he Paris 2024 Olympics Opening Ceremony is set to be unlike any other—assuming everything goes to plan. For the first time in history, the Summer Games won’t kick off in a stadium but instead on a river. When the in December 2021, three-time gold medalist and head of the Paris 2024 organizing committee Tony Estanguet described what the reimagined event would look like: “The entire city has been turned into a vast Olympic stadium.
The Seine represents the track, and the quays the spectators’ stands.” It’s an ambitious break from tradition that’s set to be the largest-ever—attended by hundreds of thousands across the French capital—but also potentially the most-dangerous, as organizers and security officials are tasked with ensuring the massive open-air show, which some 1.5 billion people around the world will be watching, goes on without a hitch.
Here are all your questions, answered, about the Paris 2024 Olympics Opening Ceremony. The ceremony starts at 7:30 p.m.
in Paris (1:30 p.m. ET) on July 26 and is expected to last more than three hours.
“With the natural light of the setting sun, the event will be even more sublime, with a truly poetic dimension, inviting both athletes and the public to appreciate the natural beauty of the City of Light," Estanguet in March when announcing the official evening start time. Nearly 100 boats will parade down a 6-kilometer (about 3.7 miles) stretch of the Seine, winding east to west through Paris and passing by some of .