PARIS — Just a day before the Paris 2024 opening ceremony, the French capital was abuzz Thursday as it prepared to host the world’s biggest sporting party.
Though the Olympics soft-launched Wednesday with soccer and rugby sevens, the real action will begin Friday night when the city will stage perhaps the most ambitious inauguration in the Games’ history.
Almost 100 boats will take 10,500 athletes down the River Seine — in many ways the star of the show over the next two weeks — in what will be the first time the ceremony has been held outside a single stadium.
The river is already lined with bleachers, and dotted with venues ready to host sports as varied as fencing and taekwondo to basketball and break dancing. And although these areas remain eerily quiet for now, protected by a network of high-security metal barriers, there was a festival atmosphere just up the street at the Arc de Triomphe, where people from all over the world had gathered.
“You can feel the vibes in the air,” said Vinicius Rodrigues, 32, from Sao Paulo, Brazil. Under the arch of the iconic monument, he was dressed in the bright yellow of his home country alongside his wife, Aliene, 34, and two daughters, Maya, 3, and Chloe, 1.
This is the first Olympics they’ve traveled to. And despite their country failing to qualify for men’s soccer, and therefore unable to defend its gold medal, the family spent Wednesday at the game between Spain and Uzbekistan at the city’s Parc des Princes stadium. Though Spain won 2-1, it was the Uzbek fans’ singing, chanting and impressive unison “thunder clapping” that charmed neutrals.
“It was amazing,” beamed Rodrigues, who works as an electrical engineer. “It was one of my dreams to come here.”
Adding to the pre-show excitement are the list of celebrities who have begun to roll into town this week. Singers Celine Dion and Lady Gaga have both been spotted in the French capital, leading to speculation they might be about to play the secretively planned opening ceremony.
Social media has been replete with rumors about who else might attend or perform.
Meanwhile, the actor Selma Hayek was among the stars chosen to carry the Olympic Torch through Paris on Wednesday.
Hayek, who was dressed in a white tracksuit, called the torch “a symbol of light, hope, peace, and unity,” in an Instagram post Wednesday “If you believe in these values, know that you were with me every step of the way,” she said, adding that she was “proud to represent the enduring spirit of the Olympics, bringing light, hope, and unity to all.”
Hip-hop icon Snoop Dogg will carry the Olympic flame Friday through the streets of Saint-Denis, the town’s mayor, Mathieu Hanotin, announced Tuesday morning.
The Olympics organizers and French officials say they hope this spirit can change the narrative of a world beset by tension and division, and engulfed in war in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan.
Many Parisians are skeptical. A survey by leading French pollster IFOP between July 15 and 16 found that 36% of French people were indifferent about the Olympics, 26% were concerned and 5% were angry.
With Paris criss-crossed with QR-demanding security checkpoints, trade in the city is down 70% in the past week, the Confederation of French Commerce said Monday. That was evident when NBC News walked around the security perimeter flanking the Seine late Wendesday. Cafes usually packedwith tourists had the unusual spectacle of free tables outside, and two taxi drivers, who were not authorized by their employers to give their names, said the city was far quieter than usual.
With the event proper yet to kick off, this may just be a pre-Games lull. Several streets back from the Seine, the Champs Elysees was still the picture of bustling Paris. Bikes rattled over cobblestones, cigarette smoke wafed from cafe terraces, and stylishly dressed men and women went about their business.
Indeed there are plenty here who are enthusiastic about the event that’s taken over their city.
For Pamela Karam, 33, a graphic designer who lives in the suburbs, it’s another step in the green revolution that’s consumed Paris under Mayor Anne Hidalgo. Over the past few years, downtown roads have been closed to cars in favor of bike lanes. And the Olympics promises to take this a step further, making the Seine swimmable for the first time in 100 years thanks to a $1.5 billion overhaul of the sewage system.
“The skate park they’ve built around the Place de la Concorde is going to look so nice when it opens,” she said. “But being able to swim in the Seine — that will be fantastic.”
