The closing ceremony of the Paris Olympics on Sunday will send “a very positive message to the whole world,” said French Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra on Saturday.
The show “will honour the values that our country has always believed in,” Oudéa-Castéra added in an interview with FranceInfo radio station.
The ceremony will take place at the Stade de France in Saint Denis, starting at 9:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. GMT) and lasting just over two hours. Rehearsals have been underway for several weeks at a secret location.
From a protocol point of view, it will include a parade of athletes and flags, the presentation of the last medals (those of the two marathon events), as well as the closing speech by the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach.
The aesthetic part will then come, which will be handled by the same artistic team as the opening ceremony, headed by artistic director Thomas Jolly.
It will be a 40-minute show entitled ‘Records’. Thierry Reboul, director of ceremonies for Paris 2024, told France 3 today that “a huge device” with “a universe close to science fiction” was “an event” but without giving any further clues.
The opening on July 26 included an original parade of boats on the waters of the Seine, with artistic and musical tableaux passing by some of the most important monuments of Paris.
One of them was interpreted by Catholic and far-right sectors as a mockery of Jesus Christ’s last supper, even though those responsible for it claimed that it was a pagan celebration with the Greek god Dionysus.
The French minister, without specifically mentioning the controversy, said in the interview: “Be confident, we have a team with immense talent that will once again make France very proud.”
“It’s going to be a very, very beautiful ceremony. It’s going to be fun. Honestly, you won’t be disappointed,” said Tony Estanguet, president of the Organizing Committee, a few days ago.
The closing ceremonies also include the transfer of the Olympic flag to the next host city, which in this case will be Los Angeles in 2028.
And here there will be, as usual, an artistic sequence conceived by the American side, which would last about twenty minutes, according to some leaks to the French press.
The famous actor Tom Cruise, who has specialised in action films in recent decades, has been seen on the roof of the Stade de France, and it is not ruled out that he will star in some spectacular rappelling action or similar.
This has generated some public and social media criticism since Cruise is a member and public defender of the Church of Scientology, an entity that has been considered by former members, press reports and reports from public bodies as a cult or a scam.
Asked about this issue today, the French Minister of Sport replied that Cruise “is an extraordinarily popular personality. Let’s not always look for controversy where there is none.”
France / EFE
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2024-08-14 03:37:29
