Paris 2024 welcomes with historic parade of delegations alongside the Seine

Paris. The opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Video games started at 7:30 p.m. native time (5:30 p.m. GMT) on Friday, with the River Seine because the unprecedented setting for this international sporting occasion.

Gallery: Paris 2024 welcomes with historic parade of delegations alongside the Seine

The occasion started with a screening of a movie starring native comic Jamel Debbouze and former footballer Zinedine Zidane on the Stade de France, and 10 minutes later the boat carrying the Greek delegation started the standard parade of athletes.

At round 7:40 p.m. native time (17:40 GMT), a wall of water opened up beneath the Austerlitz bridge, clearing the way in which for this boat, the primary of 85 that should transport the almost 6,500 contributors within the parade to Trocadero.

The musical present started on the identical time, with a efficiency by American pop queen Woman Gaga, who sang “Mon truc en plumes” by Zizi Jeanmaire, an emblematic track of French music corridor, one of many nice worldwide stars who is predicted to participate within the ceremony.

The long-awaited second comes after a busy day, which started with rain and sabotage of the French railway community.

The French railway firm (SNCF) was “the sufferer of a number of simultaneous malicious acts within the early hours of the morning on the Atlantic, North and East high-speed strains,” the corporate mentioned, including that there have been “deliberate arson assaults to wreck the amenities.”

Act of “sabotage in opposition to the Video games”

Sports activities Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castera condemned this “sabotage” in opposition to the “Sports activities’ Video games”, whereas her Transport counterpart, Patrice Vergriete, denounced a “scandalous prison act”, whereas Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo mentioned that “what has occurred is unacceptable, but it surely won’t influence on tonight’s ceremony”.

It was not the one unhealthy information that the Paris 2024 organisation woke as much as, because the day dawned with a lightweight rain and on the time the present began it was nonetheless drizzling and the sky was very cloudy, with out detracting from a spectacle watched by 320,000 folks on the banks of the Seine.

Macron guarantees an “unbelievable” ceremony

“Tomorrow you should have probably the most unbelievable opening ceremonies,” promised French President Emmanuel Macron the day earlier than at a dinner for heads of state held on the Louvre museum.

Dealt with with excessive secrecy by these accountable, it’s believed that, along with Woman Gaga, the quantity will characteristic the Canadian singer Céline Dion and Aya Nakamura, probably the most listened to French-speaking artist on the planet and a recurring goal of the French far proper.

What is for certain is that the opening, which has required colossal safety efforts, will probably be witnessed dwell by personalities and as much as 85 leaders of a world in stress because of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

“It is a huge gamble,” mentioned Tony Estanguet, president of the organising committee (COJO), conscious of the logistical efforts concerned in placing on an open-air occasion in a context of terrorist alert, in a rustic nonetheless scarred by the jihadist assaults of 13 November 2015, which left 130 useless in Paris.

Paris, a fortress

The ceremony was designed by French theatre director Thomas Jolly, identified for the hit rock-opera musical Starmania, and could be seen as a considerably transgressive thought.

It will likely be the primary Olympic Video games to be held exterior a stadium, requiring an unprecedented safety operation that has turned the centre of Paris right into a veritable fortress.

Some 45,000 cops and personal safety guards employed for the event will probably be deployed on Friday, and snipers will even be stationed at strategic factors within the capital to make sure safety through the parade.

Israeli and Palestinian sports activities delegations will probably be given additional care amid fears that Israel’s Gaza offensive is a possible motive for would-be attackers.

Leaders from world wide

Israel will probably be represented by its president, Isaac Herzog, whereas Jibril Rajoub, head of the Palestinian Olympic Committee, would be the face of the Palestinian Authority.

Essentially the most notable absence will probably be Vladimir Putin, following Russia’s exclusion over its invasion of Ukraine. His Ukrainian counterpart, Volodimyr Zelensky, isn’t on the visitor checklist.

US First Woman Jill Biden will attend the occasion with out President Joe Biden, who lately dropped out of the re-election race in opposition to Donald Trump, a survivor of a current assassination try.

China will ship Vice President Han Zheng and Spain will ship King Felipe, whereas Javier Milei (Argentina), Gustavo Petro (Colombia) and Santiago Peña (Paraguay) would be the Latin American dignitaries.