All Eyes on Paris: What to Know About the 2024 Olympic Opening Ceremony

The identity of the person selected for the honor of lighting the Olympic cauldron is one of sport’s best-kept secrets, to be revealed during the ceremony.

The Eiffel Tower during preparations ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in France pictured on July 23, 2024. Benoit Doppagne/Belga Mag/AFP via Getty Images

The 2024 Summer Olympics is underway, with Paris 2024 holding its first sporting events on Wednesday as soccer and rugby sevens took their respective fields of play. Handball will join the action on Thursday, but the 2024 Olympics won’t officially begin until the opening ceremony takes place on Friday. It is the quadrennial commencement of any Olympic Games, and dating back to 1996, it has always occurred on a Friday evening local time.

Just as athletes prepare for four years for their chance to shine at the Games, those who put on the Opening Ceremony do the same, and here’s what you need to know about the 2024 Olympics Opening Ceremony.

How to Watch

The opening ceremony will air live on NBC beginning on Friday at 1:30 p.m. ET, with a 90-minute preshow starting at noon ET. It will also stream on Peacock, and NBC will replay a condensed version of the ceremony at 7:30 p.m. ET on Friday.

Sportscaster Mike Tirico will host, with Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning and singer Kelly Clarkson commentating for NBC.

Where Will It Be Held?

Paris, France, will be the scene, and many landmarks of the French capital will be featured throughout the ceremony, including the Eiffel Tower, the Seine River, and Jardins du Trocadéro.

Spectators will line the Seine River while the cast in the ceremony, and the athletes will travel from the Pont d‘Austerlitz Bridge to the Pont d’Iéna Bridge by boat.

The Jardins du Trocadéro is the final destination, where the main performances and the lighting of the Olympic cauldron will take place.

Olympic Torch

The ancient Games is the inspiration behind the modern Olympic torch relay, which was first seen in 1936 at the Berlin Games.

The 2024 Olympics torch relay began on April 16 in Olympia, Greece, the site of the ancient Games, and will conclude at the opening ceremony.

Claudia Tagbo, French-Ivorian actress and comedian, and Pascal Touitou carry the Olympic Torch at Basilique du Sacre-Coeur de Montmartre during the second day of the Paris 2024 Olympic Torch Relay in Paris, France, on July 15, 2024. Kristy Sparow/Getty Images

Many of France’s most popular current and former athletes have taken part in the relay over the last three months, including four-time NBA champion Tony Parker and four-time Olympic medalist swimmer Florent Manaudou.

Additionally, athletes not from France were invited to partake, such as American snowboarder Shaun White and two-time Olympian soccer player Megan Rapinoe.

The Olympic torch relay has also attracted those outside the sports world, with actress Halle Berry and chef Anne-Sophie Pic carrying the torch as two examples. Rapper Snoop Dogg is part of the final leg of the relay as it makes its way to the opening ceremony.

The person who will take the baton last and light the Olympic cauldron has not yet been announced and will be revealed when it’s time to do so. Past dignitaries to have lit the Olympic cauldron include tennis player Naomi Osaka (2020 Tokyo), boxer Muhammad Ali (1996 Atlanta), and soccer player Michel Platini (1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France).

Parade of Nations

There are 206 nations represented at Paris 2024, and there will be over 10,000 athletes set to compete.

One of the biggest traditions during the opening ceremony is the Parade of Nations, where every athlete congregates with their fellow national team members to walk through the ceremony venue. The athletes are preceded by their flag, and certain athletes are chosen to be their nation’s flagbearer.

As per tradition, Greece will enter first, with the host country, France, entering last. The penultimate nation to enter is the one hosting the next Summer Olympics—in this case, the United States in 2028—and the third-to-last nation hosting the following Olympics, which will be Australia in 2032. Outside of those four, all other nations will enter in alphabetical order.

US Flag Bearers

LeBron James, a three-time Olympic medalist, was chosen as the American male flag bearer and will become the first male basketball player to carry the U.S. flag at the Olympics.

Coco Gauff, the reigning U.S. Open women’s tennis champion, will be the American female flag bearer. This will be Cauff’s first Olympics. She was set to compete at the 2020 Olympics but had to withdraw after testing positive for COVID-19.

The Program

The Olympics Opening Ceremony is as much about honoring the athletes as it is an artistic show. France will get the opportunity to showcase itself both in terms of athletics and artistry, with a performance slated to feature over 2,000 dancers.

Including both the opening and closing ceremonies for the Olympics and Paralympics, nearly 3,000 artists are expected to take part.

The musicians and entertainers slated to perform have been kept under wraps, with artistic director Thomas Jolly saying, “All I can tell you is that it will be very meaningful for the artists that will perform.”

The Trocadero location of the Opening Ceremony, with the Tour Eiffel Tower pictured on July 23, 2024, during preparations ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in France. Benoit Doppagne/Belga Mag/AFP via Getty Images

Spectators 

Roughly 300,000 people are expected to attend the 2024 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony in some form or fashion. That includes those at Jardins du Trocadéro, as well as fans who line the Seine River while the athletes travel to the venue.

With the last Summer Olympics, which were held in 2021, affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, just over 10,000 people attended that year’s opening ceremony.

French officials estimate that over one billion people worldwide will view some of the opening ceremony.

The Games

The 2024 Summer Olympics span 19 days, but Friday will be the only day in which no sporting events take place. The athletes get the day to themselves as either a welcome to the Olympic Games or a rest day if they already started competing earlier in the week.

Once the opening ceremony concludes, 14 medal events will be held on Saturday, with the peak coming on the penultimate day. There will be 39 medal events on Aug. 10, and then a final 13 medals will be handed out the next day before the 2024 Olympics Closing Ceremony concludes Paris 2024 at Stade de France.