PARIS — The opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics can often come across as a little stuffy, or purposefully sophisticated — with every movement and camera angle perfectly choreographed.
Maybe that’s what the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Games looked like on TV, too. But what it felt like, in reality, was a wild international music festival — or maybe even a disco rave in the rain.
Along the southern bank of the Seine River, near the start of the parade of nations, and at the Trocadéro, which served as its end, USA TODAY Sports reporters saw a jovial cacophony of fans and athletes from around the world. They waved flags. They cheered and chanted. They danced to the pop, metal and electronic music that blared through speakers dotted along the 3.7 miles of river.
Some of that, of course, was visible in NBC’s television broadcast of the opening ceremony. But a lot of things were not.
The party atmosphere started hours before the ceremony itself did, as spectators passed through security checkpoints and sprinted into cordoned-off portions of land along the Seine, attempting to find the perfect view of both the river itself and the jumbotrons that had been erected on the opposite bank.
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A lucky few spectators had reserved seats. The vast majority did not. Some found standing room where they could; others later climbed on top of barriers or, in at least one case, up into the branches of a tree.
About 30 minutes before the start of the ceremony, jets of water started spraying under the archway of the Pont d’Austerlitz — the first clue at the start of the river course of what was to come. People lined up on rooftops and balconies along the river. Helicopters hovered overhead, high enough to not be heard by those below. Police boats waited on the outskirts of the Seine, where they would be close but out of sight of TV cameras.
When the parade of nations began, spectators on the easternmost part of the river saw each country’s delegation long before it was announced over the loudspeakers or seen on TV. Those fans also got to see little hidden moments, like a Team USA athlete appearing to drop their rain poncho overboard.
While international broadcasts made the parade appear as if it took place in different stages, the actual spectacle ran continuously with few, if any, significant gaps. Call it a little bit of TV magic.
Ditto for some of the more striking visual elements of the opening ceremony — like the mystery torch-bearer galloping down the Seine on a metallic horse. On TV, some of those moments appeared to be relatively brief, allowing for interviews or commercial breaks. In person, these were lengthy shots spanning perhaps 15 or 20 minutes.
One extended dance sequence, titled ‘A Celebration of Diversity,’ had been scheduled to last nine minutes, and it might’ve run longer. But only glimpses of it were shown on NBC.
By that point in the night, the boats of athletes had long since landed at the Trocadéro, and the light rain escalated to a downpour.
Draped in ponchos and hidden under umbrellas, Olympians with their respective delegations crowded around the Eiffel Tower-shaped stage. But it seemed some didn’t stick around — though it was unclear if they simply left that area or the ceremony altogether, possibly fearing pneumonia or another pre-Olympics illness.
As for Team USA in its Ralph Lauren apparel, it certainly didn’t seem like every athlete on the boat made it to the stage, which was understandable given the inclement weather.
For spectators, rather than leave, large swaths huddled under umbrellas to watch the rest of the ceremony on a jumbotron. Many just gave up on any hope of staying dry — athletes included — jumping up and down and dancing to songs like ‘D.I.S.C.O.’ by French pop duo Ottawan.
The athletes who stayed largely kept the party going. Though some looked frigid, soggy and a little miserable, many others danced to the ceremony’s soundtrack and took selfies against the nearby backdrop of the glowing Eiffel Tower. Perhaps no one noticed when the Olympic flag was raised upside down.
The French delegation in particular turned the volume up when football legend Zinedine Zidane appeared on stage to pass the Olympic flame to Rafael Nadal, the Roland Garros king, who headed back toward a boat on the Seine to continue the torch relay, which ended at the Jardin des Tuileries.
As the torch — guarded by Nadal, Serena Williams, Carl Lewis, and Nadia Comaneci — advanced on the Seine, those near the Trocadéro were treated to a stunning light show out of the Eiffel Tower. It was a scene out of Hollywood. Bright red and green and turquoise lights soared through the sky like an EDM rave, illuminating the iconic landmark in a quintessential ‘City of Lights’ way.
It was all leading up to the grand finale of the approximately four-hour show.
After a procession of French athletes carried the torch to the Olympic cauldron, all eyes turned back to the Eiffel Tower, where a distant and tiny Céline Dion made her triumphant return to the microphone.
Performing for the first time since 2020 — she revealed in 2022 that she received a rare diagnosis of stiff person syndrome — the French-Canadian singer stood elevated in the tower below the glowing Olympic rings and stunned as if she never left the stage. The Trocadéro crowd erupted when she began, and some sang along to her magical rendition of “Hymne à l’amour.”
Dion’s performance was the rumored moment fans were waiting for, and she delivered, capping off a uniquely French opening ceremony, complete with an ode to French literature with the ‘Les Misérables’ anthem “Do You Hear the People Sing?” and a decapitated-but-performing Marie Antoinette. Even with the rain, it ended up being a pretty wild and entertaining party.