The elements succeeded where alleged Russian spies and railway fires had failed, stealing the soul from the first Games opening ceremony to be staged outside a stadium in the 128-year history of the Olympic movement, sending fans and athletes scurrying for cover long before French president Emmanuel Macron declared the 33rd Games officially open. Wholly appropriately given the weather conditions, water was at the centre of the audaciously-planned ceremony with 85 boats sweeping athletes from 205 delegations on a 6km journey down river from the Austerlitz Bridge to their disembarkation point outside the Trocadero. Tugs, two-storey pleasure crafts and, in the case of Eswatini, a lurching speedboat, ferried the stoic competitors down the centre of the Seine.
Forget the usual stories of condom shortages in the Olympic Village: this time, it could be seasickness tablets that are in short supply. It is 100 years since the last Olympics were staged in Paris, and almost a quarter of a century more to the first in 1900, by all accounts a shambolic affair, in which competitors were plucked from the crowd, live pigeon-shooting was on the programme, and the winner of the long-distance hot air ballooning category was promptly arrested for landing in Russia without a passport. Prospective Russian interference was a contributory factor to an unprecedented security operation that has ringed the French capital with increasing tenacity over recent weeks, many of its famous landmarks, including.
