Here we are finally. Four years after winning the organization of the 2024 Games - it was September 13, 2017 - Paris will finally enter its Olympics, with a few months late due to Covid-19 and the postponement of the Tokyo Games. Arrival in Japan on Thursday, Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, will receive the Olympic flag from the hands of the governor of Tokyo this Sunday. The solemn moment, scheduled for around 9:30 p.m. in Tokyo (2:30 p.m. in Paris), is particularly eagerly awaited and, to “invite the world to look at the Games in Paris”, it will take place simultaneously in the French capital and at the Tokyo Olympic Stadium. No “Parisian” show live from Tokyo, as is generally the case for the next host cities.
In Paris, the ceremony will take place along the Seine, from Sunday evening.
On the docks but also in the sky with an overview of the Eiffel Tower by the Patrouille de France and even… space, since a connection with Thomas Pesquet, currently in the International Space Station (ISS), is planned.
VIDEO.
Paris 2024: Anne Hidalgo promises "festive and spectacular Games"
Since the bidding phase, the organizing committee for the 2024 Games (Cojo) has wanted to offer “spectacular Games” by “breaking the rules”.
Temporary sites, in iconic places (the Eiffel Tower, the Invalides, the Concorde, the Grand Palais, the Palace of Versailles) should therefore have pride of place during the artistic segment, this show lasting around ten minutes during which Paris 2024 will affirm its ambition.
A 5,000 m2 flag with the emblem of the next Summer Games will be deployed at the top of the Eiffel Tower, a nice risk-taking, like a Cojo who wants to be ambitious.
This promises “surprises” to those present at the Trocadéro (entry is free, the health pass is however compulsory) and to 500 million viewers around the world.
The stars in the middle of the crowd
The French athletes, who shone in Tokyo - the flag bearers Clarisse Agbégnénou and Samir Ait Said, Teddy Riner, Florent Manaudou and most of the medalists who have already returned to France - will be in the middle of the crowd at the Trocadéro.
In Tokyo, Olympic karate champion Steven Da Costa will lead the French delegation (handball players, volleyball players, basketball players, in particular, are still in Japan).
A strong gesture, knowing that karate, which made its entry into the Olympics this year, will not be on the program in 2024.
In Paris, Sunday, the festivities will continue with a concert by Woodkid, who composed the music that will resonate during a necessarily moving handover ceremony.