Let the show begin! The 2024 Olympic Games will open with a ceremony lasting nearly four hours, combining a parade that is intended to be grandiose with the delegations’ on-board parade on Friday on the Seine, in the heart of Paris, under very high security protection.
This ceremony has a strong image stake for France, which is taking advantage of the occasion to welcome around a hundred heads of state and government and to conduct intense diplomatic activity while conflicts rage from Ukraine to Gaza, via Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Organized for the first time outside a stadium, this show, which will begin at 7:30 p.m. (1:30 p.m. in Quebec) and end at night, has given rise to many questions and other reversals, since the idea of leaving a reassuring and closed setting for the banks of the river was born. The final decision was finally made in the fall of 2020, by Emmanuel Macron, with the approval of the IOC, anxious to dust off its image.
“This represents a huge gamble,” confided Tony Estanguet, president of the Games Organizing Committee (COJO), on Thursday, who sees the sequence as “revealing our state of mind,” with “the idea of interweaving sport and culture.”
The project of a large popular festival, bringing together a million onlookers strolling along the banks, has gradually disappeared, on the altar of security pragmatism. The capacity has been reduced to 320,000 spectators – 220,000 on the free high quays and 100,000 paying spectators closest to the river – who will be asked to remain in the reserved location and grandstand.
The areas bordering the Seine have resembled an entrenched camp for almost ten days; access is restricted to those with a precious QR code. All boats traveling on the river have been checked and the 85 boats that will carry the athletes’ delegations are under tight surveillance.
Aya Nakamura, Lady Gaga, Celine Dion?
Never have so many police forces been mobilized, with a “peak” announced at 45,000 police officers and gendarmes deployed on the ground. In addition, there will be approximately 2,000 private security agents and 1,000 municipal police officers from the City of Paris. And a contingent of 10,000 soldiers will provide support for the system.
Some 200 RAID police officers will monitor security on the river, 350 GIGN gendarmes will be responsible for the air and a hundred elite police officers from the BRI (Research and Intervention Brigade) will protect the quays.
Finally, mine clearance divers will be ready to intervene if an explosive charge is detected during the parade.
As for the show itself, its one-man band Thomas Jolly has been working on it for 18 months. Even if the director has admitted wanting to promote French heritage, its content is being carefully kept secret. All we know is that the parade of delegation boats will be punctuated by twelve scenes that will be spread out over the six kilometers of the river.
“The idea is to say that there is not one France but several Frances,” conceded Thomas Jolly.
For months, questions have been flying about the identity of the singers who will accompany the procession. Celine Dion, Lady Gaga, Aya Nakamura, the most listened to French-speaking singer in the world, are given as favourites by the bookmakers, who also cite the repertoire of Edith Piaf or Charles Aznavour.
The metal group Gojira would be associated with the Franco-Swiss lyrical singer Marina Viotti.
Uncertain weather
The parade on the Seine will be accompanied by an intense diplomatic ballet. Around a hundred people, including 85 heads of state and government, will attend the ceremony from the official stand set up on Place du Trocadéro.
Vladimir Putin will be the notable absentee, as Russia was banned from the Games due to the war in Ukraine. China will be represented by Vice President Han Zheng, and the United States by Jill Biden, whose husband, Joe, has just given up his re-election to the White House.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog will be present, under very high surveillance. He is expected to meet President Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of the ceremony.
The head of the Palestinian Olympic Committee, Jibril Rajoub, will represent the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas.
Show, security, diplomacy… The organizers and the authorities have tried to square the circle. There remains one last unknown: the uncertain weather. No storms or heat waves will disrupt the party, but a few drops of rain are not excluded.
To allow athletes to take part in the ceremony, the competitions, some of which began on Wednesday, will take a break. Only shooting training is scheduled for the morning, at the decentralized site in Châteauroux.
Far from Paris and its great spectacle.