We’re reside running a blog the opening ceremony all through the afternoon. Head to our newest updates right here.
PARIS — The Olympics kick-off occasion is right here. An amphibious opening ceremony is going down on the River Seine on the coronary heart of town, an outside bash that for the primary time within the trendy Video games period gained’t be held outdoors in a stadium. The ceremony ends on land, with the backdrop of the Eiffel Tower.
NPR might be there to look at all of it unfold, so keep tuned: This story might be up to date all through the festivities.
A historic opening ceremony
A parade of greater than 10,000 athletes will float down a 3.7-mile stretch of the Seine. Some 300,000 spectators are anticipated to attend — most of whom can pay no admission price to look at the parade from the river’s banks.
The parade will journey east to west, passing by main landmarks just like the Grand Palais. The parade is about to finish on the Pont d’Iéna bridge earlier than a finale present on the Trocadéro, reverse the Eiffel Tower.
The route additionally excursions a few of the metropolis’s short-term sports activities venues, together with an outside enviornment abutting the Eiffel Tower the place seashore volleyball video games will happen.
An intense safety presence
The open-air venue has invited critical safety issues, and officers have locked down town in anticipation. Tens of 1000’s of police and navy personnel have descended upon town. Closed roads and bridges at and across the Seine are exacerbating crowd and visitors congestion.
A minimum of one incident has already rattled safety posture. This morning, authorities mentioned a “coordinated” arson assault on the French rail community introduced the system to a standstill.
A starry American lineup
As the 2 flagbearers for the USA, tennis star Coco Gauff and NBA’s high scorer LeBron James will wave the pink, white and blue in the course of the procession.
Current sightings of Celine Dion and Woman Gaga in Paris, and the hints which have dropped since, heightened expectations that the pop phenoms will carry out a duet in the course of the bash. It will be a exceptional Olympics return for Dion — she carried out on the opening ceremony on the Atlanta Video games in 1996. Lately, the French-Canadian has needed to step away from performing because of a uncommon and continual neurological dysfunction referred to as stiff-person syndrome that causes extreme muscle spasms. Her final reside efficiency was in New York in 2020.
There’s loads of stateside star energy within the torch relay, too. Snoop Dogg, Pharrell, Selma Hayek, have already all contributed to the working of the torch. When the torch makes its strategy to the one who will mild the cauldron’s flame (that torchbearer is historically stored beneath wraps till the final minute) the video games formally start.
When and how one can watch
The opening ceremony begins at 1:30 p.m. ET (7:30 p.m. in Paris) and is anticipated to final a bit of over 4 hours. The touring ceremony will float alongside the Seine from east to west, ending with a closing present on the Trocadéro.
NBC kicks off protection with a preview present beginning at midday ET. It should broadcast your entire ceremony reside on TV and stream it through Peacock, NBCOlympics.com, NBC.com and the NBC/NBC Sports activities apps.