Paris’ river Seine gets ready for Olympic opening ceremony
Paris is getting ready to host 10,500 athletes on the river Seine for the Olympic opening ceremony.
With an ambitious and unique opening ceremony, the 2024 Paris Olympics officially get under way today with thousands of Olympians, including Team USA athletes, cruising along the Seine River.
It’s the first time the ceremony will not be held inside a stadium. Instead, the city’s iconic landmarks will provide a stunning backdrop for the parade of nations. Athletes from around the world, including Team USA flag bearers LeBron James and Coco Gauff, will float on boats for the six-kilometer route that travels east to west across Paris from the Pont d’Austerlitz to the Trocadero.
USA TODAY Sports will bring you live updates from Paris, highlights and more throughout the opening ceremony. Follow along.
The Paris Olympics opening ceremony is today, Friday, July 26.
The opening ceremony begins at 1:30 p.m. EST (7:30 p.m. in Paris). NBC begins television coverage at noon ET. The full event is expected to last more than three hours.
The opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games will air live on NBC and stream live on Peacock.
NBC is airing and streaming the Paris Olympics from all angles: Peacock is streaming every sport and event — including the opening ceremony — live as it unfolds; NBC, USA Network, CNBC and E! are carrying various live events and replays throughout the day.
Check USA TODAY’s Olympics schedule for a daily event times and viewing options.
With his mind on the Olympics and the Olympics on his mind, Snoop Dogg is, indeed, back for the 2024 Paris Olympics. The rapper, who will carry the torch ahead of the opening ceremony, is primed for a bigger role three years after his reactions to the dressage competition with Kevin Hart went viral at the Tokyo Games.
Snoop will appear regularly on “Primetime in Paris,” serving as a “special correspondent” for NBC. During parts of the primetime show, Snoop Dogg will interact with Team USA athletes, their families, or explore Paris and share his experiences and insights with the night’s audience. He’s also carrying the Olympic torch.
Coco Gauff is making her Olympic debut in Paris and she is one of two U.S. flag bearers. “(Competing) in the Olympics has always been up there with winning a Grand Slam, like top goals,” Gauff told USA TODAY Sports this summer. Read our full feature on Gauff.
Coco Gauff becomes first tennis player to be Olympic flag bearer
Coco Gauff was voted in as the first tennis player in Olympic history to become a flag bearer, and says she was “shocked” to be picked.
The basketball superstar and mogul is set to carry the U.S. flag in the opening ceremony.
Paris is six hours ahead of the East Coast of the U.S., nine hours ahead of the West Coast of the U.S.
Team USA’s opening ceremony outfit is a modern take on a tailored look. On top, a tailored single-breasted wool blazer with red and white tipping is worn over a striped oxford shirt. The bottom is a more casual tapered jean and classic suede buck shoe fit.
Ralph Lauren works closely with Team USA and the goal, as always, is to “do something graphic and uniquely American,” chief brand and innovation officer David Lauren said.
To account for the heat, the company constantly looks at different fabrics and layering systems to keep the athlete’s body temperature in check, Lauren said. All items in both the opening and closing ceremony outfits are manufactured in the United States.
Basketball superstar LeBron James and tennis star Coco Gauff are the flag bearers for the Americans. Gauff is the first tennis player to serve in the role.
More than three hours before the start of Friday’s opening ceremony, hundreds of spectators lined up near Gare d’Austerlitz, a train station near the starting point of the boat parade. When the security gates opened, the fans were slowly funneled through a series of checkpoints — a ticket check, then metal detectors, then a bag search. At the end of the process, some took off sprinting toward the Seine, in hopes of securing a good spot. All we’re offered a small French flag. Behind them, police and Gendarmerie patrolled a fenced off area running along the river, buffering the public from the edge of the ceremony.
Paris 2024 officials estimated there would be more than 45,000 police officers, soldiers and security guards on the streets Friday. Several train stations in the area have been closed to the public all week as a precaution. At some that remained open Friday, soldiers carrying rifles patrolled the platform and fielded questions from tourists. — Tom Schad
Hours before the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics on Friday, France’s national train service said it was targeted by several “malicious acts” that caused disruptions to its high-speed lines.
“Arson attacks were started to damage our facilities,” SNCF said in a post on X.
The fires were caused by vandalized signal boxes and electricity pylons at several rural locations outside Paris. However, they had a knock-on impact on services at some of the capital city’s main train stations. The rail service said that up to 800,000 passengers were impacted by the “massive attack” and it asked them to postpone trips. SCNF said the incident was aimed at “paralyzing the network.” — Kim Hjelmgaard
Get the most out of Peacock during the Olympics with our guide.
Mascots are synonymous with sports, and the Olympics, worldwide event that they are, prove no different.
Indeed, they have a rich history of mascots parading during events to meet and greet athletes and fans. And the mascot that will come to represent the 2024 Paris Olympics is a uniquely French representation of the host country.
Who designed the Olympics logo?
Pierre de Coubertin, who is considered the founder of the modern Olympics, designed the rings in July 1913. The Olympics logo was first used on a flag in 1914. That original flag is now at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne. The IOC officially adopted the rings logo and flag in 1914.
Paris has hosted the Olympics three times: 1900, 1924 and 2024. Grenoble, France, also hosted the Winter Olympics in 1968.
The 2028 Summer Olympics will be in Los Angeles. The city has hosted twice before: 1932 and 1984.
Yes. NBC will replay coverage in prime time at 7:30 p.m. EST.
The Paris Olympic opening ceremony is estimated to last more than three hours.
More than 200 countries are competing in the 2024 Olympics, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.
The 2024 Olympic Games began on July 24 and finish with the closing ceremony on Aug. 11.
Once again, Russia is technically banned from appearing at the Olympic Games. Yet once again, Russian athletes will compete under a different name − a handful of them, at least.
At the 2024 Paris Olympics, which begin this week, 15 athletes from Russia − and 18 from neighboring Belarus − are slated to compete as “Individual Neutral Athletes,” or AINs for short, according to the most recent statistics released by the International Olympic Committee on Saturday. The AIN classification means that Russian and Belarusian flags, national anthems and uniforms will be absent from the Paris Games. — Tom Schad
“The Phryges” will be the official Olympic mascots for the 2024 Paris Games, three years after Miraitowa represented Tokyo and Japan in the 2020 Summer Olympics and two years after Bing Dwen Dwen represented Beijing and China in the 2022 Winter Games. This year’s event will be contested in France from Friday through Sunday, Aug. 11. — Craig Meyer
Fans will have plenty of opportunities to see Simone Biles and the U.S. women’s gymnastics team compete at 2024 Paris Olympics. There are nine total days of Olympic gymnastics competition, including men’s and women’s qualification; men’s and women’s team finals, three days of men’s and women’s individual finals.
Paris is six hours ahead of the East Coast of the U.S., nine hours ahead of the West Coast of the U.S.
If Katie Ledecky wins the 800 freestyle in Paris, she will be the first woman to four-peat in a swimming event at the Olympics.
Ralph Lauren tailors Team USA in under four hours at Paris Olympics
Ralph Lauren brings a team of over 20 tailors to Paris to custom fit the opening and closing ceremony uniforms for all Team USA Olympians.
This year’s ceremony will break from tradition as the parade of nations will take place on Paris’ River Seine. This year will be the first time the opening ceremony will be held outside of a stadium in the history of the modern Games.
NBC Olympics president and executive producer Molly Solomon credited Paris 2024 organizers for throwing out the “tradition playbook.”
“When people ask, ‘What are you most excited about?’ It has to be the opening ceremonies because something like this has never been done before,” Solomon told USA TODAY Sports in June.
“It’s audacious, it’s bold, it’s daring, and it’s going to be unforgettable,” Solomon added.
From a technical, television perspective, the extravaganza will be the most complicated event that has ever been produced. The Olympic Broadcasting Service (OBS) will operate 100 cameras along the parade route and each delegation will have access to a live mobile phone camera on the boat. NBC will be tracking Team USA’s route, and the Americans will be second-to-last down the river because the U.S. will host the 2028 Games in Los Angeles. NBC will have an additional 40 cameras on the scene. — Chris Bumbaca
Opening ceremony weather: Rain threatens to dampen festivities
Rain clouds covered most of Paris on Friday morning as the weather threatened to, quite literally, rain on Olympic organizers’ parade.
As of mid-day Friday, the forecast in Paris called for mild temperatures of around 68 degrees but plenty of clouds and a high probability of rain through the evening. According Météo-France, which is akin to the National Weather Service in the United States, the rain “will be continuous and sometimes moderate in intensity until the middle of the night.”
Paris organizers have previously said the ceremony would go on as planned in the event of rain, though Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo suggested in an interview with CNN on Thursday that poor weather could pose some problems.
“I think the rain will be a problem if we have rain (during the opening ceremony) because many moments in this show need to be very safe for the dancer and without rain and without water,” Hidalgo told CNN. – Tom Schad
Are any U.S. athletes skipping the opening ceremony?
About 350 of Team USA’s 592 athletes will march – or rather, float – in today’s opening ceremony, according to Nicole Deal, who oversees the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s security operations.
That means about 40% of the U.S. delegation will be absent, though that is not exactly unusual.
Many athletes and teams – especially those competing early in the Games – choose to pass on the opening ceremony because it often runs late into the night and requires them to spend several hours on their feet. U.S. gymnasts and swimmers, for example, regularly skip the ceremony to rest up for their competitions – which, in some cases, begin the next morning.
U.S. swimming star Katie Ledecky said earlier this week that she never planned on going to the Paris opening ceremony for this very reason. She swims the 400-meter freestyle Saturday morning. — Tom Schad