Thousands of Olympic athletes on boats sailing along the Seine towards a sunset like a giant gold medal huddled behind the Eiffel Tower.
The planned opening ceremony for the Paris Games in 2024 was unveiled on Monday as an event that the organizers wish to be unique in Olympic history, and which hundreds of thousands of people will be able to attend for free by the river.
Those responsible for the Paris Games have long considered the idea of reinventing the ceremony that announces the start of the Olympic Games to the world by taking it outside the traditional framework of stadiums.
The details made public of the ceremony, which is due to take place on July 26, 2024, have helped explain a promise to use the City of Light, its culture and its people as essential players in the Olympics.
“It has to be creative, it has to be different, it has to be spectacular and it has to be popular”, explained Tony Estanguet, president of the Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games in Paris, in an interview. granted to The Associated Press.
First, the opening ceremony will innovate by placing the parade of athletes, from more than 200 teams, at the start of the evening rather than to close it.
The event will also be free for the majority of the 600,000 or so spectators expected to line up along the six-kilometer course.
The challenges of creativity, security and logistics of such a show have required dozens of meetings between sports, municipal and national authorities over the past year, said Estanguet.
Around 160 boats will transport the athletes on the Seine from the Pont d’Austerlitz in the east, heading west to the Pont d’Iéna, under the Eiffel Tower.
“At this hour, of course, the light is just magical, really beautiful,” Estanguet said in an interview.
The athletes will pass monuments such as Notre-Dame Cathedral, the Louvre and Orsay museums, and the Grand Palais, on a course that will be animated by light shows, music and sport.
“We want them to really enjoy this moment and, in a way, to be the actors of the show,” explained Estanguet, who has participated in four Olympic Games and won three gold medals in C1 slalom.
His understanding of the demands placed on Olympic athletes has helped him shape what he hopes will be a better experience for most of the 10,000 or so athletes who will be in Paris.
So the traditional Opening Ceremony, where athletes have to stand outside the stadium, enter it, and then stay up until around midnight, should be eliminated. Such a way of doing things often turned off athletes whose competitions started the next day.
“You could spend hours and hours on your feet,” said Estanguet, who hopes to convince athletes that they can participate without stress.
They should be able to board a boat, relax and let themselves be transported to the Trocadero Gardens, where they will be seated on platforms.
They will be able to choose to return to their apartment in the Olympic Village or attend the artistic performance that traditionally kicks off the Opening Ceremony.
“We’re going to start working on the art direction,” Estanguet said after Monday’s launch.