Paris 2024 Olympics: Dupont, Riner and Marchand announced at the grand parade of athletes on the Champs-Elysées

Comme lors de la cérémonie d'ouverture des Jeux Paralympiques, les athlètes vont remonter les Champs samedi. MAXPPP

Les Jeux de Paris remettent ça samedi et s’offrent un "after" sur les Champs-Elysées avec une parade des athlètes et un concert géant.

Sweat, screams, tears, sports and songs all summer long. But there's still more! The Paris Games are doing it again on Saturday and are offering an “after” on the Champs-Elysées with a parade of athletes and a giant concert. The temporary stands are being dismantled all over Paris, the now famous Phryges mascots are on sale, the director Thomas Jolly is "in full descent" after having orchestrated four ceremonies but the Olympic party is going on.

"Even if we are a little tired we are happy to go back", explains Thierry Reboul, director of ceremonies, looking a little crumpled. The idea was popular because the 70,000 free places to reserve were snapped up in an hour on Wednesday. First, the athletes who will parade along the top of the Avenue des Champs-Elysées.

300 athletes

Antoine Dupont, who started the gold medal counter for France with rugby sevens, will be there, alongside Teddy Riner and swimmer Léon Marchand, who has become one of the stars of these Olympic Games. But also the fencer Manon Apithy-Brunet or the triathlete Cassandre Beaugrand. Nearly 300 athletes, out of the approximately 800 members of the Olympic and Paralympic delegations in total, are expected on this legendary avenue in Paris.

The Champs has often served as a place of celebration, notably for the French football team. The last parade, in 2018, frustrated thousands of people when the Blues, world champions in Russia, rushed down the avenue by bus to reach the Élysée. On Saturday, everything will be held outdoors – the weather forecast is good – including the presentation of decorations to the medal winners, a tradition that usually takes place at the Élysée. The President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron and other champions already decorated will be able to decorate their peers.

"Best of the ceremonies"

Also expected on the Place de l'Etoile are Olympic stakeholders, such as public officials, volunteers, members of the organizing committee (Cojo), between 8,000 and 10,000 people in total. The internal security forces, mobilized en masse throughout the summer, will be there to secure this final celebration. For the evening concert, a large stage will be set up around the Arc de Triomphe for a concert broadcast on France Télévisions.

The identity of the artists has not yet been revealed. There will be a "best of the ceremonies", specified Thierry Reboul, with images projected on the monument. The evening will end with a "DJ set" from 11 p.m. to midnight. Once the soundtrack has been put away, it will be time for the organizers to spend several weeks looking at the last invoices and accounts.

The Cojo also specified that the cost of this parade-concert, the principle of which had been announced by the President of the Republic during the Olympic Games, would be shared between the various stakeholders of the Games and the partners. At the end of 2023, the Minister of Sports and the Olympic Games, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, announced the principle of a law including measures on the legacy of the Olympic Games, part of which could be inspired by a report produced by the former Minister of Sports Marie-George Buffet and Stéphane Diagana in December 2023.