PARIS, DECEMBER 13 (BUS): Thousands of Olympic athletes on boats sail along the Seine towards sunset like a giant gold medal behind the Eiffel Tower.
The vision for the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games was revealed on Monday as organizers hope the event will be unique in Olympic history and free for hundreds of thousands to watch by the river.
Rethinking the ceremony announcing the Olympics to the world by taking it out of the traditional stadium has long been hinted at by officials in Paris, according to the Associated Press.
Details revealed at the July 26, 2024 parade help explain the promise to use the City of Light, its culture, and its people as key representatives at the Olympics.
“It has to be creative, it has to be different, it has to be amazing and it has to be popular,” said Tony Estangett, president of the organizing committee for the Paris Olympics.
For starters, the waterborne opening ceremony will be innovated with a parade of athletes from over 200 teams that starts rather than ends the evening.
It will also be free to watch for most of the expected 600,000 spectators along the six-kilometre (four-mile) route.
Estanguet said the creative, security and logistical challenges of such a citywide show have included dozens of meetings between sports, city and national authorities in the past year.
About 160 boats will transport the athletes on the Seine from Pont d’Austerlitz in the east west to the Pont d’Enya under the Eiffel Tower.
“At this hour, of course, the light is just magic, really beautiful,” Estanguet said in an interview.
Athletes will pass landmarks such as Notre Dame Cathedral, the Louvre, d’Orsay and the Grand Palais on a route energized by light shows, music and sports.
“We want them to really enjoy this moment and in a way be a representative of the show,” said Estanguet, a four-time Olympian and three-time gold medalist in slalom.
His understanding of the demands placed on Olympic athletes helped shape what he hopes will be a better experience for most of the roughly 10,000 athletes in Paris.
The typical Opening Ceremony experience of standing outside the stadium, walking in, and then more standing until about midnight should disappear. This delayed the athletes who start competing the next day.
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