Paris Opens the Olympics on the Seine

On 26 July 2024, the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympic Games unfolded along the Seine in central Paris, marking the first time in Olympic history that the opening ceremony took place outside a stadium. Directed by Thomas Jolly, the ceremony transformed the river into an open-air stage, parading national delegations by boat from the Pont d'Austerlitz down to the Pont d'Iena. Artistic performances punctuated the rain-soaked, six-kilometre parade, which culminated in a finale at the Trocadero. French judoka Teddy Riner and sprinter Marie-Jose Perec then lit the cauldron in the Jardin des Tuileries, a ring of fire carried aloft by a balloon; for the first time at the Games, the flame burned without fuel, created from a cloud of mist and beams of light.

This celebration commenced a century after Paris previously hosted the Summer Games in 1924. The International Olympic Committee awarded the Games at a vote in Lima, Peru, in September 2017, in a historic double allocation that also gave the 2028 Games to Los Angeles. Hosting the Olympics for the third time, Paris staged a programme of 329 events in 32 sports for about 10,500 athletes from 206 delegations.