An unprecedented opening ceremony on the Seine, more than 160 boats welcoming sportsmen and women from more than 200 delegations … The organizers of the Olympic Games which will take place in 2024 in Paris have lifted the veil on a spectacle which promises to be grand and very innovative, this Monday. This is the first time in the history of the Summer Olympics that an opening ceremony will take place outside a stadium.
More than 160 boats on the Seine
More than 160 boats welcoming sportsmen and women from more than 200 delegationss will parade on the river for nearly 6 km between the Pont d’Austerlitz and the Pont d’Iéna in the center of Paris according to the plan. The end of the ceremony will be held on the Esplanade du Trocadéro.
The organizers plan to host nearly 600,000 people, with part of the public distributed along the banks on paid stands, and another part of the public who will be able to access the ceremony free of charge. “Today is a strong moment. There are a lot of emotions, a lot of enthusiasm. The opening ceremony is necessarily the biggest scorer”, commented Tony Estanguet, patron of the Paris 2024 Games, during a press conference following the Board of Directors of the Organizing Committee (Cojo).
600,000 people expected on the banks of the Seine
The President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron formalized in July on the sidelines of the Tokyo Olympics this summer this project which had raised reluctance on the side of the police, worried about being able to secure a event of such magnitude. The latter would have liked to limit the public to 250,000 people while the organizers and the Paris town hall were looking bigger, “around 2 million people in the initial project “, had assured a source close to the town hall.
At the end of an interministerial committee devoted to the Paris Olympics a month ago in Seine-Saint-Denis, Prime Minister Jean Castex asked the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin to formulate “proposals” for the security of the event “by the end of the year”. Nearly fifty meetings with all the authorities involved, from the Ministry of the Interior to the river institutions of the Seine through the town hall of Paris were necessary to study the feasibility of the project, which is likely to evolve.