2024 PARIS SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES
The cauldron has been lit at the 2024 Paris Olympics. After its long parade, French track and field star Marie-Jo Pérec and French judoka star Teddy Riner lit the cauldron that was inside at the bottom of a hot air balloon.
In a pre-recorded clip, the French football icon Zinedine Zidane carried the Olympic torch on the final leg of its journey, which began April 16, 2024. The Olympic flame was lit in Olympia, Greece, and traveled to Athens before it sailed across the Mediterranean sea to Marseille, where it began its trek across France.
In the recorded clip, Zidane, who won the 1988 Ballon D’Or and led France to the 1988 World Cup, handed the torch off to a child, who got in a boat with a mysterious figure. The identity of the Olympic cauldron lighter had been one of the most closely held secrets of the Paris opening ceremony.
The mysterious figure can be seen carrying the torch throughout the ceremony, carrying it on top of buildings, through buildings, up and down stairs, through the Lourve, and many more. At the end of the athlete parade, the figure can be seen bringing the torch down the Seine while it rides a stationary silver horse and wears the Olympic flag on its back.
The figure appears on a horse once again, this time on land and on a moving horse, still wearing the Olympic flag. The figure then carries the Olympic flag onto the stage inside the stadium that is now home to all of the athletes.
Zinedine Zidane makes another appearance, carrying the torch again. He hands it off to Rafael Nadal who hails from Spain. Typically, the torch is passed off to people from the host country at the end of the journey.
Nadal then takes the torch onto the Seine River on a boat. The boat also features Serena Williams, Carl Lewis, and Nadia Comăneci. All three athletes hold the torch at some point in the journey with Williams first receiving the torch, Comaneci second, and Lewis third. At the end of the boat ride, French tennis player Amélie Mauresmo takes the torch and parades through the streets passing the crowd before going past the Lourve.
The torch is passed to numerous athletes as it makes its way to the cauldron.
Marie-Jo Pérec and Teddy Riner take the torch at the end of the parade, take the stage to light the cauldron. The cauldron is on a hot air balloon that then raises into the air. The location of the hot air balloon was also at the site of the first hydrogen flight which took place back in 1783.
Right after the balloon is in the air, Celine Dion of Canada sings a song from French singer Edith Piaffe “The Little Sparrow”
