The opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games starts tomorrow, Friday 26 July and ends Sunday 11 August. The event is scheduled to start at 19.30 CEST and is expected to last more than three hours.

According to Olympics.com, Paris 2024 will mark the first time in history that the opening ceremony will be held outside a stadium. Instead of familiar images of athletes marching out along an athletics track, guests and viewers will be treated to a colourful river parade through the heart of the French capital.

The Seine, the city’s main water artery, will substitute for the traditional track, the quays will become spectator stands, while the setting sun reflecting off famous Parisian landmarks will provide the backdrop for the event. This outdoor concept also makes Paris 2024 the largest opening ceremony in terms of audience and geographical coverage.

For the host nation, the parade route along the Seine is a visual Parisian experience in history and architecture. The Austerlitz Bridge next to the Jardin des Plantes is the starting point for the flotilla, which will then continue west for six kilometres along the Seine, passing under historic bridges and by iconic landmarks such as the Notre Dame and the Louvre, as well as some Games venues, including the Esplanade des Invalides and the Grand Palais.

Grouped on the boats with their national teams, the athletes will ultimately arrive opposite the Trocadero – the esplanade across from the Eiffel Tower – where the official protocols will be carried out, the Olympic cauldron lit, and the Paris 2024 Games officially declared open.

Almost 100 boats carrying an estimated 10,500 athletes will float along the Seine during the parade. The larger of the 206 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) represented in the parade will have boats to themselves while the smaller ones will share boats.

Camera equipment set up on the decks will allow spectators to see the athletes up close and witness their emotions.

Sports fans are looking forward to the opening ceremony and what entertainment and performances Paris 2024 will produce. Thomas Jolly, a French theatre director and actor, is overseeing the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic ceremonies as artistic director.

While most of the entertainment acts remain under wraps, based on the hints so far, we can expect a show on a grand scale with an eclectic mash up of the old and the new. Speaking to the media in January, Jolly said that he wants to showcase the contrasting cultures of France, be that opera or rap, thus bringing together all the pieces that form the nation’s diverse cultural identity.

For his part, ceremonies choreographer Maud Le Pladec promised that every bridge along the parade route will have dancers on it. Le Pladec will lead 400 dancers out of the total 3,000 artists who are set to take part in the opening and closing ceremonies, all decked out in one-of-a-kind costumes by Daphne Burki.

The French television presenter serves as the costume director for the show, leading a team of hundreds of dressmakers, hair stylists and makeup artists. Burki’s focus on sustainability also means there will be many vintage and upcycled pieces used in the ceremonies, mixed in with newer creations.

Sports fans will also be eager to see what the athletes will be wearing in the teams’ parade. International Olympic Committee (IOC) officials believe that artists will not be the only ones showing their style at the opening ceremony. With a line-up of luxury brands designing athlete uniforms, expect the Olympians to shine as well.

For example, team USA mix preppy jackets with jeans for a cool, all-American look, while Italian athletes will show up in casual, dark blue sets. Hosts France worked with a luxury brand to come up with vests and jackets that tie in with the general Paris 2024 look.

Other teams, such as Canada, Great Britain and Sweden, opted for a more athleisure look, all evoking the colour palettes of their national flags.

Some nations went even further with the patriotic details. Mongolian outfits have already created a buzz on social networks for their intricate embroidery and traditional silhouettes.

Brazil and Guatemala’s looks are also sure to turn heads. Brazil’s denim jackets feature animals that are native to the country, while the Guatemalan athletes are dressed up in folkloric hats and bags to make a colourful statement on the Seine.

Egypt opted for suits that show the colours of the Egyptian flag: black, white and red.

The IOC said that almost 600,000 people will be able to enjoy the opening ceremony in person. True to its slogan, “Games Wide Open”, Paris 2024 has tried to make the event accessible to as many people as possible by taking it outside of the traditional stadium setting.

There were 222,000 free tickets available to watch the parade from the upper banks of the Seine, in addition to 104,000 paid tickets on the lower quays. This marks the first opening ceremony where most spectators will not pay an admission fee – another historic milestone for Paris 2024.

Those in Paris who could not get tickets will be able to watch the opening ceremony on 80 giant screens set up throughout the city.

An additional 1.5 billion people from around the world are expected to tune in to the television broadcasts of the ceremony.

The first batch of the Egyptian delegation arrived in Paris a few days before the start.  They were received by officials from the Games as well as Egyptian Embassy staff in France and have settled in their lodges in the Olympic village.  

Football, handball, shooting, boxing, diving, sailing, rowing and archery are ready to start competing in the first week of the Games. 

The Egyptian Olympic delegation is the biggest in its history with 148 male and female players in addition to 16 substitutes, making it a total of 164 athletes who will be competing in 22 sports. The Pharaohs delegation is the biggest in Africa and the Arab world.

In Paris, Egyptians will compete in athletics (6), football (22), handball (16), volleyball (13), beach volleyball (2), water sports (15); swimming (2), diving (4) and artistic swimming (9), sailing (2), rowing (3), boxing (3), taekwondo (3), judo (2), wrestling (11), weightlifting, tennis (1), table tennis (8), modern pentathlon (4), fencing (21), gymnastics (9), shooting (11), archery (2), cycling (2), equestrian (1), and canoe & kayak (1).

Paris 2024 will be Egypt’s 23^rd participation in the Olympic Games. The Egyptians have competed in 22 of the past 32 editions with a world ranking of 53 according to the medals won: 38 – eight gold, 11 silver and 19 bronze medals.

Weightlifting leads Egypt’s Olympic table with 14 medals followed by wrestling with eight medals, boxing four, taekwondo four, judo two, diving two, karate two, and fencing and modern pentathlon one apiece.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 25 July, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly