 2024
Only in an Olympic opening ceremony can you go from the metal of Gojira to Marina Viotti singing opera from Carmen in the space of a couple of minutes.
The cathedral bells have been ringing out. This approach to the ceremony is really showing off Paris landmarks. The next segment is called Liberté, and refers back to the French Revolution. Rock music! Cannons belching fire! Beheaded women in the castle windows! This is how to do history!
There is an original music composition now based around the restoration of the Notre Dame Cathedral, damaged in a fire in 2019. The dance sequence features construction workers, and the side of the building is covered in a spectacular gold tinsel dressing, and musicians are playing from the windows on the opposite side of the Seine. The Olympic flame is now being carried, parkour-style, across Paris rooftops.
As an aside, I think the number of times anybody ever gets to cover an Olympic opening ceremony in a live blog and go “They just went past the bridge where I proposed in 2002!” are very small, so I am going to take advantage of this one. They just went past the bridge where I proposed in 2002!
If you had “people do the can-can on the banks of the River Seine, but it is an updated modern thumping beats version of the music” on your opening ceremony bingo card, you can tick it off now.
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It is too early to call this ceremony reinvention as a success or failure. Traditionally the Olympic opening ceremony was amazing spectacular music and theatre for 45 minute to an hour, then there was a bit of a lull while the parade took a long, long time, followed by some speeches and the flame-lighting. This is an attempt to mix it up, but I must confess it is a little difficult to know where to look at times, and so far it has lacked an over-arching narrative thread beyond getting the flame from the Stade de France to the Trocadéro.
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While the boat parade continues, the children who took the Olympic flame from Zinedine Zidane in the broken down Metro train earlier – what a sentence to type – are now also part of a parade alongside the river. There is so much to look at. Everyone along the river in this section is wearing pink, representing La vie en rose.
I am reliably informed that Lady Gaga was performing Mon truc en plumes originally by Zizi Jeanmaire.
Here are a few pictures showing what the opening ceremony looks like so far …
Lady Gaga is singing in French which is already drawing some slightly mixed reviews on social media for her accent. This seems to set the format for what we are going to have though, which is that as the barges carrying the athletes hit certain parts on the route, performances start. Lady Gaga is on a golden stage by the banks of the river.
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LADY GAGA!*
[*this was quite heavily rumoured]
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The organisers did promise something unique, and it already feels like if you are at the side of the river in Paris, as when watching the Tour de France or Formula One, you are going to only get to see a short slither of the action. Meanwhile, if you are watching on television, it is positively whizzing by.
We are up to Argentina. Presumably they are hoping to avoid a two-hour VAR-inclusive delay tonight, the likes of which featured in their opening game in the men’s football tournament on Wednesday.
Quite a lot of countries crammed on the next barge, including South Africa, Algeria and Germany. This is going much faster than your usual parade around the stadium.
The Greek barge has departed to begin the procession of athletes. Greece always goes first due to the origins of the Olympic Games. There are water cannon and fireworks going off, someone playing an accordion while wearing angel wings sitting on the edge of a bridge, and I am not going to lie, there is *A LOT* all going on at once here. The IOC refugee team departs second.
The ceremony now shows IOC president Thomas Bach and France’s president Emmanuel Macron greeting each other at the Trocadéro, where the formalities will take place late. The Pont d’Austerlitz has been engulfed in the colours of the Tricolour.
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With some irony, given the huge transport disruption in Paris today, the opening sequence sees Zinedane Zidane stuck on a Metro train with the power cut out, and a group of youths have come to the rescue, taking the Olympic flame from the train, through the Paris catacombs, to the underground waterways of France’s capital city.
Paris 2024 Olympics opening ceremony begins
The Paris 2024 Olympics opening ceremony has begun with a video interlude showing people delivering the Olympic flame to an empty Stade de France, only to realise that the ceremony is at the River Seine. Footbal legend and World Cup winner Zinedine Zidane is being shown hurtling the flame to the correct location.
Franco-Malian singer Aya Nakamura, the most listened to French-speaking singer in the world is confirmed to be performing at some point in the ceremony. If you want a flavour of what she sounds like, Nakamura put out a new single, 42, last month, although it remains to be seen whether she will go down the George Michael 2012 closing ceremony route of “Here’s my new single …”
In April, after rumours that she would appear had drawn ire from far-right politicians including Marine Le Pen and Gérard Larcher, Nakamura thanked fans for their support.
By the way, if you are up for signing up for newsletters, it would be remiss of me not to mention our Paris 2024 daily briefing. Running throughout the Olympics and Paralympics it will be a guide to the day’s highlights and the best that is yet to come. Sign up for free here.
You can also find our complete schedule for the Games here.
Pssst. It isn’t all boats and fashion and fireworks. There is actually going to be a lot of sport over the next fortnight too. Elsie Grover-Jones has this explainer on something I’m not entirely sure I’d ever thought about before. She asks What will make the Paris 2024 Olympic swimming pool fast or slow?
The swimming gets under way tomorrow, with four gold medals on offer by the end of the day.
One of the features of Olympic opening ceremonies is the fashion focus on the uniforms that competitors have been given to wear. Team USA have raised some eyebrows by pairing what looks like a very traditional red and white edged blue jacket with a blue-striped shirt and … jeans?
Team USA knows the dress code. 👏 #ParisOlympics
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) July 26, 2024
🎥: IG/evykayak pic.twitter.com/0i10HMytf8
There are 85 boats due on the water today, and 30 of them will be electric boats. The River Seine was the location of the testing of the first ever electric boat, in 1881 by a Parisian inventor named Gustave Trouvé.
Olympics: It’s almost time for 85 boats to take to the Seine for the most unique Opening Ceremony in the history of the Olympic Games!
— Paris 2024 Olympics (English) (@OlympicsParis) July 26, 2024
The athletes are ready. 💪 Are you?
Watch along right here:
🔗 https://t.co/r4jrdzPenX#Paris2024 #OpeningCeremony pic.twitter.com/usA0DqYhV3
The Team GB flag-bearers tonight are diver Tom Daley and rower Helen Glover. They spoke to the BBC.
Daley said he felt “honoured”, telling viewers in the UK:
I remember walking out in 2008, behind Mark Foster, and thinking about how cool that was just to be part of a ceremony like that. Now to be going into a fifth Games and being able to start off in this fashion, it’s pretty, pretty special.
I mean, in our team meeting just before we came here, performance director said, you know, being an Olympic champion is a very elite group, but then to become flagbearers as well is an even smaller group. So I feel very honoured, and it’s going to be a special evening.
Glover said similar:
It is a real honour, because we have an incredible Team GB, and they are going to do some of the most amazing performances in the next two weeks. So to be leading them out to start the Games together. It is a real honour.
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Each week our Saturday edition newsletter has a message from our editor-in chief Katharine Viner, and in tomorrow’s newsletter she sets out some of the challenges facing Paris 2024, and the Guardian’s reporting on them:
The run up to the Paris Games was dominated by political upheaval in the host nation, where a surging far-right was deflected at the last moment in snap parliamentary elections. Paris correspondent Angelique Chrisafis wrote about hopes across France that the greatest sporting show on Earth can help unite a fractured nation. With luck it can bring some unity to a fractured planet, too. As sports writer Andy Bull put it: this is a Games that has been reframed by the shadow of conflict in Ukraine and the Middle East.
There certainly wasn’t a great deal of fraternité in the last few days before the Games kicked off. This morning, France’s rail system was left in chaos after a massive coordinated attack on the TGV network. Before that, there was a Russian spy scandal, with a 40-year-old chef arrested on suspicion of plotting with a foreign power to stage “large scale” acts of “destabilisation” during the Games. There was a sporting spy scandal, too, with defending women’s football champions Canada caught using drones to spy on their opponents. Then there was chaos in the men’s tournament during a Morocco v Argentina match that managed to include a pitch invasion, the fallout from a racism scandal and even a two-hour wait for a VAR decision. And Charlotte Dujardin – a British multiple medal winner – was forced to pull out of the equestrian event after a distressing video of her repeatedly whipping a horse emerged on Tuesday.
Elsewhere, the Guardian went on location with the Refugee Team in training and profiled boxer Cindy Ngamba, the team’s flagbearer. Simon Hattenstone interviewed GB cycling great Victoria Pendleton who spoke about being crushed by the pressure of the sport that made her name. We also met surfer Sam Sills, who lived in a van on his way to Olympic recognition; gymnast Becky Downie who exposed abuse in her sport; the 2012 gold medal winner Etienne Stott who is now a climate activist and spent time with the Ukrainian swimming team in training as the bombs fell.
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Which order will countries appear in the Olympic opening ceremony parade?
Well, that is a very good question. One of the joys/terrors of covering an Olympic opening ceremony live is that everybody is very tight-lipped about it in advance. There are certain protocols – but protocols are there to be upended.
What we expect is that Greece will lead the athletes parade as is tradition, paying respect to the origins of the Olympic Games. It has then become usual for those in the IOC Refugee Olympic team to go second.
France will come last, as hosts. We expect the two teams in front of them to be Australia (as hosts in 2032) and the US (as hosts in 2028).
The rest of the countries and territories are then sandwiched in between those, in alphabetic order in French. Germany, for example, will be in with the ‘A’ boats as Allemagne, rather than ‘G’ for Germany or indeed ‘D’ for Deutschland.
There is a caveat though. It has been suggested that the smaller delegations might share boats, so some places that are only sending one or two competitors, like Andorra, Belize, the Cook Islands, Liechtenstein, Mauritania, Nauru, Somalia and Tuvalu, might become wild cards.
The route goes from Pont d’Austerlitz in the east of Paris to the Pont d’léna, in the west, between the Eiffel Tower and Trocadéro Esplanade.
Welcome to the Paris Olympic Games 2024 opening ceremony
Bonjour! Salut! Bienvenue! Hello! Γειά σου! Welcome to our live coverage of the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games 2024!
Opening ceremonies don’t make or break a Games as being considered a success, but can certainly set the tone, and often are the moment a host nation gets the Olympic spirit and gets behind hosting the Games.
Paris 2024 is promising a unique spectacle, as the for the first time the ceremony is a parade through the city, on a 6km route on the River Seine, rather than being stadium-bound.
It was an imaginative part of the city’s bid to host the Games, but has also become fraught with complexity, with residents complaining about large parts of the city being sealed off during the preparations, and security concerns meaning the promise of large crowds thronging the banks of the river have been scaled down.
Nevertheless, with the world’s eys on it, we are expecting a great show. We will bring you the best pictures, analysis and reaction as it all unfolds from 7pm BST tonight. My colleague David Hills has five things to look out for …
