The Olympics officially kicked off at 1:30 pm ET, although for Canadians, it feels like these Games have been happening for the past several weeks, due to the women’s soccer team drone scandal.
Follow along with our live updates from Paris below. The Opening Ceremony will be held over a six-kilometre stretch of the Seine through the heart of Paris and feature a floating parade of boats for each national delegation (91 in total). The whole ceremony is expected to last about three and a half hours.
It’s a soggy day at the Trocadéro, so how will our athlete friends handle their float down the Seine? The Paris organizers were insistent that this ceremony was held a) outside and b) at this time to ensure a perfect atmosphere. However, the rain is starting and stopping, everyone in sight is wearing ponchos, and the athletes must now hang out on a boat, possibly in the pouring rain, for the next while.
3:20 pm ET: We are now going through the Ms in the Parade of Nations. No sign of Celine Dion next, and it is difficult to guess where she might fit into this show structure, as we make our way through different French themes. Right now, we’re on “Sportsmanship” and up next is “Festivity” — and the France boat. You might be wondering: How can we get to France in this section if they are going last? Well, get ready for 69 delegations in this section of the program!
Sportsmanship continued with the musical stylings of French rapper Rim’K. Everyone here was as enthusiastic as possible in the rain. Supportive, yet, wet.
2:59 pm ET: This section of the Opening Ceremony is about 10 important women in French history, like philosopher Simone de Beauvoir and Alice Guy, who was one of the first female directors in the world.
2:56 pm ET: More photos during this brief interlude!
2:48pm ET: This part of the ceremony takes place at the Musée d’Orsay, as a tribute to the imaginative mind of France. The organizers say: “From photography to animated films, from comic strips to video games, French inventors and authors have given the world the tools to represent itself.”
There is a trickle of athletes finally coming into the Trocadéro: We saw Argentina and Saudi Arabia walk in, waving their mini-flags. They must now stand in the rain for the next two hours!
2:39pm ET: The applause from the crowd is tepid now, as you can’t hear much over the torrential rain. Great Britain’s arrival brought everyone back to life, but how long can this go on? Still waiting for someone, anyone, to show up in the main event space. Some people in the Olympic friends and family section decided to leave for dry ground. They are smart.
The Olympics shared a few exciting facts and figures about the Opening Ceremonies:
- There are 1,000 loudspeakers throughout the route
- There are 320,000 spectators in 124 grandstands. We hope 320,000 umbrellas were provided.
- The ceremony includes 2,000 performers and 1,800 costumes. We’re not too sure about that math.
2:25pm ET: This is from Olympic colleague Sean Fitz-Gerald, who is probably inside a house right now: “Please forgive me for this, but whenever I think of Olympic ceremony in an outdoor setting, I go back to the 2010 Games in Vancouver, and to Wayne Gretzky. Did he appear in a royal carriage? An airplane? A helicopter? No, young readers. The greatest men’s hockey player in history was in the back of a pickup truck with the Olympic flame. ‘No one knew these plans and we’re driving down empty streets,’ torch relay director Jim Richards told Global News in 2020. ‘But that only lasted about 30 seconds, because everybody who was in the bars watching the opening ceremonies quickly realized, ‘That’s Gretzky! They’re on the road right in front of us.’ And they came streaming out.’”
2:19pm ET: Thomas Jolly, the artistic director for the Opening Ceremony said his vision was as such: this promise. “In short, it will be a festive crossing of Paris, linking sport and art to celebrate our shared humanity. A unique live and televised experience. A ceremony as a reflection in the Seine of what we can achieve together, in peace, respect and diversity. So that at the end we can say together: ‘Everything will be be OK’.”
Hopefully “everything will be OK” for all of our athlete friends and they are not soaking wet.
2pm ET: The Canada boat finally passes on by, and it is packed with athletes. We will get the final total from the Canadian Olympic Committee soon, but it seems to be a good showing. Another wild cheer from the crowd. This is the strangest Olympic opening ceremonies I have been to — if you were feeling jealous at home for not being here, my experience is the same as yours. It’s possibly a bit lesser, as we didn’t have many details of the ceremony for security reasons, and so we are finding out who is who in real time, alongside you. There has been no action in the main event area, except a nice view of the Eiffel Tower.
1:49pm ET: The Daily Mail pointed out that it was expected to pour extensively during Lady Gaga’s set. The first part was without rain. I can confirm the second part is …becoming damp. There are some ominous clouds coming. Anyway, please enjoy a selection of photos during this musical interlude.
1:47pm ET: The boat idea might not be so bad: It feels like the ceremony is moving more quickly than in recent years. I may regret saying this.
Some delegations share boats, like Azerbaijan and the Bahamas. But Bahrain gets their own little boat. We have heard that Canada might be sharing a boat, but we should find out soon, due to their alphabet proximity.
1:39pm ET: We have our first boat! Greece is always the first country to start the Parade of Nations, a tradition since 1928, followed by the Refugee Olympic Team. Wild cheers here for them.
1:36pm ET: This is a different kind of Opening Ceremonies than we are used to covering — all of the magical fireworks at the Pont d’Austerlitz are not anywhere close to the event stage (of course), so everyone is cheering for the big screen. Normally, all the exciting parts happen right in front of you in a stadium. I’m not complaining, it would just be nice to see some in-person fireworks. The night is young.
1:32 pm ET: The opening montage is starting, and it stars French soccer hero Zinedine Zidane. The crowd went wild. He was hard to recognize out of uniform.
1:23 pm ET: Hello, from a very wet seat overlooking the Olympic ceremony stage. I promise this live coverage will not consist of complaining about how wet it is, but I am outfitted in my Official Olympic Poncho™ — which was probably a roll of saran wrap in a past life. We are not entirely sure what to expect from the opening ceremony because organizers have kept most details under wraps for safety reasons. What we do know: Olympians! Boats! A quick trek down (up?) the river, and then, a cheering (damp) crowd. If you have any questions, please throw them in the comments below. Let’s do this.