Olympics
How the Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony unfolded
The Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony began at the Stade de France with the screening of a film starring local comedian Jamel Debbouze and former footballer Zinedine Zidane, and ten minutes later the boat carrying the Greek delegation began the traditional parade of athletes.
An impressive wall of water in the shape of the French flag opened up under the Pont d’Austerlitz to clear the way for the boat, the first of 85 that would carry the 6,500 or so parade participants to the Trocadero. Unfortunately, the rain dampened the spectacle and lightened the crowds, which was watched by 320,000 people on the banks of the Seine.
The opening musical spectacle was a performance by American pop queen Lady Gaga, who sang the emblematic French music hall song “Mon truc en plumes” by Zizi Jeanmaire, who died in 2020 and was one of the voices of a brazen and uninhibited Paris.
At the edge of the quays, several performers waved flags, all dressed in pink. ‘La vie en rose’ was the chic image of this ceremony. The masked Olympic torchbearer crossed the Seine on a cable car, just after the wild choreography of the dancers of the legendary Moulin Rouge.
A mix of live performance along the Seine and filmed images, the show was a succession of twelve scenes that follow the journey of a mysterious masked flamethrower on a zip-line across the rooftops and bridges of Paris.
Paris’ Notre Dame Cathedral, badly damaged by fire in 2019, was honoured in one of the choreographed sequences of the Olympic opening ceremony. Performers in construction uniforms danced on the scaffolding of the cathedral, which is due to reopen on 8 December after years of work.
In an early afternoon clip, Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa had disappeared, a reference to the ‘robbery of the century’ of 21 August 1911. But it reappeared in a sequence featuring the Minions, an animated film directed by Kyle Balda and Pierre Coffin. It is the meeting of two French artistic worlds.
From Olympe de Gouges to Simone Veil, via Gisèle Halimi, ten statues paying tribute to French women pioneers in their respective fields emerged from the Seine on Friday.
Athletes at the Milano Cortina Winter Games have raced through their free condom supply ahead of Valentine’s Day, leaving dispensers empty on Saturday, with more than a week of competition remaining.
According to a report by Reuters, organisers had distributed around 10,000 condoms across the city and mountain accommodation sites, continuing a long-standing Olympic tradition aimed at promoting safe relationships among competitors living in close quarters.
By Saturday, however, supplies had run out — adding Milan to a growing list of Olympic hosts where demand has comfortably exceeded expectations.
“Clearly, this shows Valentine’s Day is in full swing at the village,” International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams told a press conference. “Ten thousand have been used — 2,800 athletes — you can go figure, as they say.”
Adams added with a smile: “It is rule 62 of the Olympic Charter that we have to have a condoms story. Faster, higher, stronger, together.”
Milano Cortina organisers later acknowledged that stocks had been depleted due to “higher-than-anticipated demand,” but assured that additional supplies were already on the way.
“Additional supplies are being delivered and will be distributed across all Villages between today and Monday,” organisers said in a statement. “They will be continuously replenished until the end of the Games to ensure continued availability.”
The unexpected shortage also surprised some athletes.
Mexican figure skater Donovan Carrillo said he had only just heard about the situation. “I just saw that this morning. I was, like, shocked as everyone else,” he said.
Mialitiana Clerc, an alpine skier representing Madagascar, noted that boxes once placed at building entrances were quickly emptied.
“There were a lot of boxes at the entrance of every building where we were staying, and every day, everything had gone from the boxes,” Clerc said. “I already know that a lot of people are using condoms, or giving them to their friends outside of the Olympics, because it’s a kind of gift for them.”
While medals remain the official measure of achievement at the Games, the empty dispensers suggest that the social side of the Olympics is also proceeding at full pace.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday awarded a top state honour to an Olympic skeleton racer who was disqualified from the Winter Games for wearing a helmet commemorating athletes killed in the war with Russia.
Zelenskiy, speaking to Vladyslav Heraskevych on the sidelines of the annual Munich Security Conference, said he had great respect for “all the Olympians who supported you and your position.”
“Medals are important for Ukraine and for you, but it seems to me that the most important thing is who you are,” Zelenskiy said while presenting the racer with the Order of Freedom.
Heraskevych told the president the award was “huge” and that the athletes depicted on the helmet “deserve it even more. Because of their sacrifice, we can compete in the Olympics.”
Heraskevych, 27, was disqualified at the Winter Games in Italy on Thursday when the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation jury ruled that the helmet’s depiction of athletes killed since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 breached rules on political neutrality.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport dismissed his appeal on Friday.
Heraskevych told reporters after the award ceremony that his disqualification was discriminatory as he had not violated the Olympic Charter, a document he said he “really valued.”
“But at the same time, I understand that this scandal has united people around the world about our problem and about the sacrifice of these great athletes, and I believe this goal is much more important than any medal,” he said.
Speaking before the CAS hearing earlier in the day, Heraskevych said his exclusion and rules imposed by the International Olympic Committee were “an instrument of propaganda for Russia. I still receive a lot of threats from the Russian side.”
-Reuters
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Ukraine’s skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych was disqualified from the Milano Cortina Winter Games on Thursday over the use of a helmet depicting Ukrainian athletes killed in the war with Russia, the International Olympic Committee said.
He was informed of his disqualification after a meeting with IOC President Kirsty Coventry early in the morning at the sliding venue.
His team said they would appeal the decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Coventry told reporters she had wanted to meet the athlete face to face in a last-ditch effort to break the impasse.
“I was not meant to be here but I thought it was really important to come here and talk to him face to face,” Coventry told reporters.
“No one, especially me, is disagreeing with the messaging, it’s a powerful message, it’s a message of remembrance, of memory.
“The challenge was to find a solution for the field of play. Sadly we’ve not been able to find that solution” she added, choking up.
“I really wanted to see him race, It’s been an emotional morning.”
The IOC offered him the opportunity to display his “helmet of remembrance” depicting 24 images of dead compatriots before the start and after the end of Thursday’s race at the Games, while also allowing him to wear a black armband while competing.
“I am disqualified from the race. I will not get my Olympic moment,” said Heraskevych.
The skeleton competition starts later on Thursday.
-Reuters
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