Paris 2024 Olympic Games

Image: Christophe Simon/AFP

The Paris 2024 Summer Olympics officially launches this evening with a spectacular Opening Ceremony tipped to be the biggest open-air show on earth.

For the first time in the Games’ history, the Opening Ceremony is being held outside a stadium. Instead, athletes will travel along a 6km stretch of the River Seine in a stunning flotilla featuring live music and daring acrobatics, culminating in a laser show beamed from the Eiffel Tower.

As some 300, 000 spectators line the shores, more than one billion people around the world are expected to tune in to the event via television and social media. It’s an enormous undertaking that will momentarily make Paris the centre of the world and open the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad.

The details of the four-hour extravaganza are being kept under close guard and security is tight around the Seine as organisers and authorities prepare for the grand event under the shadow of possible terrorist threats. Some 45, 000 police will be deployed for the ceremony, which will be closely monitored by tactical teams of snipers on overwatch.

Paris previously hosted the Olympics in 1900 and 1924, this year becoming only the second city to host the Games three times, after London. Bearing the Australian flag in 2024 will be slalom canoeist Jess Fox and hockey player Eddie Ockenden.

The 2024 Summer Games features 329 events across 32 sports, including the inclusion of breakdancing for the first time and the return of skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing from their debuts in 2020.

We all wish the Australian Team the best for this year’s Olympic Games, which is available to watch live on Channel Nine and streamed via Stan.

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