Cédric Chasseur, edited by Manon Fossat 2:07 p.m., December 14, 2021
The board of directors of the Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (Cojo) in Paris in 2024 validated on Monday the principle of an unprecedented opening ceremony on the Seine.
More than 160 boats welcoming sportsmen and women from more than 200 delegations will parade on the river for nearly 6 km between the Pont d'Austerlitz and the Pont d'Iéna, right in the center of Paris.
It's official, the Seine will be the scene of the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games on July 26, 2024. The organizing committee made the announcement on Monday evening.
A ceremony on the water, unprecedented, breaking with previous editions of the Olympics.
Indeed, the architects of this event - which will be watched by more than a billion viewers around the world - want to break the codes.
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Putting the athletes at the heart of the celebration
This ceremony must reflect what the Paris 2024 Games will be: innovative and spectacular.
By the choice of the place already, with a 6 km course on the Seine and the monuments of Paris - Notre-Dame de Paris, the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower - in the background.
The departure will be from the Pont d'Austerlitz to the Pont d'Iéna, very close to the Trocadéro, where the festivities will continue.
Water games and sports demonstrations on the bridges spanning the Seine (in total, 8 to 10 bridges or footbridges in Paris are on the way to this ceremony) are planned, as well as a floating orchestra.
Synthetic photos of the ceremony were unveiled Monday evening. Photo credit: Paris 2024 Organizing Committee
Then the very structure of the ceremony will go against everything that has already been done. It will take place outside a Stadium, and the more than 10,000 athletes, used to closing the event, will open it by parading on boats. And this is not trivial, as explained at the microphone of Europe 1 the president of Paris 2024, Tony Estanguet, four Olympics to his credit. "When you've been an athlete, when you've participated in an opening ceremony, it's magical. But it's true that it's often hours of waiting when you're standing in the corridors of 'a stadium. Sometimes, we also have this frustration of having missed the first part of the ceremony where the show takes place. There, the idea, by allowing to start with the athletes, is thatthey are also at the heart of this celebration, ”he says.
The central issue of security
It will therefore be a great popular festival since throughout the course, spectators will be able to congregate on the banks of the Seine and most of the access to the ceremony will be free.
About 600,000 people are expected, which obviously raises questions of security, at the center of discussions at the moment, as revealed by the Minister for Sports, Roxana Maracineanu.
“We have had 50 meetings since the start of the year, with the Interior Ministry, the organizers of the Games, and all this work will continue. A ceremony outside the stadium is unheard of. "an enormous scale. All the security forces will therefore be mobilized," she explains.
"We are also going to have a promotion program in order to lead more young people into these professions, to be able to ensure that this remains a legacy for France."
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Everything is done so that nothing disturbs this great celebration.
The cost of this ceremony will be known in the course of the year 2022, but the organizers aim to make an impression.
And the presentation that was made on Monday, with the visuals and synthetic photos at nightfall - since the ceremony should start around 8 p.m. - has already had its effect.