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Paris 2024: Emmanuel Macron proclaims the Olympic Games “open”
Emmanuel Macron’s speech at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris, July 26, 2024.
(FRANCE 2)
Facing a few whistles, the head of state officially launched the 33rd modern Olympic Games, at the end of a memorable ceremony on the Seine.
The Olympics have begun. “I proclaim open the Paris Games celebrating the 33rd Olympiad of modern times”declared Emmanuel Macron, Friday, July 26, according to the ritual formula, at the end of a grandiose opening ceremony. Wiping away a few whistles, the French president spoke on the Trocadéro esplanade, after the speeches of the president of the Paris Olympic Games organizing committee, Tony Estanguet, the head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach, and in front of 85 heads of state and government, who stoically endured the torrential rain that fell on the capital.
In a mix of recorded images and twelve tableaux along the Seine, director Thomas Jolly summoned the history of France, with a plethora of cultural and artistic references, such as a Marie-Antoinette holding her bloody head under the fiery guitar sounds of the French metal band Gojira. Aya Nakamura, the most listened to French-speaking artist in the world, or even international stars Lady Gaga and Céline Dion put on a show, punctuating the parade of athletes on the Seine. The French champions were in the spotlight in the last torch relays, with Zinedine Zidane, Amélie Mauresmo, David Douillet. Marie-José Pérec and Teddy Riner finally lit the Olympic cauldron together in the Tuileries Gardens.