The boats are docked, the cauldron is lit and the 2024 Olympic Video games are formally underway.
The opening ceremony was not held in a stadium for the primary time in Olympic historical past because the Seine entertained 85 boats.
Greece and France have been the bookends of the floating parade. Greece is at all times the primary nation to begin the “parade of countries” within the Olympic opening ceremony as an ode to the nation that created the Video games, with the primary fashionable Olympics occurring in Athens in 1896. The host nation closes out the procession.
Two-hundred-and-five delegations participated within the parade, although there are 206 official delegations due to these hailing from Russia and Belarus taking part as particular person impartial athletes. (Each international locations have been banned from competing as a result of ongoing conflict in Ukraine.)
The entire boats handed underneath 24 of the 37 bridges alongside the River Seine, based on the NBC broadcast. Some have been giant, some have been small. Some hauled a whole bunch of athletes whereas others held a handful. Both means, right here have been essentially the most eye-catching cruisers of the opening ceremony.
The Murano
The Murano, a ship you may virtually odor via the display, is a Venetian motorboat inbuilt 1964. It is made completely of varnished mahogany and is typical of the shipbuilding trade in Venice, the place Murano — an island within the Venetian Lagoon — is positioned.
The Murano carried Bhutan’s three-athlete delegation, and Kinzang Lhamo and Sangay Tenzin have been the flagbearers.
Le Paris
A becoming identify for the host nation, Le Paris is a big, fashionable boat with two open-air lounges that carry as much as 230 passengers.
Le Paris additionally carried the delegates from the Netherlands and Peru.
The boat carrying the Cayman Islands’ delegation
The identify for this magnificence — the boat that carried the four-athlete delegation of the Cayman Islands — was not formally listed by the Olympic Video games. Its white and picket exterior emanated a nautical ambiance that just about made it really feel vivid and sunny on a very wet day in Paris.
The Tennessee
The double-decker “Tennessee” is a Mississippi River-style boat strutting mahogany paneling and woodwork, creating a comfortable ambiance.
The Tennessee carried Group Austria, Group Azerbaijan and Group Bahamas’ delegates. Austria has 84 athletes, Azerbaijan has 47 and the Bahamas has 18 competing in Paris.
Joséphine
Joséphine, which carried the delegates from Saint Lucia, San Marino and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, is a big, luxurious yacht. Nevertheless it’s greater than a boastful flotation gadget. Zoom in, then zoom in slightly extra.
It certainly features a sizzling tub, although nobody used it throughout the opening ceremony. Triathletes ought to observe there’s one close by the Seine, although, after Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo jumped within the water final week to showcase the river’s cleanliness and mentioned it was “slightly cool.”
Required studying
(Photograph: Lars Baron / Getty Photos)
Supply hyperlink
