Thierry Reboul wants to make the Place de l’Etoile a “giant dance floor”. At the helm of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the creative director of the Paris 2024 Organising Committee (Cojop) is back at it again on Saturday 14 September. “The Great Man of the Games”Presented by Cojop boss Tony Estanguet, he is in charge of staging the parade of champions that the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, wanted, at the beginning of August, to pay tribute to the athletes and all the actors who have contributed to the success of the Games.
From 3.30pm, between 8,000 and 10,000 people representing volunteers, employees and the Paris 2024 sports movement will be present. “The ecosystem that made the Games”– says Thierry Reboul – will climb up the Champs-Élysées to the Place de l’Etoile via a 300-metre-long elevated ramp, before giving way to the athletes who shined during the summer.
On Saturday, 182 Olympic athletes are expected to compete, including 82 medallists, including four-time Olympic swimming champion Léon Marchand, the entire French judo team and Antoine Dupont and his rugby sevens teammates, the first winners of the Olympic fortnight. The Paralympic delegation will be made up of 137 athletes, including 50 medallists, such as triathlete Alexis Hanquinquant and swimming brothers Alex and Kylian Portal, who are still recovering from their exploits and the unprecedented enthusiasm of the French.
The epicentre of the ceremony will be located at the Place de l’Etoile where, starting at 6.30 pm, Emmanuel Macron will present the Legion of Honour or the National Order of Merit to all the medallists. “In the presence of former glories of French sport who have been decorated in the past”The President of the United States said. Upon his return from the 2021 Tokyo Games, it was at the Elysée Palace that the President received and decorated the medal-winning athletes. The flame of remembrance at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier will be rekindled as every day at 6.30 p.m., in the presence of athletes belonging to the battalion of the “army of champions”.
“Everything you have seen or want to see again”
From 9pm, in the evening, it will be time for the party, broadcast by France Télévisions. A ring-shaped stage, 400 metres long, will surround the Arc de Triomphe for a two-hour extravaganza, a sort of “best of” of the four Olympic and Paralympic ceremonies. “You will see everything you have seen or want to see again”promises Thierry Reboul.
The most powerful and unforgettable images of these Games will be projected onto the façade of the monument. From 9 to 11 p.m., artistic performances and a concert will be organised, the programme of which is yet to be finalised. DJs will keep the party going until midnight on the “dance floor” of the Place de l’Etoile, some of whom were seen on 8 September at the Stade de France for the closing ceremony of the Paralympic Games.
The organisers expect around 70,000 people to attend the parade of champions: 40,000 in the Étoile sector and 30,000 in the Champs-Élysées sector. All the festivities will be free of charge, with open admission (from 2 p.m.), but prior registration is required. on the Parade Paris 2024 platform to obtain a QR code to enter the chosen sector, and within the limit of three companions.
The organisers of the event (Cojop, the State and the City of Paris) say that the Paris Police Prefecture was involved in defining the appropriate security system, while the police were in great demand throughout the summer. As for the budget, neither Cojop nor the public authorities wanted to give the total cost of the operation, estimated at 5 million euros according to the report. The chained duck.
