The Paris 2024 Olympic Games, which kick off on Sunday, will be the first time in Olympic history that the Opening Ceremony will take place outside of a stadium.
At any Olympics, the highlight of the opening ceremony is the arrival of the athletes and the lighting of the flame.
It’s hard to know how quirky the Paris Games’ flame lighting will be, as most Games keep it a “top secret” until the last minute, but the athletes’ entrance has already garnered a lot of praise before it even begins.
The athletes will be traveling by boat on the Seine, the iconic river in Paris, France.
The Associated Press called it “proof that the 33rd Olympics, 128 years after the modern Games began in 1896, can still look fresh.”
The athletes’ parade on and off the water will take place over a 6-kilometer stretch from the Austerlitz Bridge near the Botanical Gardens in Paris, France, to the Trocadero near the Eiffel Tower.
The route will pass by many French landmarks on both sides of the river, including Notre Dame Cathedral, the Paris City Hall building, the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, Place de la Concorde, and the Grand Palais, before reaching the Eiffel Tower.
The number of spectators who will be in attendance is also hard to match.
While most opening ceremony venues can only hold a maximum of 100,000 people, the 6-kilometer run along the Seine River will allow more than 300,000 people to watch the athletes in person.
Of these, 100,000 will be paying to watch the opening ceremony from pre-set grandstands along the river, while the remaining 220,000 will be free to cheer the athletes on as they enter the river.
Large screens will be set up along the river to provide spectators with a spectacular view of the action from afar, and cameras will be installed on the boats to capture the athletes’ expressions and reactions.
In preparation for the opening ceremonies, France has been closing off sections of the Seine River since the 18th, issuing passes to a select group of people, such as local residents and businesses, and restricting access to others.
The opening ceremony is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. local time on July 26th.
Given the recent Parisian sunset time of 9:30 p.m., the festive atmosphere is expected to be enhanced by the power of the outdoor lighting by the time the athletes arrive.
Greece, host of the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, will be the first team to enter, led by National Basketball Association (NBA) star Yannis Adetokunbo, followed by the refugee teams.
After that, countries will enter according to the French alphabet, and Korea is expected to enter relatively early among the 206 participating countries with Woo Sang-hyuk (track and field) and Kim Seo-young (swimming).
This is because Korea’s French alphabet starts with the letter ‘C’. The host nation, France, will be the last to cross the finish line.
Weather and safety will be two of the biggest factors in this spectacular opening ceremony across the Seine.
While the weather is the biggest variable for any outdoor event, it is even more important for the opening ceremony on the river.
“It’s good that the speed of the boat stays around 9 kilometers per hour,” event director Thierry Leboul told AFP earlier this month. That’s fast, taking about 40 minutes to cover the 6-kilometer route.
With around 120 world leaders expected to attend the event, security against terrorism is also crucial.
Some 45,000 police will be deployed around the Seine River and in downtown Paris, and a 150-kilometer radius around Paris airports will be closed from 7 p.m. onward.
In the 2013 Japanese movie “I Need to Buy New Shoes,” set in Paris, France, the female protagonist tells the male protagonist on a Seine River cruise that “when your lover passes under the bridge and you make a wish, it will come true.
It seems likely that the athletes participating in the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics will be wishing for gold as they pass under the bridge. Of course, some athletes will wish for the best for their crushes. 토토사이트