Paris Olympics open with rain-soaked river ceremony

A hot-air balloon brought an Olympic ring of fire into a rainy sky and singer Celine Dion belted from the Eiffel Tower as Paris kicked off its first Summer Olympics in a century Friday, with a four-hour-long, rule-breaking opening ceremony that unfurled along the Seine River.

On-and-off showers did not seem to hamper the enthusiasm of the athletes. Some held umbrellas as they rode boats down the river in a showcase of the city’s resilience as authorities investigated suspected acts of sabotage targeting France’s high-speed rail network.

With the ambitious ceremony, the stakes for France were immense. Dozens of heads of state and government were in town, and the world was watching as Paris turned itself into a giant open-air theater. Along the Seine, iconic monuments became stages for dancers, singers and other artists.

That included the Louvre Museum, near where French judo champ Teddy Riner and three-time Olympic champion runner Marie-Jose Perec lit the Olympic cauldron, which was attached to a giant balloon that floated into the night — an homage to early French pioneers of manned flight.

Despite the weather, crowds crammed the Seine’s banks and bridges and watched from balconies, “oohing” and “aahing” as Olympic teams paraded in boats down the waterway that got increasingly choppy.

The weather made for some bizarre scenes at the show combining prerecorded and live performances: a stiff upper-lipped pianist played on even as small puddles formed on his grand piano. A breakdancer flipped her moves on the sheen of a rain-drenched platform. Some athletes in Bermuda-style colorful shirts looked dressed for the beach, not a deluge.

Lady Gaga sang in French in a prerecorded bit, with dancers shaking pink plumed pompoms, injecting a cabaret feel. On the Eiffel Tower, Dion closed the show with her first live performance since the French-Canadian singer was diagnosed stiff person syndrome, a rare neurological disorder, at the end of 2022.

More than three hours into the show, French President Emmanuel Macron declared the Games open. In a gaffe before that, the five-ring Olympic flag was raised upside down at the Trocadero across from the Eiffel Tower.

Thousands of athletes on 85 boats started the nearly 4-mile parade on the Seine by breaking through curtains of water cascading down from Austerlitz Bridge. The jetting waters were a wink at the fountains of Versailles Palace, the venue for Olympic equestrian competitions.

Some spectators who followed organizers’ advice to arrive well ahead of time along the ceremony route fumed over long waits to get to their seats.

“Paris has been great, anything to do with the Olympics and dissemination of information has been horrible,” said Tony Gawne, a 54-year-old Texan who turned up six hours in advance with his wife.

“When you spend $6,000 on two tickets, well, that’s a little frustrating,” he said.




(AP Photos: Robert F. Bukaty; Francisco Seco)