Towards the end of a night where the Parisian skies opened like sluice gates and did their damnedest to drown the ambitions of the most audacious opening ceremony in history, the head of the Paris Olympics had the confidence to crack a joke. “When you love the Games, first of all you don’t let a few drops of rain bother you,” said Tony Estanguet. “Thank you to all those lovers of the Games who are with us – a little soggy – tonight!” A few drops! If only.
But while the rain soaked the skin, it did nothing to blunt the spirit among the thousands of athletes who took the 6km journey along the Seine, or the 330,000 spectators who cheered them on their way. Because for hours and hours they sang, danced and laughed like they were at the greatest party in the world. The Dutch and Slovenians pogoed up and down on their boats.
The Jamaicans sang and waved flags. And the Team GB’s flag bearers, Tom Daley and Helen Glover, played their part too, giving their best impressions of Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in Titanic. The prime minister, Keir Starmer, as drenched as everyone else in the Trocadéro, applauded from the barely covered posh seats the British athletes, which included Sir Andy Murray.
In total there were 39 Team GB members parading out of the 327 in Paris, a respectful number given the weather. The idea of staging these Games outside of a traditional stadium was a high-wire act of spectacular proportions, but Paris somehow managed to pull it off. As Es.