For a whole year, Omega's Countdown Clock has been tracking the number of days, hours, minutes and seconds until the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics. Inspired by the Paris 2024 emblem, the clock is located at Port de la Bourdonnais on the bank of the Seine River. Boats carrying athletes of participating nations will navigate the Seine for tonight's opening ceremony, which for the first time in the history of the Summer Olympic Games will take place outside a stadium.
Starting at Pont d'Austerlitz, the aquatic spectacle will follow a downstream course, passing landmarks such as Notre-Dame de Paris, Louvre Museum and Place de la Concorde. At Pont d'Iéna, the parade will progress to the Trocadéro for the finale of the novel opening ceremony. Iconic sights have been imagined as sporting playgrounds in Omega's global campaign, which celebrates the beauty of La Ville Lumière and abilities of Olympic and Paralympic athletes.
French Olympians include Céline Boutier, who tees off from a gargoyle atop the Notre-Dame cathedral; Mickaël Mawem, who climbs the Pont des Arts; and Léon Marchand, whose swim in the Seine ends triumphantly at Pont Alexandre III. Sapsiree Taerattanachai. Italian high jumper Gianmarco Tamberi and Swedish pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis fantastically clear the Arc de Triomphe and Sacré-Cœur Basilica.
Swiss wheelchair racer Marcel Hug and Italian wheelchair fencer Bebe Vio also appear in the surrealistic video, which conveys how the athletes wer.