The Paris 2024 Olympic Games kicked off with its opening ceremony on a rainy Friday.
On-and-off showers did not seem to hamper the enthusiasm of the athletes. Some held umbrellas as they rode boats down the river in a showcase of the city’s resilience as authorities investigated suspected acts of sabotage targeting France’s high-speed rail network.
As rain poured down in the city, pianist Alexandre Kantorow played classical French composer Maurice Ravel’s “Jeux d’eau” which translates to “water games” or “fountains.” Lada Gaga sang “Mon Truc en Plumes,” and Mali-born French pop superstar Aya Nakamura also entertained the audience. On the Eiffel Tower, Celine Dion closed the show with her first live performance since the French-Canadian singer was diagnosed stiff person syndrome, a rare neurological disorder, at the end of 2022.
The ambitious opening ceremony broke with Olympic tradition.
“For the first time in the history of the Olympic Summer Games, the Opening Ceremony will not take place in a stadium,” officials said. “Paris 2024 is breaking new ground by bringing sports into the city, and the same will be true of the Opening Ceremony, set to be held in the heart of the city along its main artery: the Seine.”
Athletes were the “heart and soul” of the ceremony, which was considered the largest in Olympic history. A total of 10,500 Olympic athletes from 206 countries participated in the event to kick off the games.
The delegation from Greece kicked off the boat parade on the famous Seine River. Boats with each country’s athletes are traveling from east to west for approximately four miles. Each boat was equipped with cameras to allow viewers worldwide to get an up-close look at the athletes.
The river parade ended at the Iena Bridge, which is located in between the Eiffel Tower and the Trocadéro district.
The Olympic cauldron was then lit in a move that traditionally signals the official start of the Olympic Games. Keeping with tradition, the identity of the person who first lit the cauldron remained a secret until the last minute. American entertainer Snoop Dogg has carried the Olympic torch ahead of the opening ceremony through the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis.
Near the Louvre Museum, French judo champ Teddy Riner and three-time Olympic champion runner Marie-Jose Perec lit the Olympic cauldron, which was attached to a giant balloon that floated into the night—an homage to early French pioneers of manned flight.
“Thinking creatively and revolutionizing the Games yet remaining accessible to a large audience: this is the challenge met by Paris 2024,” officials said. “The Opening Ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games will be bold, original, and unique,” according to organizers, who also promised it would be one of the most memorable moments in Olympic history.
Two hundred and twenty thousand invited guests and 104,000 paid spectators watched the historic opening ceremony from the lower and upper banks of the Seine River. Eighty “giant” screens were “strategically placed” in the heart of the city, allowing people to enjoy the show throughout the French capital.
More than three hours into the show, French President Emmanuel Macron declared the Games open.
Earlier in the day, chaos erupted in Paris after its state-run rail system was attacked overnight but the opening ceremony moved forward as planned.
Trains to and from Paris were disrupted just hours before the start of the opening ceremony, affecting 800,000 travelers. The “malicious acts” included arson and the cutting of cables, officials said.
“Following this massive attack aimed at paralyzing the high-speed line network, a large number of trains were diverted or canceled,” Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français wrote in a post on X.”Affected travelers will be contacted by email or SMS. We ask all travelers who can to postpone their trip and not to go to the station.”
French sports minister Amélie Oudéa-Castera told the media that Olympic organizers would “ensure the proper transport of all delegations to the competition sites” despite the act of sabotage on the rail system.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.