Exclusive: 'Goosebumps' - Thomas Bach excited for 'brilliant' open-air Opening Ceremony at 2024 Paris Olympics
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Updated 12/06/2024 at 09:13 GMT
The countdown is on until the start of the 2024 Olympic Games, which will kick off in spectacular style with a historic first open-air Opening Ceremony on the river Seine. IOC President Thomas Bach explained the inspiration behind the idea and why it will bring "goosebumps," with thousands of athletes set to sail six kilometres through Paris on July 26.
Exclusive: 'It’s time’ – Bach excited as Olympics prepare to return to Paris after 100 years
IOC president Thomas Bach has told Eurosport how the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires was the inspiration behind a historic open-air Opening Ceremony in Paris this summer.
The 2024 Olympic Games will kick off in spectacular style with the first-ever opening ceremony to take place outside a stadium.
Instead, the river Seine will be the setting, with the parade of athletes taking place on boats winding six kilometres through the city from east to west.
Excitement is building towards the July 26 start in the French capital, and Bach explained that the idea came to him in Argentina six years ago.
“We had an Opening Ceremony in the open in 2018, at the Youth Olympic Games, and this worked extremely well,” he told Eurosport in an exclusive interview.
“We had hundreds of thousands of people there in the main avenue in Buenos Aires, around the obelisk, and there was great emotion.
“I turned to Tony Estanguet (head of the Paris 2024 organising committee) and said I could imagine this in Paris.
“Tony said it would be very difficult. We kept talking and came back to the idea from time to time. And then Tony said, you know, I need to first consult security, the authorities, but I think it's really a good idea.”
To begin with, the iconic Champs-Élysées was considered as a location for the ceremony, before Estanguet came back with the idea of using the Seine.
As many as 10,500 athletes are set to cross the city on boats, culminating in front of the Trocadero, where the final shows will take place to complete a spectacular opening to the Games.
“I said this is even better news because this idea is brilliant, much better than any other solution,” Bach added.
“I was excited from the very beginning. Also knowing that from the very beginning, all the security services were included there in the decision-making, all the authorities were included in the decision making, so that we can look forward now with great anticipation to real goosebumps moments.”
Bach also paid tribute to the Warner Bros. Discovery ‘Home Crowd’ initiative, which was launched in May.
The campaign calls for Olympic fans across Europe to come together to pledge their support for the Refugee Olympic Team by creating a new 'Home Crowd' as the athletes prepare to compete in Paris this summer.
Thirty-six inspirational athletes who have faced incredible challenges to reach their start lines will compete in Paris, where they will represent over 100 million displaced people on the biggest sporting stage in the world.
“We are extremely grateful for what you're doing and how you're doing it,” Bach said of the initiative.
“I'm really excited. I've seen some images. You're presenting it in a great way, because you're talking, not just about the team as if the team just fell from heaven, you're showing all the hardships each and every one of them was going through to get here.
“And this is the real message of the refugee team. You can show what humans can achieve, how resilient and how strong human beings can be and how our sport can help them to overcome these challenges.
“And how much refugees with these human qualities are an enrichment to every society. With the IOC Refugee Olympic Team, we want to show what an enrichment they are to our Olympic community. So, thank you for doing it and how you’re doing it.”
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