Rain fell on the Seine as Paris opened the Olympic Games on July 26, 2024, a century after it last hosted them. French President Emmanuel Macron declared the Games open.
For the first time in Olympic history, the opening ceremony was held outside the host city’s main stadium. About 6,800 athletes gathered behind their flagbearers and traveled a 6-kilometer stretch of the river, from the Austerlitz Bridge to the Trocadero, on 85 boats.
The rain did not stop the parade. Athletes passed the Louvre, Place de la Concorde, the Grand Palais and the Eiffel Tower, and some of those landmarks hosted the ceremony’s musical performances. Crowds filled the river’s banks and bridges to watch.
Judoka Teddy Riner and Marie-Jose Perec, the sprinter, lit the cauldron with the Olympic flame to end the evening.
IOC President Thomas Bach thanked the organizers and the French people. “You are bringing our Olympic Agenda reforms to life by making these Games wide open,” he said, promising Games that are “more inclusive, more urban, younger and more sustainable,” and the first with full gender parity on the field of play.
Han Zheng, China’s vice president and President Xi Jinping’s special representative, was among the international dignitaries present. China sent 405 athletes, 42 of them Olympic champions, to compete in 236 events across 30 sports.
Paris is hosting the Summer Games for the third time, after 1900 and 1924.
Hours before the ceremony, arson attacks on French railways caused widespread delays and cancellations to rail services across Europe. Reports said the mood at the ceremony itself was not dampened.
