Paris Opening Ceremony – Hit or Miss?

The 2024 Summer Olympic Games kicked off in Paris with the traditional Opening Ceremony. Or was it traditional? While the ceremony had several of the trappings of other ceremonies, the raising of the Olympic flag … upside down, the cauldron lighting, the traditional speeches of the president of the IOC, the parade of nations, that was about it and even those elements had their own twist. Paris broke so many molds last night, it’s got the online universe reeling and rightfully so. This is probably the first full throat Olympics since the COVID shutdowns and the eyes of the world were on the city to see how they will pull this off.

This is Paris’ third time at hosting the Olympics, serving as the second host city in 1900 after a Frenchman, Pierre de Coubertin, revived the Games that had been dormant since the days of ancient Greece. The bid was a part of a new process introduced by IOC President Thomas Bach to avoid the constant and corruption ridden bidding process that started leaving the IOC scrambling for host cities at the last minute. In that bid cycle, LA was also awarded the right to host the Games in 2028.

Another aspect Bach and the IOC was trying to introduce was the concept of sustainability, meaning the footprint of the Games would be as minimal as possible and any permanent facility would still be used as a public facility after the Games. This was to reduce the cost of hosting the Games which had spiraled out of control with Russia’s hosting of the Sochi Winter Olympics at a record breaking cost of $55 billion, more than even the Summer Games which has a much larger footprint.

When it was announced that Paris would hold the Opening Ceremonies down the iconic Seine River, some were skeptical of their approach. But, after all it was going to be their Games and many felt it best to let the French be the French, independent as they are. Originally, the bid specified the ceremonies would be held in Stade de France, a stadium that can hold 75,000 people. However, in 2022 that changed after a proposal by Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin to make it as accessible as possible with upwards of 220,000 people able to see the pageantry.

The river would be used to transport the athletes down the Seine to the Trocadéro across from the Eiffel Tower. Entertainment would occur along the route, including on the bridges that are a part of the beauty of the Seine. The procession would pass many Paris landmarks such as the Louvre, Notre Dame Cathedral, ending at the Pont Alexandre III. It was all a great plan … and then the rain came and it came down hard.

But even the rain didn’t dampen the spirits of the athletes, some who may be nursing colds this morning, or the spectators. They were cheering back and forth at each other as the athletes toured down the river in the low boats often seen on the Seine. However, the dignitaries and the IOC may have had another opinion of this. After all, they were sitting in stands waiting for the parade to get to them. They could only enjoy the ceremonies on huge screens just like the rest of us watching on our TVs. It wasn’t what they were used to and may weigh into future ceremonies.

So, what went well and what went wrong. For starters, the parade of nations was long, so long in fact that Paris helped cut the time by interspersing performances along the Seine in with the flotilla of boats. Lady Gaga had a burlesque performance on the banks of the river. A heavy metal band performed a rendition of “Ah! Ça Ira!,” a French revolutionary song with headless Marie Antoinettes in the background. A fashion show with drag queens and young French designers was held on a bridge. The list of performances could go on for several paragraphs.

But those were isolated and weren’t continuous. So, spectators had to do what those in the comfy seats at the Trocadéro had to resort to the big screens to see what was happening. Yes, they got to see more athletes, but once you’ve seen one set of athletes, you’ve seen them all? Then, there was the delivery of the flag which required an anime horse to ski down the Seine to deliver it to a Skeletor who then delivered it to a military honor guard who … wait for it … hoisted it upside down.

Finally, we got to the torch which was presented by a Frenchman to a Raphael Nadal, a Spaniard, another break with tradition. Rafa then took the torch back down the river where it had just came from along with other sports icons. Finally, it arrived at the Louvre where former French Olympians (now, we’re back on track) took turns carrying it into the Jardin des Tuileries to light a ring around a helium balloon, far from the Trocadéro.

To be fair, cauldrons that are lit during the ceremonies are never the eventual home of the flame. As a part of that sustainability plan, you just don’t build stadiums with a useless cauldron in them that are never lit again. London lit a collection of torches that slowly rose to become a cauldron, but the real cauldron sat outside in Olympic Park.

There are many other things I could point out, but this blog is getting pretty long. Suffice it to say the ceremonies had supporters and haters. Most likely, the IOC is going to have a say in the planning of LA’s approach to the ceremonies and will probably push to bring it back to the stadium which has already changed from the Coliseum to SoFi Stadium. I really don’t see them building even a temporary cauldron that will burn through the Games in that building. After all, it has to be reset to host the largest swimming venue in Olympic history.

Personally, I loved the fact that Paris stretched boundaries and broke some traditions. The Olympics had gotten into a rut and needed some resets. Regardless, we’re now in the most spectacular part of the Games, the actual competition. Spend your time enjoying the tremendous efforts of these athletes. Watch a few that you don’t normally watch to gain some diversity. And finally, Citius, Altius, Fortius.