The River Seine in Paris Gears Up for Olympic Opening Ceremony

We’re live blogging the opening ceremony throughout the afternoon. Head to our latest updates here.

PARIS — The Olympics kick-off event is here. An amphibious opening ceremony is taking place on the River Seine at the heart of the city, an outdoor bash that for the first time in the modern Games era won’t be held outside in a stadium. The ceremony ends on land, with the backdrop of the Eiffel Tower.

NPR will be there to watch it all unfold, so stay tuned: This story will be updated throughout the festivities.

A historic opening ceremony

A parade of more than 10,000 athletes will float down a 3.7-mile stretch of the Seine. Some 300,000 spectators are expected to attend — most of whom will pay no admission fee to watch the parade from the river’s banks.

The parade will travel east to west, passing by major landmarks like the Grand Palais. The parade is set to end at the Pont d’Iéna bridge before a finale show at the Trocadéro, opposite the Eiffel Tower.

The route also tours some of the city’s temporary sports venues, including an outdoor arena abutting the Eiffel Tower where beach volleyball games will take place.

An intense security presence

The open-air venue has invited serious security concerns, and officials have locked down the city in anticipation. Tens of thousands of police and military personnel have descended upon the city. Closed roads and bridges at and around the Seine are exacerbating crowd and traffic congestion.

At least one incident has already rattled security posture. This morning, authorities said a “coordinated” arson attack on the French rail network brought the system to a standstill.

A starry American lineup

As the two flagbearers for the United States, tennis star Coco Gauff and NBA’s top scorer LeBron James will wave the red, white and blue during the procession.

Recent sightings of Celine Dion and Lady Gaga in Paris, and the hints that have dropped since, heightened expectations that the pop phenoms will perform a duet during the bash. It would be a remarkable Olympics return for Dion — she performed at the opening ceremony at the Atlanta Games in 1996. In recent years, the French-Canadian has had to step away from performing due to a rare and chronic neurological disorder known as stiff-person syndrome that causes severe muscle spasms. Her last live performance was in New York in 2020.

There’s plenty of stateside star power in the torch relay, too. Snoop Dogg, Pharrell, Selma Hayek, have already all contributed to the running of the torch. When the torch makes its way to the person who will light the cauldron’s flame (that torchbearer is traditionally kept under wraps until the last minute) the games officially begin.

When and how to watch

The opening ceremony begins at 1:30 p.m. ET (7:30 p.m. in Paris) and is expected to last a little over four hours. The traveling ceremony will float along the Seine from east to west, ending with a final show at the Trocadéro.

NBC kicks off coverage with a preview show starting at noon ET. It will broadcast the entire ceremony live on TV and stream it via Peacock, NBCOlympics.com, NBC.com and the NBC/NBC Sports apps.

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