Paris 2024 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony: A Show That Didn’t Disappoint With Stars From Start to Finish

La cérémonie n’a pas déçu. XinHua – Chen Bin

The tension slowly rose like a World Cup final day, endless hours where we try to occupy ourselves without really succeeding. Even the weather forecast hesitated for a long time between drizzle, humid heat and finally rain, continuous, intense! All evening.

At this moment, it is difficult to imagine the pressure felt by all the police forces in France who came to secure the Capital for a unique opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, 6 km along the Seine, from the Pont d'Austerlitz to the outskirts of the Trocadéro and the official stand.

It is impossible to imagine the state of stress of Thierry Reboul, the architect of this madness, of Thomas Jolly, its director, and of the 3,000 artists and performers involved in the adventure.

And Tony Estanguet… Did he even realize how far he had come since Pau and his first paddle strokes when he was about to address the world??

The sirens silenced

The tension slowly rose and around 7:30 p.m., the string of sirens finally silenced and the airspace completely sealed, the dream became reality before our eyes drowned in emotion. Anyone who didn't shed a little tear last night is either heartless or a liar.

From the first scenes presented along the water, the shivers came to shake the bodies. Whether they paid a high price or just benefited from a little luck, the 326,000 spectators on the quays very quickly measured the privilege of being so close to the waves, the boats and, soon, the athletes, 6,500 men and women from the Virgin Islands or the United States, India or Kosovo… 206 countries in total.

Jamel Debbouze, Zizou, Lady Gaga, Aya Nakamura

Usually, an opening ceremony tells the story of the host country. France is an old nation. It had a lot to show, to express, to tell, to sing. With charm and audacity, as always in the country of Enlightenment. It was necessary to dare to launch the affair with two children from immigration, Djamel Debbouze, alone lost in the middle of the Stade de France with the Olympic flame, and Zinedine Zidane, the hero of 1998 flying to his rescue even in the rat-infested sewers of Paris.

You had to be crazy enough to imagine Lady Gaga as Zizi Jeanmaire taking up « My thing in feather », making the boats parade to the notes of La boum or Rita Mitsouko, taking out the girls of the Moulin Rouge, make the workers of Notre-Dame fly away, cut off Marie-Antoinette's head to the sounds of Metalheads, promote free love, let Aya Nakamura share the stage with the Republican Guard, hoist the Marseillaise on the roofs of the Grand Palais, exhume all the country's heroines from the earth or throw the Mona Lisa into the Seine. Under the flood this time. Rainy Olympics, happy Olympics. Fingers crossed.

"68 million French people will now push behind you"

We have to be honest, we would have liked to share this moment without the umbrellas and plastic ponchos on our heads. But it was said that after the SNCF computer attack, Paris 2024 should also suffer from the vagaries of the weather.

The passage of the French team and its 414 representatives, its two flag bearers Mélina Robert-Michon and Florent Manaudou at the helm of the liner, unfortunately coincided with the heaviest of the downpours. Some had already deserted the stands, soaked to the bone. The Blues, for their part, danced in the rain, with Johnny, Polnareff and his « Letter to France » in the loudspeakers. It was their evening. A magical night that they had been waiting for 100 years, as Tony Estanguet would later recall during a fiery speech: “68 million French people will now follow you.”

All that remained was to light the fire after illuminating the Eiffel Tower in a breathtaking finale. With Zizou back on stage, the relays of Rafael Nadal, Nadia Comaneci, Carl Lewis, Serena Williams, Amélie Mauresmo, Tony Parker, Michael Guigou, Alison Pineau, Jean-François Lamour, Felicia Balanger, Florian Rousseau, Emilie Le Penec, David Douillet, Clarisse Agbegnenou, Alain Bernard… And to finish Marie-José Pérec and Teddy Riner. Celine Dion could then complete this unique evening by singing L’Hymne à l’amour from the Eiffel Tower. The Games are open.

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