Watch live: Paris 2024 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony

Delve into everything you need to know about the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and watch tonight’s opening ceremony live at 19:30.

6 hours ago
Allison Cooper 4 minutes read
Image used for illustration purposes only.

Team South Africa has sent a squad of nearly 150 athletes to Paris, where the country will make its ninth appearance at the Olympic Games since its 1991 readmission to international sport.

The Paris 2024 Olympic Games takes place from today until August 11.

South Africa has made nine consecutive appearances at the Olympic Games since Barcelona 1992 and will compete in its 21st overall in Olympic history.

The country was the first African nation to compete in the games – in St Louis in 1904 – and appeared at every edition until Rome 1960.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) barred South Africa from the multi-sport event ahead of the 1964 Tokyo Games due to apartheid, and the South African Olympic Committee was officially expelled from the IOC in 1970. More than two decades later, a racially mixed team competed in Barcelona in 1992, signalling South Africa’s readmittance to the games.

Medals

South Africa has brought home 89 medals since 1904, with track and field athletics (28) and swimming (20) accounting for most of the country’s silverware.

The country achieved the best haul of 10 medals at a single Olympics in Antwerp 1920, Helsinki 1952, and Rio 2016.

Tokyo 2020 in 2021 represented a slide in South Africa’s fortunes, with the team returning with a three-medal haul courtesy of gold and silver from Tatjana Smith (Schoenmaker) and silver from Bianca Buitendag.

Watch the opening ceremony tonight

From Marseille to Paris, passing through the French overseas territories, the Olympic flame followed an epic route never seen before! The torch-lighting ceremony took place in Olympia, Greece, on April 16 and will culminate in Paris at the opening ceremony tonight.

The ceremony promises to be bold, original and unique and is set to be the most memorable in Olympic history as, for the first time, it will not take place in a stadium, but in the heart of the city, along its main artery – the Seine.

The parade of athletes will be held on the Seine, with boats for each national delegation. The boats will be equipped with cameras to allow television and online viewers to see the athletes up close.

Winding their way from east to west, the 10 500 athletes will cross through the centre of Paris. The parade will end its 6km route in front of the Trocadéro, where the remaining elements of Olympic protocol and final shows will take place.

The largest opening ceremony in history is open to everyone around the world.

Athletes will be the heart and soul of the ceremony. By opening with the parade of athletes, Paris 2024 is breaking with tradition. Athletes will be featured on stage during the introduction to and throughout the ceremony as part of Paris 2024’s aim to hold Olympic Games created for and by athletes.

The inaugural games took place in 1896 in Athens, Greece.

Parade route

The parade will depart from the Austerlitz bridge beside the Jardin des Plantes at 19:30 and will make its way around the two islands at the centre of the city (the Île Saint Louis and the Île de la Cité) before passing under several bridges and gateways.

Athletes on board the parade boats will get glimpses of some of the official game venues, including Parc Urbain La Concorde, the Esplanade des Invalides, the Grand Palais and, lastly, the Iéna bridge, where the parade will come to a stop before the ceremony’s finale at the Trocadéro.

It’s expected that hundreds of millions of people across the world will watch the opening ceremony on TV.

Watch live:

A piece of the Eiffel Tower in every medal

To celebrate the return of the Games to France, each medal is embellished with an original piece of the Eiffel Tower.

According to information on the Olympic Games’ website, to create this meeting between the most prestigious object of the games and the iconic monument of France and Paris, Paris 2024 worked on the design of the medal with Chaumet, an LVMH Group company which is a premium partner of Paris 2024.

“The Paris 2024 Athletes’ Commission, chaired by Martin Fourcade, participated in the search for an idea to symbolise the identity of the next games. The winning idea was an obvious choice: To associate the iconic monument of France and Paris – the Eiffel Tower – with the most prestigious object of the games: The medal.

Paris 2024 medals. Photo: Paris 2024 Olympics website/Press hub.

“Each Olympic and Paralympic medal is set with a piece of original iron from the Eiffel Tower. Built between 1887 and 1889, the ‘Dame de fer’ has since undergone numerous renovations. Certain metallic elements have been permanently removed and conserved in this process. For the Paris 2024 Games, the Eiffel Tower Operating Company is allowing these genuine pieces of Parisian and French history to find glory again.

Read more about the medals and their design here.

What sports feature in 2024?

Athletes from 206 National Olympic Committees will compete at 25 venues in the following sports:

  • 3×3 Basketball
  • Archery
  • Artistic gymnastics
  • Artistic swimming
  • Athletics
  • Badminton
  • Basketball
  • Beach volleyball
  • Boxing
  • Breaking
  • Canoe slalom
  • Canoe sprint
  • Cycling BMX freestyle
  • Cycling BMX racing
  • Cycling mountain bike
  • Cycling road
  • Cycling track
  • Diving
  • Equestrian
  • Fencing
  • Football
  • Golf
  • Handball
  • Hockey
  • Judo
  • Marathon swimming
  • Modern pentathlon
  • Rhythmic gymnastics
  • Rowing
  • Rugby Sevens
  • Sailing
  • Shooting
  • Skateboarding
  • Sport climbing
  • Surfing
  • Swimming
  • Table tennis
  • Taekwondo
  • Tennis
  • Trampoline
  • Triathlon
  • Volleyball
  • Water polo
  • Weightlifting
  • Wrestling

Visit the Paris 2024 Olympic Games website for more information and event schedules.

Read original story on www.citizen.co.za

6 hours ago
Allison Cooper 4 minutes read
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