Revealed: Paris’s plans to turn the Seine into one gigantic Olympic stadium

Paris has just announced its plans for the 2024 Olympics opening ceremony, and they’re big. They’re huge. In fact, they’re absolutely massive.

The ambitious plans will involve turning almost the entire city into a stage. On July 24 2024, 160 boats, carrying a total of more than 10,000 athletes, will sail down the Seine. Lining the river will be hundreds of performers (including holograms, acrobats and floating symphony orchestras), before a final showdown in a mini-stadium at the Place du Trocadéro, just opposite the Eiffel Tower.

Rather than take place in a stadium, as is the norm with these things, Paris’s Olympic organisers want to show off the city itself. And, to be fair to them, why wouldn’t you? The French capital is chock full of gorgeous, instantly-recognisable landmarks.

The boats will sail for six kilometres between the Pont d’Austerlitz and Pont d’Iéna bridges. Organisers expect around 600,000 attendees along the riverbanks, in addition to the one billion watching around the world, which they claim would make it the biggest Olympic opening ceremony ever.

It’s fitting that Paris itself will be the ceremony’s stage, as plenty of the Olympic events will take place in iconic spots across the city, too. The Seine will host open-water swimming and triathlon events; beach volleyball will be in the Place du Trocadéro; and sports like BMX, breakdancing and skateboarding will all take place at the Place de la Concorde.

The ceremony’s fine details are yet to be properly ironed out, and one of those final ideas could be planning for the weather. What if it rains? Paris gets an average of around seven days of rainfall each July, so a washout isn’t exactly a stretch of the imagination.

Paris’s opening ceremony looks to stand in contrast to Tokyo’s delayed 2021 ceremony. If the organisers can actually pull it off, it promises to be an event like no other.