The Paris Olympic Organizing Committee officially announced to the outside world on March 8 that the highly anticipated opening ceremony of the Olympic Games will begin at 19:30 local time on July 26.
Paris will be in daylight saving time at that time, and the time difference with Beijing will be 6 hours, which means that domestic audiences will enjoy the Olympic opening ceremony that begins on the Seine River at 1:30 a.m. on the 27th.
According to the vision of the Paris Olympic Organizing Committee, the opening ceremony will slowly open along the Seine River under the afterglow of the setting sun.
The athletes took a cruise ship from east to west from the Austerlitz Bridge and sailed 6 kilometers to the Trocadéro Square on the other side of the Eiffel Tower to participate in the celebration ceremony held there.
There will be art performances along the way and 12 paintings showcasing the cultural heritage of Paris and France.
According to the opening ceremony plan announced by the French Ministry of Interior a few days ago, a total of about 180 ships will participate in the opening ceremony, 94 of which will be used to carry athletes.
In addition, the number of live audiences has been reduced by nearly half from the earliest expected 600,000.
There will be 104,000 ticket-buying spectators watching on the river bank near the water, and another 222,000 free-ticket holders watching on the higher stands farther away from the water.
Different from the previously announced plan, these 222,000 free tickets will no longer be open to the public for registration, but will instead be invited by event venues, sports associations, and relevant organizers and partners.
Since the Paris Olympic Organizing Committee officially announced at the end of 2021 that the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games will be held on the Seine River, this bold idea has been accompanied by expectations and doubts.
The public is not only looking forward to seeing an unprecedented Olympic opening ceremony held in an open area, but they also have to worry about practical issues such as security and traffic.
According to the French Ministry of the Interior, for safety reasons, the French government will close all airports and airspace within a radius of 150 kilometers centered on Paris before, during and after the opening ceremony.
In addition, French security services have begun risk screening of about 1 million people, including athletes, journalists, private security guards and people living near critical infrastructure.
The Paris Olympic Games will be held from July 26 to August 11, and the Paralympic Games will be held from August 28 to September 8.