with a that featured 85 boats, 3.7 miles of the Seine, thousands of athletes and a lot of rain. What began with Zinedine Zidane in an empty stadium turned into a city-wide adventure featuring a "Masked Marauder" and a quartet of legends (Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams, Carl Lewis and Nadia Comăneci) eventually handing the torch to French gold medalists Marie-José Pérec and Teddy Riner, .
The pop star performed a on the banks of the Seine, singing Zizi Jeanmaire's "Mon truc en plumes" while surrounded by a troupe of dancers. Celine Dion with a rendition of Edith Piaf's "Hymne à l'amour" from atop the Eiffel Tower in her first performance since being diagnosed with stiff-person syndrome. Katie Ledecky is widely considered the greatest female swimmer ever, and she can cement her case in Paris.
She arrives with 10 Olympic medals (seven golds) and needs three more to break the all-time female record of 12. Ledecky is just the ninth American swimmer to qualify for four Olympics, having made her debut at age 15 at the 2012 London Games. She swam one event in London: the 800m freestyle (which she won).
This year, she'll swim four: the 400m, 800m and 1,500m freestyle, and the 4x200m freestyle relay. If she wins the 800m freestyle, she'll become just the second swimmer to four-peat in an Olympic event. The only other one to do it? Michael Phelps, in the men's 200m IM.
Decent company! The 400m freestyle final is being billed as the , with Ledecky facing off against Australia's Ar.