Spectators hold umbrellas on stands along the river Seine before the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 on July 26, 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo by John MacDougall – Pool/Getty Images)
The first events of the 2024 Olympics began Wednesday, but there are no sports today.
That’s because the opening ceremony starts.
For the first time, the opening ceremony will not take place in a stadium.
Instead, athletes will arrive via boat and cruise down the Seine, passing by historic Paris landmarks, including the Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral and the Louvre.
President of the Jamaica Olympic Association, Christopher Samuda, says the country will have a 35 member contingent participating in opening ceremony.
Meanwhile, singers Lady Gaga and Céline Dion are expected to be among the performers.
After a global pandemic and with at least three ongoing wars, the organisers of Friday’s opening ceremony for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games hope to provide relief, positivity and perhaps even some unity in a world increasingly beset with tension.
There has never been a celebration so ambitious during the 128-year history of the modern Olympiad.
Rather than parade inside a stadium, around 10,500 athletes will sail in a 3.5 mile flotilla of 94 boats down Paris’ iconic Seine River.
It could be a blockbuster return for the summer sporting festival, which will host spectators for the first time in eight years after the coronavirus-plagued days of Tokyo in 2021.
The spectacle of the opening ceremony typically draws viewers who may not even follow athletics, and this year’s open-air extravaganza promises to be no different.
Those fears came into focus hours before the festivities started when France’s state-owned high-speed rail network was hit with “several simultaneous” arson attacks disrupting travel for 800-thousand people.
Organisers say the city itself will provide an unforgettable backdrop, with events interspersed among its most recognizable landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower.
At the same time, they say the Games will be the most environmentally friendly yet, with 95 percent of buildings either temporary or already standing — and no air conditioning systems installed in the athletes village bedrooms.
More than 200 national teams are competing across 329 events held over 19 days.
And in an attempt to appeal to younger audiences, there will be four new disciplines: sport climbing, skateboarding, surfing and break dancing.
Credit: Source link