A historic mark for atypical Games 0:38
(Reuters)
- Paris 2024 organizers expect at least 600,000 people to attend the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics on the Seine, where athletes and delegations will sail along the river to kick off the competitions .
Some 160 boats will set sail on July 26 from the Pont d'Austerlitz for a six-kilometer trip to the Pont d'Iena, in an event that Tony Estanguet, the head of the organizing committee, described as "unique and spectacular."
"We have been working on it for the last 12 months, it is the result of a collective effort with the IOC (International Olympic Committee) and all the authorities. It has to be spectacular," Estanguet told Reuters in an interview.
"It will be the first time that people have free access to the opening ceremony, and not just in a stadium. It will also be a popular event."
While the lower part of the riverbank will be subject to ticketing, there will be free access to the upper part, where spectators will be able to see holograms in the water, dancers on the roofs of nearby buildings and air shows.
Some 80 giant screens will also be installed along the route.
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"The Games are a unique experience, once in a lifetime. We want people to feel it. (The boats) will pass the emblematic places of Paris: Notre Dame, the Orsay and Louvre museums, the Pont Neuf (the oldest in Paris), The Pont Alexandre III, the Grand Palais, the Eiffel Tower, "added Estanguet, who did not say where the Olympic flame would be lit.
"Let's meet again next year for that," Estanguet said at a press conference on Monday, adding that the cost of the four ceremonies - the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics and Paralympics - would be assessed in 2022.
Sports Minister Roxana Maracineanu added: "Let us bear in mind that less than 5% of the facilities need to be built for these Games."
Simulation of the Paris 2024 ceremony
Parade on the river to open the Paris Olympics
Estanguet, a three-time Olympic canoeing champion who participated in four Summer Games, said the athletes would lead the river parade.
"I participated in the ceremony between Sydney (2000) and London (2012). The athletes enter the stadium in the second part, after the show," he explained.
"We wanted this ceremony to start with the athletes' parade. It's a great way to connect people with athletes. It's also better for them to sit in a boat than to stand in a stadium for hours."
The project was approved by the International Olympic Committee last month, and its president Thomas Bach said all safety requirements would be met.
Paris has been on high alert since a series of jihadist-inspired attacks in which 130 were killed and hundreds injured on November 13, 2015.
"Safety has been our top priority from the beginning," Estanguet said.
"The public authorities have been working on it and more than 50 meetings have been organized to raise all the possibilities, how we can share responsibilities with national and local forces and the private sector in matters of security."
olympic games paris 2024