Long, pharaonic and divisive. What the Opening Ceremony of Paris 2024 was like.

Very long, pharaonic and divisive. This could be summed up as the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympics, which was held yesterday in continuous and pouring rain and was, as expected, an extraordinary event that celebrated celebrates France’s rich history and culture as well as the universal values of sport and global unity. The city of Paris, former host of the Olympic Games in 1900 and 1924, is hosting this prestigious international event for the third time and wanted to open with a spectacular and innovative ceremony.

For the first time in the history of the modern Olympics, the opening ceremony was held not in a stadium but along the Seine River. This bold and innovative choice transformed the heart of Paris into a giant open-air stage. The Seine, with its historic bridges and iconic banks, provided an incredible backdrop for the celebrations, showcasing some of the city’s most famous monuments, such as the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, and Notre-Dame.

Kicking off at 7:30 p.m. with the passage over the Seine of the delegation from Greece, which traditionally opens the procession, ending with that of France, the host country. In between, 205 paraded in 84 boats and vessels along the river for six kilometers from the Pont d’Austerlitz to the Trocadéro, where the grandstand of honor was installed. Italy shared its boat with Iceland and Israel around 9 p.m.

The ceremony, directed by Thomas Jolly, was then enriched by a series of shows including musical performances, dance choreography and fireworks displays. There was no shortage of stars: kicking off with Lady Gaga and Gojira, a French death metal band, and closing, after the lighting of the Olympic brazier, by Céline Dion. The brazier, indeed: a large hot air balloon lit from the Tuileries Gardens by the last torchbearers, judoka Teddy Riner and sprinter Marie-José Pérec. Particularly intense was the moment when the Olympic flame, from the Trocadéro, departed for the Louvre, carried by four of the greatest sportspeople of recent decades: Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams, Nadia Comaneci and Carl Lewis. Before them, organizing committee chairman Tony Estanguet and IOC president Thomas Bach expressed their good wishes, and French President Emmanuel Macron declared the Olympics officially started.

Also, artistic performances. Jolly provided a program of dances and choreography that traced France’s history, which was not without criticism. First, statues dedicated to the great women of French history, then a drag queen show that reinterpreted the evangelical episode of the Last Supper, then again a parade to celebrate inclusion and diversity (our fencer Bebe Vio also took part), and later dances to the notes of great Eurodance hits from the 1980s and 1990s to pay homage to the European Union. Finally, spectacular (albeit very long) ride of a mechanical horse on the Seine to symbolize the solemnity of the last moments of the ceremony. As usual, in short, the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games was not only a visual spectacle, but also a moment of reflection and sharing of profound messages. An occasion to celebrate the Olympic values of friendship, respect and excellence, and to promote peace and unity among peoples.

On the performance itself, opinions were divided. For the New York Times, it was a “French-style jubilation that combined history and artistic daring,” a “revolutionary show” for the Frankfurter Allgemeine, while the Guardian spoke of “a kitschy spectacle by the river.” For Marco Balich, it was an opening ceremony “lacking in emotion and beauty, whether because of the rain or the sloppiness of certain shots,” but also criticized the little space left for the athletes. And then, special attention, as anticipated, was paid to the themes of inclusion and diversity, with performances that emphasized the importance of equality and mutual respect, as well as the importance of civil rights. And this was the most divisive issue, with left-wing parties from halfway around the world appreciating the attempt to talk about rights and inclusivity, and those on the right lashing out against the show described by many as “woke.”

Then there could be no shortage of religious controversy, with the bishops speaking of “scenes of derision and mockery about Christianity,” to which Jolly responded pointedly, “I didn’t want to be subversive or shock anyone. Simply, in France we have the right to love each other, as we want and with whom we want. We have the right to believe or not to believe. Last night, we simply staged the republican ideas of benevolence and inclusion. This is what I saw yesterday: people dancing, people working, even the athletes, everyone was in the rain and we stood together celebrating this shared humanity, in which I hope we could all recognize ourselves, find ourselves and be able to say, ’We are all different, we are all together.’”

In short, however you want to think about it, it was a memorable event, a mix of tradition and innovation, spectacle and reflection: Paris 2024 offered the world an unprecedented celebration that is destined to remain in the collective memory of the Olympic Games. The City of Lights, with its eternal charm and ability to reinvent itself, proved in its own way to be a stage for the greatest global events. And now, controversy set aside, the Olympics can begin.

Long, pharaonic and divisive. What the Opening Ceremony of Paris 2024 was like.

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