The opening of the Olympic Games in Paris will bring a revolution! No stadium and a nearly four-kilometre cruise

At the turn of July and August, the eyes of the world’s best athletes and sports fans will be on Paris, France. Exactly on Friday 26 July 2024, the Olympic Games will kick off with a spectacular opening ceremony. Different from what we have known so far.

We’ve known a similar scenario for many years. Tens of thousands of people, hundreds or thousands of athletes will gather in a large Olympic stadium and a grand opening ceremony will take place in one place in a matter of hours.

Then the Olympic flame is lit, everyone retires to their hotels, and the next day it all goes into full swing. Only this time, the organisers have prepared a different scenario for us. Different from the usual, let’s say revolutionary.

One of the architects of the whole idea is Tony Estanguet. A canoeist who is considered one of the best French Olympians of all time. He was the first French athlete to win Olympic gold at three different games. The only Games he participated in and didn’t win anything was the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Memory as inspiration of

Estanguet has kept a bunch of memories from the events under the five rings in his heart. But few can compare to the Opening Ceremony.

“I remember all four events very well. But probably my strongest experience was the first one when I stepped into the Olympic Stadium in Sydney for the opening ceremony of my first Games,” he recalled in a story for The Athletic.

“It was two days before my race, and then everything stops and you feel something very powerful, to be part of something very special,” the 2024 Paris Olympic Committee president said today.

And that’s why Estanguet wants to offer something unique to the athletes at the Paris Games: “So I know how important it is for the athletes. I know it’s important for everyone involved as well, because it’s the biggest TV coverage of the Games,” he explains his position.

He says that within three hours, the host country has to send a very strong message about what the Games should be about. That’s also why he decided to support the idea of keeping the opening ceremony outside the enclosed Olympic stadium this time.

Starring boats and a long cruise

The Athletic wrote that the Paris Games, with Estanguet at the helm, are set to send out the strongest and boldest opening statement in the history of the modern Olympics. And to top it all off, organizers also intend to practice the boldest idea in the history of opening ceremonies.

The trump card will be a 3.7-kilometre-long cruise down the Seine River, with delegations from 200 countries boarding 100 boats for a 45-minute voyage towards the Eiffel Tower. There has never been a Summer Olympics opening outside the stadium.

The cruise will start at the National Library, pass the Notre Dame Cathedral (which is still being repaired after a devastating fire in 2019 – ed.) and continue past all the famous gardens in central Paris, ending at the Eiffel Tower.

Famous world athletes will be on the boats, waving to perhaps hundreds of thousands of fans standing along the riverbank. According to the organisers, up to 15,000 athletes are expected to take part in the Games in Paris.

Increased security measures of Olympic Games

Estanguet and his colleagues spent a year and a half putting the plan together before announcing it in 2021. Now, three years later, the idea is considered definitive. Of course, the whole event will not be without extraordinary security measures. But the organisers are thinking about that too.

The organizers do not have a final estimate of the number of visitors to the ceremony yet, but at the beginning there was talk of up to 600 thousand. Now it seems that the final number of visitors will be significantly smaller. Even so, it should be in the hundreds of thousands.

After the athletes have crawled to the finishing station near the Eiffel Tower and sat down in the courtyard, the event will end with the lighting of the Olympic flame.

The XXXIII Summer Olympic Games 2024 will be held in Paris, France. The Opening Ceremony will take place on 26 July 2024 and the Closing Ceremony will take place on 11 August 2024. Paris will be only the second city in history to host the Games for the third time.

Source: LOH 2024, The Athletic