Paris Games Open on Seine Amid Tight Security and Rain: Paris awoke dark and spent the day sombre. It came to life as the evening wore on. And it wouldn’t stop even as it poured late into the night.
Certainly not when Zinedine Zidane, the French magician with his foot and the ball, marched with the Olympic torch to chants of “Zizou, Zizou” at the last stretch of the Paris Games opening ceremony, right next to the illuminated Eiffel Tower. Or when Rafael Nadal, the 14-time French Open winner who might very well call Paris home, took over with a hug as warm as the flame. The Spaniard quickly boarded the boat of champions, which also included Serena Williams, Carl Lewis, and Nadia Comaneci, for the torch’s last stretch.
It was then carried through the streets by a slew of French sports stars before the Olympic Cauldron was ignited by three-time Olympic winners Teddy Riner (judo) and Marie-Jose Perec (athletics).
The 2024 Paris Olympics were officially opened on Friday with a ceremony that deviated from the artificial conventions of stadium limits and added its own splash of colour. This was unlike any other curtain raiser in the Games’ history.
The River Seine, a hot issue of conversation for months, lay calm and silent despite the steady drizzle that evolved into a persistent deluge. Athletes flowed on it, igniting the biggest sporting scene for the next 16 days.
The inaugural post-Covid Games began under the dark twilight sky of Paris, with boats travelling a six-kilometer stretch of water.
India’s boat had 78 athletes, coaches, and officials, including flagbearers Sharath Kamal, a five-time Olympian, and PV Sindhu, a two-time Olympic medallist.
Indians don’t mind the rain
By the time they stepped into it at 8:30 p.m. and their boat had exited Austerlitz Bridge, the light drizzle had turned into a steady rain. However, the Indians were not discouraged. Sharath and Sindhu held the giant Indian flag together, while the others waved the smaller ones. Smiles were around; everyone afloat was content under their nice old-fashioned plastic raincoats.
Around an hour later, when they arrived near the Eiffel Tower, and a couple more when the ceremony reached its peak, only a few people remained. Sailors Nethra Kumanan and Vishnu Sarvanan, as well as certain hockey staff, including Paddy Upton and golfer Shubhankar Sharma, stayed to take shots as the imaginative spectacle came to an end at minutes to midnight.
There were a few stutters throughout the day. The dreary weather didn’t fit the gathering’s theme well. Targeted attacks, like as arson on high-speed train lines across France in the morning, were of greater concern. As the evening progressed, the mood improved.
When Zidane accepted the Olympic flame on the large screen to open the ceremony, throngs of spectators gathered near the Eiffel Tower applauded and clapped. The torch was ignited, and the athletes paraded along the river. Rather than walking, they were transported over the water on boats.
Greece, the hosts of the inaugural Olympics in 1896, emerged with the boat. That was the first of 85 boats with a total of nearly 6,500 athletes on board.
Over 3,000 000 people witnessed the entire ceremony from lower and upper quays throughout the 6 km stretch that went through some of the most notable buildings in the city. This was a show that was made available for Parisians to enjoy in the open air, rather than being restricted to a small group of people within a stadium.
Under the direction of French artist Thomas Jolly, more than 2,000 artists performed in between the athletes’ procession. With the exception of last-minute preparations by the river, 200 days were dedicated to the same as Paris prepared to host the Olympics for the first time in a century.
But that day, the midday bustle was carried away by sporadic drizzle. Yet, the Indian contingent’s eagerly awaited Instagram photos started to appear from back in the village. While the ladies archers dressed elegance and the hockey lads looked smart, the badminton gurus, Prakash Padukone and P Gopichand, looked dapper in a group photo. The high-speed rail timetable in the nation was thrown off, and Kumanan and Sarvanan arrived at the village in the afternoon from Marseille (the site of the sailing activities).
With hours before the ceremony began, the riverfront area’s streets appeared deserted, with armed security stationed every few blocks to keep the people out. Snipers were stationed along the way, and the local media stated that about 35 security vessels accompanied the boats transporting the various contingents.
Three hours prior to the main event, a pre-show was place in Saint-Denis, the site of the track and field competitions, to get things warmed up. It’s show time for thousands of athletes competing in the Paris Olympics.
