Paris 2024: Estanguet, opening ceremony on the Seine “main plan”

French President of the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics Organising Committee (COJO) Tony Estanguet delivers a speech. GETTY IMAGES

Holding the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games on the Seine is the “main plan” and “very likely”, said Tony Estanguet, president of the organising committee, on Tuesday, the day after Emmanuel Macron’s comments suggesting alternative venues at the Trocadéro and the Stade de France.

“Today, the really main and very likely plan is to hold this ceremony on the Seine,” said Tony Estanguet on RFI, interviewed from Olympia, Greece, a few hours before the traditional lighting of the Olympic flame. “The President of the Republic was very clear yesterday: the main objective is to have a very beautiful and absolutely unique opening ceremony, for the first time outside a stadium, in the centre of Paris on the Seine,” he said.

On Monday morning, the French president sought to reassure everyone that the ceremony would go ahead, while outlining for the first time “plans B and C” in the event of a terrorist threat. He had already given assurances that alternative scenarios were being considered. For the first time, he began to describe them in detail, mentioning in particular the Stade de France, which had previously been ruled out by the authorities.

For the head of the COJO, “all our energies and resources are being deployed to ensure that this wonderful ceremony is a success”. “At the same time, we are looking at all the contingency plans to adapt to the context, because that is our responsibility,” he added. “Depending on the state and the situation we find ourselves in, we will adapt the Project.”

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo suggested she was surprised by Macron’s suggestion that the ceremony could be moved. “The only plan I know is Plan A,” Hidalgo said. “The message I prefer to send is that we are ready and we are going to welcome the world,” she added.

According to sources close to the matter, the Stade de France, which will also host Olympic rugby events before the opening of the Olympic Games, would be used for a purely ceremonial ceremony, without any artistic dimension, to officially announce the opening of the Games.

The COJO boss was also excited about the expected lighting of the Olympic flame on Tuesday morning: “It’s a very important moment, it’s the beginning of this adventure.” Swimmer Laure Manaudou will be the first French torchbearer at the Paris Olympics, following in the footsteps of the first Greek torchbearer, rower Stefanos Ntouskos. The flame will arrive in France in Marseille on 8 May.



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