Magnificent and humbling: the Paris opening ceremony was a tribute to witnessing superhuman feats of the extraordinary

By Sarah Austin, Lecturer in Theatre, The University of Melbourne

There has never been an opening ceremony quite like it.

For the first time in Olympic Games history, the ceremony took place outside a stadium arena. Despite a rainy and miserable Paris evening, enormous crowds – most who paid no fee to attend – lined the banks of the Seine to witness this outdoor promenade of history, art and sport as 100 boats carrying 10,500 athletes sailed down the river.

Designed to showcase the depth of French culture and celebrate the Olympics as a source of human greatness and unity, the ceremony combined the traditional and the irreverent.

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