- Judoka Anriquelis Barrios is the flag bearer for Venezuela, replacing Yulimar Rojas, who cannot participate in these competitions due to an injury | Main photo: El Diario
The opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games will take place on July 26 in the capital of France, specifically on the Seine River. This event is expected to last approximately four hours and will consist of a parade of boats with representatives of each Olympic delegation.
The authorities have arranged for more than 90 boats to be used by 8,500 athletes to cruise along the river and greet the spectators. The route is six kilometres long from the Austerlitz Bridge to the Jena Bridge. A key fact about this edition is that it is the first time that the opening ceremony is not held in a stadium.
A total of 33 Venezuelans are in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. All of them are headed by judoka Anriquelis Barrios and Venezuelan weightlifter Julio Mayora, who are the standard-bearers at the opening ceremony for the Venezuelan delegation. Barrios replaced Yulimar Rojas as standard bearer due to an injury that did not allow her to participate in these events.
Venezuelan athletes arrived in Paris on July 22 and will participate in the following disciplines: athletics, boxing, road cycling, horse riding, fencing, judo, wrestling, Greco-Roman wrestling, swimming, weightlifting, taekwondo and pistol shooting.
Lady Gaga’s performance
American singer Lady Gaga was in charge of opening the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The American singer-songwriter sang the song “My Thing in Feathers” by Zizi Jeanmair.
Dressed in black, she was accompanied by a dozen dancers carrying pink pompoms who were in charge of hiding the artist’s identity until the precise moment, in front of an audience that immediately went from uncertainty to applause.
80 Parisian artists from the Moulin Rouge performed their signature dance, which dates back to the 1820s. The pink costumes they wore for the event were designed specifically for the opening ceremony.
Lady Gaga appeared in the first part of the route along the Seine, shortly after a mysterious boat with children and a hooded figure launched the parade, in a small boat with the Olympic flame, from the Austerlitz bridge.
Her performance included a piano, but the singer of “Poker Face” and “Born This Way” only touched the keys briefly, as the main theme of the performance was a tribute to French cabaret.
Where to watch the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games?
People in Venezuela can watch the ceremony and the development of the competitions on open television on the TVES channel and through the Claro Sports YouTube channel.
Another channel that will broadcast the Olympics will be Telesur, which can be tuned in through channel 13 on Inter; and 722 through SimpleTV.
The Claro Sports app is also available through the SimplePlus and VenevisiónPlay applications.
The Olympic Games will take place from 26 July to 11 August and will bring together a total of 10,672 athletes from 196 nations. In total, there will be 329 events in 32 sports disciplines.
The event was chaired by French President Emmanuel Macron, who shook hands with his predecessor, François Hollande. The French leader also greeted the president of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach.
Among the others present at the ceremony were King Felipe IV of Spain and his wife Letizia. Also in attendance were Colombian President Gustavo Petro and Colombian First Lady Verónica Alcocer.
The Seine River was not suitable for the Olympics
The station France Info He said that the water in the Seine River did not meet sanitary conditions when Mayor Anne Hidalgo bathed there on July 17, precisely to demonstrate that it was suitable for hosting several Olympic Games events.
The French media outlet made these statements after the results of the water samples taken daily to monitor the levels of the two types of bacteria (Escherichia coli and enterococci) that are used to assess whether the conditions are met were made public.
The day Anne Hidalgo dove into the water, alongside the head of the Paris 2024 Games Organising Committee, Tony Estanguet, and the prefect (government delegate) in the Ile de France region, in front of dozens of journalists and cameras, the thresholds set by the health authorities were exceeded.
Specifically, at the point where they entered the water, the concentration of E. coli bacteria was 985 CFU (units) per 100 millilitres when the limit set by the Regional Health Authority in 2023 was 900. In another section of the river, as it passes through Bercy, it reached 1,017 CFU per 100 millilitres.
Apparently, the indicators have improved in recent weeks, since in June the levels that had been measured were much higher due to the fact that the river flow was considerably higher due to the rains that had fallen upstream at the end of spring.
The Mayor’s swim, which had been delayed for several weeks precisely because of the poor water conditions, was an important image to clear up the doubts that have persisted since the organizers of the Paris Games decided that some of the tests would be carried out in the Seine.
With information from EFE
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2024-07-27 09:22:02