The rain dashed all the bold imagery and soaring optimism – a sense that French creativity could match and reinvent the world. It was a persistent foil to a society on fire. Every Olympic Games seeks to create an ideal world, if only temporarily. And what better place to dream than in this great metropolis? But as the rain showed, cooperation is hard to come by, whether from the sky or the rest of the world.
Paris wanted to open the doors to a closed world. The opening ceremony showed off the city’s architectural features, shocked with a singing decapitated Marie Antoinette character, and featured a drag performance to open doors and hearts to all. In between the grandiose and sometimes disjointed presentations, the Olympian nations boarded boats to glide down the Seine, sending us all on a journey that combined French history with art, culture, and sport.
It might have been fascinating if it wasn’t so watery.
Paris 2024 organizers appeared to pull off the impossible, at least during the show. There was plenty of reason to worry beforehand. In a world where so many countries are fighting and human decency is almost nonexistent, staging a novel outdoor event on a river through the middle of a city is an enormous security hassle. Ensuring security required the cooperation of tens of thousands of police, military and private security personnel, as well as intelligence experts from multiple countries.
It’s much easier to get 90,000 people in a stadium because people fit into a limited space, but that doesn’t fit with the theme of these Olympics: “Games Wide Open.” Paris wanted to get a massive crowd of 300,000+ people in the streets and on the riverbanks. It was a great statement of what sport can do to bring people together in these times.
It’s a shame that the good vibes wouldn’t be there if the whole town wasn’t carrying guns, but hey, let’s not pick on this balmy evening. After the boat parade, Tony Estanguet, president of the Paris 2024 organizing committee and former French canoeist, spoke of solidarity to the athletes, who stayed behind in the rain at the Trocadero for the rest of the ceremony. The Eiffel Tower sparkled in the background as Estanguet delivered his moving plea for unity.
“The Olympics cannot solve all our problems, it will not eliminate discrimination and conflict, but tonight you have reminded us how great humanity is when we come together,” Estanguet said. “And when you return to the Olympic Village, you will send a message of hope to the world – a message that there is a place for people of every nationality, every culture and every religion to live together. You will remind us of what is possible.”
You want his words to hang in the air, afraid they will disappear as easily as falling rain.
Despite this opening pageantry, the Olympics are already burdened with a spying scandal involving the Canadian women’s soccer team, a dressage abuse scandal and a petty feud between the two anti-doping agencies, USADA and WADA. The next 16 days will be frustrating and thrilling, but perhaps the tension is a gift: Two weeks of constant conflict resolution will offer greater lessons than any hoped-for convenience.
“First of all, if you love the Olympics, don’t let a few drops of rain bother you,” Estanguet said. “I want to thank all the Olympic lovers who are with us tonight even though they’re a little soaked.”
He continued: “If you love the Olympics, you are prepared to beg for the Olympics for 100 years for the chance to bring them back to Paris. And loving the Olympics passionately means wanting to share all that is most dear to us.”
Paris has succeeded in making the ancient Olympic tradition more accessible. Some will love its inclusivity, others will hate it. The culture wars will rage in the United States and abroad. But the Olympics are officially wide open, and for a few moments the graying Olympics shone with the Eiffel Tower. The old became stately, the old became classic. It is simple elegance that makes the timeless, and Paris wears it well.
During the French broadcast, a commentator was moved to tears by the incident, and the camera continued to show her during commercial breaks.
It wasn’t a perfect night, but Paris didn’t need to be perfect. It just needed to be Parisian. For the first time in Olympic history, only Paris could have pulled off a show that combined a touring opening ceremony, a championship parade-like event, a televised concert and an interactive film that broke the barriers between cinema and live performance.
I’ll admit I was grumpy watching it in the rain and felt defeated when we were forced to retreat indoors, but the show went on, and it seemed fitting that at the end, the Olympic cauldron was lifted into the sky in a hot air balloon.
Paris seemed destined to make a grand gesture by lighting up the top of its most iconic structure, the Eiffel Tower. But, as always, the organizers tried something different: As the cauldron soared higher and higher, it almost seemed to chase rain. Perhaps the symbolism of that should be considered.
In the right light, the timeless treasures showed off their charms as they sparkled against the night sky.