Paris Games open on the Seine under tight security, downpour

The 2024 Paris Olympics were officially opened on Friday through a ceremony that detoured from the artificial convention of the confines of stadiums and splashed its own bit of colour. This was a curtain-raiser distinct from any other in the history of the Games. 

River Seine, a hot topic of much discussion for months, lay chill and still despite the steady drizzle that turned into a sustained downpour. Flowing on it were athletes who will, over the next 16 days, fire up the grandest sporting scene.

Under the moody evening sky of Paris, through a six-kilometre stretch on water aboard boats, the first Games of the post-Covid world got going. 

India’s boat had 78 athletes, coaches, and officials aboard, led by flagbearers Sharath Kamal, a five-time Olympian, and PV Sindhu, a two-time Olympic medallist. 

Rain no dampener for Indians 

By the time they stepped foot in it past 8:30pm and and their boat stepped out of Austerlitz Bridge, light drizzle had turned into a steady shower. The Indians, though, weren’t dampened. Sharath and Sindhu jointly held the large India flag, while the others waved the smaller ones along. Smiles all around; everyone afloat was happy underneath the good old-fashioned plastic raincoats.

Around an hour later, when they reached the destination just by the Eiffel Tower, and a couple more when the ceremony reached its climax, only a few were still around. Sailors Nethra Kumanan and Vishnu Sarvanan, some hockey staff, including Paddy Upton, and golfer Shubhankar Sharma, among others, continued taking photos while catching the rest of the creative spectacle that ended with minutes to midnight.

There was the odd stutter along the way through the day. Against the theme of the gathering, the rainy weather wasn’t sporting enough. Targeted attacks, including arson on high-speed train lines across France in the morning, were a more serious concern. As the evening settled, though, the mood picked up. 

Packed spectator stands by the Eiffel Tower cheered and clapped as the ceremony began with the sight of Zidane taking the Olympic torch on the big screen. On the river, the lit-up torch moved along, and the athletes paraded. Not on foot, for a change, but on boats ferrying them along the water. 

Out came the boat from carrying Greece, hosts of the first ever Olympics in 1896. That was the first of 85 boats that were to have on board over 6,500 athletes. 

The entire ceremony was watched by more than 3,00,000 spectators spread across lower and upper quays through the entire 6 km stretch that passed through some of the most prominent structures of the city. This was a spectacle thrown open for Parisians to savour out in the open and not for a select few to experience inside the walls of a stadium. 

Directed by French artist Thomas Jolly, it had over 2,000 artists throw in performances between the athletes’ parade. Rehearsals for the same, apart from final touches along the river, went on for 200 days as Paris decked up to play Olympic hosts after a century. 

On the day, however, intermittent drizzle swept the afternoon buzz. Yet, dropping from back in the village were anticipatory pictures on Instagram of the Indian contingent. The hockey boys decked up sharp, the women archers wore elegance, and the badminton gurus—PPrakash Padukone and P Gopichand—looked dapper in a group click. Kumanan and Sarvanan arrived at the village in the afternoon from Marseille (where sailing events will be held), with the high-speed rail schedule being thrown off track in the country. 

A pre-show held at Saint-Denis, where track and field events will be held, three hours before the main gig warmed things up for show time. For the thousands of athletes at the Paris Olympics, it is now, indeed, show time. 

The streets around the river wore an empty look with hours for the ceremony’s start, cordoned off for the public with the presence of armed security every couple of blocks. Around 35 security boats, it was reported in local media, accompanied the boats carrying the various contingents, with snipers also stationed along the route.