Team Nigeria joins the rest of the world to celebrate what Marcon called incredible Olympics amidst tight security
Over 100 athletes and officials from Nigeria will join the rest of the world Friday evening to celebrate the 2024 Summer Olympics will see the Games return to Paris after a century, with the French capital previously hosting the world’s biggest sporting event in 1900 and 1924. The 33rd edition of the Summer Olympics will kick off on Friday, with an opening ceremony on the River Seine, and run until Aug. 11. The closing ceremony will take place at the Stade de France.
Since 1896, the modern Games have been held every four years aside from 1916, 1940, and 1944, when they were canceled because of World Wars I and II. Alongside 29 traditional sports, the Summer Olympics will feature breakdancing, sport climbing, and wave surfing. Over 17 days, a total of 10,500 athletes will vie for medals in these events. Athletes who win will take with them a part of the Eiffel Tower, as the medals feature fragments of iron sourced from the iconic structure.
French President Macron promised an incredible event. Security was tight with 45,000 police on duty. Notable performers included Lady Gaga and Aya Nakamura. The ceremony aimed to showcase diversity, gender equality, and French history. It will be the first time a Summer Olympics has opened outside the main athletics stadium, a decision fraught with danger at a time when France is on its highest alert for terrorism. The parade on Friday evening will see up to 7,500 competitors travel down a six-kilometer (four-mile) stretch of the river Seine on a flotilla of 85 boats.
Compared to the Covid-blighted 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which were delayed by a year and opened in an empty stadium, the Paris show will take place in front of 300,000 cheering spectators and an audience of VIPs and celebrities from around the world. "Tomorrow you will have one of the most incredible opening ceremonies," French President Macron promised at a pre-Games dinner for heads of state and government at the Louvre museum on Thursday evening. For months, organizers have been dogged by questions about whether they would need to scale back or move the procession, but they had insisted throughout that there was no plan B.
A huge security perimeter has been erected along both banks of the Seine, guarded round-the-clock by some of the 45,000 police and paramilitary officers who will be on duty on Friday evening. Another 10,000 soldiers are set to add to the security blanket along with 22,000 private security guards. "Without any doubt, it is much more difficult to secure half of Paris than to secure a stadium, where you have 80,000 people and you can frisk them and send them through turnstiles,"
Frederic Pechenard, an ex-director general of the French police, told AFP. Police snipers are set to be positioned at every high point along the route of the river convoy, which is overlooked by hundreds of buildings. Organisers will be on guard against fresh protests on Friday evening after the Israeli football team's first match on Wednesday was marked by the waving of Palestinian flags and the booing of the Israeli anthem. Paris's vision is for a more cost-effective and less polluting Olympics than previous editions, with competitions set to take place at historic locations around the capital.
For scheduling reasons, some events have already started, including the football, rugby sevens, and archery -- the latter taking place in front of the golden-domed Invalides, the final resting place of Napoleon. On Thursday, women's football took centre stage after a chaotic start to the sporting action in the men's football 24 hours earlier caused by a pitch invasion during an Argentina-Morocco game.
