The 2024 Olympics begin in Paris on Friday, July 26, with an Opening Ceremony that will truly be unlike any in history. Every Opening Ceremony is a spectacle that starts an exciting two weeks of sports, but this year, the ceremony has been reimagined and will take advantage of the picturesque scenes across the “City of Light.”
This isn’t the first time that Paris has hosted the Olympics. In fact, it will join Los Angeles and London as one of only three cities to host the modern Olympic games three times. Paris hosted the second-ever modern Olympics in 1900 and hosted again in 1924. On the 100th anniversary of those games, they’ll host again in 2024.
Even though the Olympics being held in Paris are not new, there will be plenty of new elements in the Opening Ceremony. Unlike typical Opening Ceremonies, the venue for this year’s will not be the Olympic Stadium. Instead, the focus will be the Parade of Nations which will take place through the center of the city of Paris.
Paris is one of the most recognizable cities in the world, and this event will leverage the setting by having the Parade of Nations in boats along the Seine River. The procession will begin under the Austerlitz Bridge before passing Notre Dame, Pont-Neuf and the Louvre along with many of the events for the venues. The boat ride will conclude at the Trocadéro, an esplanade strategically positioned to take advantage of the backdrop of the Eiffel Tower.
Here’s what it will look like for the athletes with all the historic landmarks highlighted:
The full parade will be about 3.7 miles and will last about four hours. It’s scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. in Paris with sunset at 9:37 providing the perfect ambiance. Due to the setup of the event, it will be able to facilitate huge crowds with about 300,000 watching along the banks of the river and 80 giant screens along the waterway.
This year the Olympic organizers have tried to put an intentional focus on the athlete, which led them to focusing on the Parade of Nations. In total, about 10,500 athletes are expected to participate in the parade and athletes will be featured on stage during the introduction to and throughout the ceremony.
With a six-hour time difference, the parade will start at 1:30 p.m. ET. NBCU’s live coverage will begin the coverage of the event with an Olympic Preview show at 12:00 p.m. ET.
If you don’t catch the event live or want to catch it again, NBC and Peacock will offer an enhanced encore telecast in prime time starting at 7:30 p.m. ET, 6:30 p.m. CT, 6:30 p.m. MT and 7:30 p.m. PT.
The Olympics and the Opening Ceremony will also be streamed on NBCOlympics.com, NBC.com, the NBC app and the NBC Olympics app. Users who authenticate their cable subscription will be able to watch the live stream on NBCOlympics.com, NBC.com, the NBC app or the NBC Olympics app.
The broadcast will be hosted by Mike Tirico, Peyton Manning and Kelly Clarkson with Snoop Dogg bringing his unique perspective to the broadcast as well and even carrying the torch in the final stretch.
It has also been reported that Lady Gaga and Celine Dion will be performing during the Opening Ceremony, although that has not yet been confirmed by organizers.
As you enjoy the Opening Ceremony, be sure to get hyped for the Olympics on DraftKings Sportsbook and DraftKings Network. On the Sportsbook, there are several different markets available depending on what state you are in. One notable market for the entire Olympics is which country will win the Most Gold Medals. The USA is heavily favored as you can see below with China and the host country France as the next two favorites.
You can also pick the over/under on how many gold medals each country will win, with the over/under for Team USA set at 41.5 with the over at -115. There are also many markets available for each individual sport, including golf, gymnastics, soccer, beach volleyball, track & field and even equestrian and water polo.
As you enjoy the Opening Ceremony and learn about the athletes, you can build your betting card to back the athletes you want to be cheering for throughout the rest of the Games.
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