Host country France has continued to hold the opening ceremony of the Games on the Seine River, presided over by French President Emmanuel Macron, despite the disturbances in the city.
The opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games will take place tonight at 7:30 p.m. local time, or midnight and a half in Thailand time. The host country, France, will have athletes sail 6 kilometers on the Seine River, passing 12 performance zones and important tourist attractions before ending at the Eiffel Tower, chaired by French President Emmanuel Macron at the Trocadero area near the Eiffel Tower.
The parade of 85 athletes will start from the Dousterglitz Bridge along the Seine River. Along the way, there will be shows that reflect French culture, performances and traditional games, divided into 12 different zones with over 2,000 performers.
While the cruise will pass by important landmarks of Paris such as Notre Dame Cathedral, the Louvre Museum, La Concorde Square, the Eiffel Tower, amidst 300,000 spectators in the
venue and an expected audience of more than 3 billion worldwide after the host spent 100 million euros or 3.9 billion baht on the opening ceremony.
For the Thai athletes, “Bew” Phuripol Boonson, a silver medalist at the 2022 Asian Games, will be the male flag bearer, and “Nong ST” Wareeya Sukkasem, a 12-year-old female Thai national skateboard athlete, will be the female flag bearer, leading representatives of athletes from track and field, skateboard, table tennis, cycling, horseback riding, kiteboarding, sailing, swimming, and boxing.
The lighting of the torch in the cauldron is still a secret, both who ignites it and how it is ignited. The favorite is Marie José Perec, a former female sprinter and middle-distance runner who won three Olympic gold medals. – Thai News Agency
Source: Thai News Agency