The Paris 2024 Olympics officially opened on Friday with a parade on the Seine River involving 6,800 athletes from 205 countries past historic landmarks in the French capital, despite rain that dampened the atmosphere and sabotaged the train network.
"I declare open the XXXIII Games of the Modern Games," French President Emmanuel Macron said during the opening ceremony of the XXXIII Summer Olympic Games in Paris, the protocol phrase under the rain in front of the Eiffel Tower, 100 years after Paris hosted the Games for the second time.
For the first time in the history of the Olympics, the opening ceremony was held outside the main stadium, and was watched by 320,000 spectators from specially built stands on the banks of the river, and about 200,000 from the balconies of nearby buildings.
As is tradition, the first boat included the delegation from Greece, which is considered the birthplace of the modern Games and hosted its first edition in 1896, before the other delegation boats followed in a ceremony that included the famous American pop star Lady Gaga.
It concluded four hours later with the lighting of the Olympic cauldron carried by former track and field champion Marie-José Perec and current judo champion Teddy Riner in a balloon that soared over the city centre, to the sound of Canadian artist Celine Dion, who had defied the disease.