Olympic opening ceremony: A heavenly hymn to sport and love

The 2024 Olympics shook off a rough start to party in large style in Paris, after suspected acts of sabotage targeting France’s flagship high-speed rail network and with cloudy skies and forecast rains eventuating.

New Zealand arrived at the Paris Olympics opening ceremony with Aaron Gate and Jo Aleh waving the flag for the world to see.

Aotearoa shared the boat with four other teams — Oman, Uganda, Uzbekistan and Pakistan.

New Zealand has 195 athletes in the Olympics this year, across 23 sports.

There are 98 men and 97 women, and Māori athletes make up 17.4% (34 athletes).

Our youngest athlete is footballer Milly Clegg, 18, and our oldest is 45-year-old equestrian Tim Price.

French-Canadian superstar Celine Dion made a surprise appearance to end the opening ceremony.

This was her first public performance since her diagnosis with stiff person syndrome in 2022.

Is it from the Phantom of the Opera or Assassin's Creed? It's actually both and more.

A mysterious torchbearer appeared in a hooded, masked costume inspired by a number of characters from French culture: Belphégor, the Iron Mask, the titular character from Phantom of the Opera, Fantomas, Ezio from Assassin's Creed and Arsène Lupin. The torchbearer ran atop the Musee d’Orsay, dashed past Pont Neuf, rode a boat with a kid holding the flame and later cartwheeled down a red runway.

Another mystery character was a horsewoman, appearing to levitate over the Seine.

The Olympic Games posted on X that the character, a woman, was meant to embody "Olympic spirit".

Interpretative art was on display, with one such interaction evoking emotions on social media.

One individual, adorned only in blue body paint, a floral crown and flowers around his waist for modesty lay on a silver platter surrounded by fruit and flora while singing.

French singer and actor Philippe Katerine — singing a song named Naked — was known for his irreverent sense of humour.

Aged 55, he became popular in France in the 2000s with his dance beat Louxor, J’adore, which he performed almost naked.

Sky Sport commentators said the performance was raising awareness for "preserving the blue planet".

Former Sunday journalist Tania Page described the artist as a "middle age smurf fella draped in fruit."

The Olympic Games posted on X that it was an "interpretation of the Greek God Dionysus [to ]make us aware of the absurdity of violence between human beings."

Tom Daley and Helen Glover imitated a scene from Titanic during the opening ceremony.

Luckily for Daley and Glover, there was no iceberg in sight as the flag bearers for Britain put their own little twist on the blockbuster 1997 movie while floating on their country’s boat on the River Seine.

Daley, a diver, held his arms out as he stood near a railing, and Glover, a rower, had her arms wrapped around his waist while holding the British flag.

Britain’s team account posted a picture of the scene. The caption read: "Near, far, wherever you are.."

The ceremony celebrated women, including by featuring 10 gold-coloured statues of great French female figures.

During a performance of the national anthem La Marseillaise, the statues arose from giant pedestals along the river near France’s lower house of parliament.

Among the pioneering women honoured was Olympe de Gouges, who drafted the Declaration of the Rights of Women and the Female Citizen in 1791 during the French Revolution. She campaigned for the abolition of slavery and was guillotined in 1793.

The others: Simone de Beauvoir, a philosopher and writer; Gisèle Halimi, a lawyer and activist; Paulette Nardal, a writer; Jeanne Barret, an explorer and botanist; Christine de Pizan, a writer; Louise Michel, a feminist activist; Alice Guy, a movie director and producer; Alice Milliat, organiser of the first Women’s World Games; Simone Veil, a politician and magistrate. The statues will be given to the City of Paris – which currently has 260 statues of men and just 40 or so of women.

France only recently has began honouring its great female figures. Until 2015, the Pantheon monument, which is the final resting place of dozens of national heroes, had only one woman among them: Marie Curie. Since then, four other women have been inducted.

These Summer Games aimed to be the first Olympics with equal numbers of women and men competing.

Algerian athletes brought red roses on their boat as they paraded for the event, and then tossed them into the river to honour victims of an infamous 1961 police crackdown on Algerian protesters in Paris.

The parade started at the Austerlitz Bridge beside the Jardin des Plantes and followed the course of the Seine from east to west. It made its way around two islands in the centre of the city before passing under several bridges and gateways.

Athletes aboard boats had glimpses of several Olympic venues including La Concorde Urban Park (3X3 basketball, breaking, BMX freestyle cycling, skateboarding), Invalides (archery, athletics, marathon finish, road cycling) and the Grand Palais (fencing, taekwondo).

The parade ended at the Iena Bridge, which linked the Eiffel Tower on the left bank of the Seine to the Trocadéro district on the right bank. The ceremony’s finale was at the Trocadéro. There, among other ceremonial procedures, French President Emmanuel Macron delivered opening remarks.

Lady Gaga delivered a dazzling performance as the first musical act during the Paris Olympics 2024 opening ceremony — all pre-recorded.

The Grammy- and Oscar-winning performer kicked off her performance on steps along the Seine River, singing Zizi Jeanmaire's Mon Truc en Plumes. She was accompanied by eight dancers carrying pink feather fans before she moved on to the piano.

The singer’s representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment about why her performance was pre-recorded.

An Associated Press reporter saw Gaga begin to warm up around three hours before the opening ceremony started, performing for about an hour before waving to fans as she walked off.

Gaga's appearance was meant to be a surprise — she was not listed on a programme provided to the media in advance — but was heavily rumoured after the singer and actor was spotted in Paris.

Fans draped flags over the sides of viewing areas along the Seine River and from nearby apartment windows and balconies.

The French tricolor flag is prominent, but there were also flags from Mexico, South Korea, Austria, Denmark, Germany, the United States and Greece.

Spectators rushed into the venue near Invalides after waiting for hours, initially having been told scanners at their entrance were broken.

It left a number of older spectators such as 66-year-old Erica Chammas flustered and frustrated as many visitors pushed into her and a number of young children in line.

"They were pushed through a cattle pen all through one door," the 66-year-old English-French woman said. "They way we were let in was shocking. The little girl next to me was nearly trampled."

Fried plantains were a staple, a beloved side dish in the Caribbean and some other parts of the world.

And a recent serving for Jamaican triple jumper Shanieka Ricketta probably tasted better than any she could remember.

She was frying up a batch recently when her agent called with news: Jamaican teammates chose her as a flag bearer for Friday night’s opening ceremony at the Paris Games.

"I was, ‘Yes!’" she said. "I was just so happy because I was not expecting this honour."

Drizzle started at the Trocadero, the finish of the opening ceremony. And it was time for a new Olympic sport — the covering up of everything.

Journalists at outdoor workspaces pulled tarps over their laptops to protect them from the water. VIPs in attendance pulled on their ponchos, and tons of umbrellas were deployed — many with the Olympic rings, of course.

Forecasters said it was only going to get worse.

French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed several dozen of heads of state and government at the Elysee presidential palace on Friday afternoon.

Macron’s office said the Elysee reception was "an opportunity for France to deliver a message of peace and tolerance as 10,500 athletes from around the world gather to take part in the world’s biggest event."

About 100 world leaders, government officials and heads of international organisations were expected to attend the ceremony.

At Pont au Change, an iconic bridge close to the Châtelet theatre and Notre Dame cathedral, dozens of spectators slowly made their way to the shores of the Seine River ahead of the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics.

The atmosphere was subdued, with just a few police sirens wailing in the distance as spectators go through police screenings without complaining.

Organisers have devoted a vast area along the banks of the Seine River where athletes will board their boats for the opening ceremony. The space in the east of Paris has room for several of the 90 boats carrying around 6800 athletes to dock at the same time. The parade officially begins at the Austerlitz Bridge.

French TV showed Pharrell Williams carrying the Olympic flame atop the cathedral of Saint-Denis, on the northern outskirts of Paris.

The town of Saint-Denis has a long relationship with royalty — and it hasn’t always been kind. In all, 42 kings, 32 queens and 63 princes and princesses were buried over the centuries in its basilica — only to be dug up again during the French Revolution and tossed into mass graves.

John Legend, Chrissy Teigen and their two oldest children, Miles and Luna, were also spotted in Paris.

The weather also worked against the Paris Games when the Olympic flame was lit on April 16 in Greece.

Cloudy skies blocked the sun, meaning its rays couldn’t be harnessed to light the flame, as is traditional. Had all gone to plan, an actress dressed as an ancient Greek priestess would have dipped the fuel-filled torch into a parabolic mirror which focuses the sun’s rays on it, and fire spurts forth. But this year, she didn’t even try, going straight for a backup flame, kept in a copy of an ancient Greek pot.

The flame arrived May 8 in France and has toured the county and French territories overseas before arriving in Paris for the opening ceremony.

Police officers in flak jackets wandered the shores of the Seine as people on Olympic floats practiced for their big debut in the opening ceremonies.

Streets, brimming with police vehicles, were blocked off with multiple layers of security and bag checks. French authorities appeared on high alert for a potential threat in an event set during a moment of larger global tensions.

Celia Perez Cuenca, a Spanish fencing champion visiting to support the Spanish Olympic team, was among those by the Seine as the ceremony geared up.

She said the high level of security was a welcome sight.

"It’s an important event where many different nations gather together," she said. "I think this kind of security at this moment is very necessary to assure that all the competitors are safe."

Tennis star Coco Gauff will join LeBron James as a flag bearer for the US Olympic team at today’s opening ceremony.

Gauff, the reigning US Open champion, is set to make her Olympic debut and will be the first tennis athlete to carry the American flag. She and James were chosen by Team USA athletes.

They’ve been preparing for the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics for years.

Evidently, it’ll go down to the wire.

Around the Trocadero, at the foot of the Eiffel Tower and essentially the finish line of the ceremony, workers were still scrambling to get things done late Friday afternoon, not long before the event was to begin. Equipment was being driven in on forklifts, workers were stapling a covering — presumably no-slip, since rain is expected — to the stage and even some vendor booths were still under construction.

All that, with the start of the ceremony about three hours away.

He’s an actor and a stage director, and no stranger to spectacles on a grand scale.

Thomas Jolly was tapped two years ago as the artistic director of the opening and closing ceremonies for the Paris Olympics and Paralympics.

Plans for tonight’s ceremony were kept closely guarded, but Jolly told The Associated Press beforehand that he wanted to share France with the world.

"France is a story that never stops being constructed, deconstructed, and reconstructed. It’s alive, it remains alive," he said.

People arrived hours before the start of the opening ceremony along the Seine River, seeking the best spot at the viewing areas. Some brought folding chairs, books, sandwiches and water.

Monica Merino, 57, came to Paris from Madrid for the Olympics and said it would be her first time watching the opening ceremony in person.

"We have visited Paris many times, and it is very different now because it is empty of people and full of military and police," she said.

After getting off to a rocky start last year, Olympics 2024 organisers said the Paris Games have broken the record for the most number of tickets sold or allocated in the event’s history. And yet, tickets are still available.

Organisers say 9.7 million tickets were sold or allocated for this year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games, with 8.7 million sold for the former and 1 million for the latter.

For Paris, a total of 10 million tickets were put on sale for the Olympics — meaning that despite the historic popularity of the sporting events and unprecedented scale of this year’s competitions, there will still be many empty seats remaining.

The total ticketing figure will, however, likely rise because tickets are still on sale for some of the 45 sports.

The rapper-turned-NBC Olympics correspondent was one of the final Olympic torch bearers before the opening ceremony. He carried the flame in Saint-Denis, just outside Paris.

In an interview before his leg of the relay, Snoop Dogg vowed to be on his "best behaviour".

"I’m going to be on my best athleticism. I’ll be able to breathe slow to walk fast and hold the torch with a smile on my face, because I realise how prestigious this event is," he said.

Security officials received their last instructions before one of the viewing areas along the Seine River becomes packed with people for the Olympics opening ceremony.

As police boats patrolled the river, Olympic staff and volunteers placed on each seat a set of small flags of participating countries that fans could use to cheer on athletes who will later appear in a parade of boats.

Paris resident Linnett Hernandez Valdes, who was preparing her food truck for visitors, says she understands the level of security "considering the event of such magnitude." She didn’t experience any trouble getting in despite the sabotage to the train.

"I don’t have any fear that something could happen," she said, adding that she is very fortunate to be present at the ceremony and plans to enjoy it.

The Paris Olympics are getting off to a rough start.

In addition to suspected acts of sabotage targeting France’s flagship high-speed rail network, the French captial had a dreary feel Friday amid cloudy skies and forecast rains hours before its ambitious opening ceremony.

On a day of utmost importance for the country, with dozens of heads of state and government in town for the Olympic opening and a global audience topping 1 billion expected to tune in, authorities were scrambling to deal with widespread rail disruptions caused by what they described as coordinated overnight sabotage of high-speed train lines.

The train delays and drizzly weather underscored potential vulnerabilities of the host city’s bold decisions to break with Olympic traditions and stage an opening ceremony like no other.

Kiwi man Andrew Schmidt and his daughter, 15, both missed the Opening ceremony today "because of the sabotage of the trains".

"We were booked on the train from Bordeaux to Paris that were all cancelled from Bordeaux," he said.

"We are still stuck in Bordeaux, and will miss the Mens Rugby Semis tomorrow as well."

The Montparnasse 2 station was packed with passengers affected by delayed or cancelled trains, including some who spent hours stuck on the tracks because of the disruptions.

Maiwenn Labbé-Sorin said she waited hours on the train before it returned to Paris. There was no news on when she would be able to continue her trip.

"We stayed two hours without water, without toilets, without electricity," she said. "Then we could go out on the track for a bit and then the train returned. Now I’m not sure what’s going to happen."

Travelers at Gare du Nord train station looked up at departure boards for Eurostar trains to London showing delays of up to an hour and a half.

"It’s a hell of a way to start the Olympics," said Sarah Moseley, 42, as she learned that her train to London was an hour late.

After three and a half hours of eye-popping displays and celebrity appearances, Celine Dion smashing out Edith Piaf's popular hit Hymne A L'Amour elevated the hell of a start to a heavenly conclusion.