Joyful NZ team celebrates opening of Paris Olympics

Rain hasn’t dampened the spirits of the New Zealand team taking part in the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics along the River Seine on Saturday morning (NZT).

Thirty-four Māori are among the close to 200 athletes wearing the silver fern at these games.

Around 77 athletes and support staff from Aotearoa were among the almost 7,000 athletes and 320,000 spectators celebrating the official start of the games.

Acrobats, Moulin Rouge can-can dancers, aircraft flyover, French Revolution references, a heavy metal band and athletes on boats parading up the river, all added colour to the spectator event, RNZ said.

French president Emmanuel Macron got the games underway, saying in French, “I declare the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad open.”

Earlier, addressing the athletes, Paris 2024 president Tony Estanguet, a French three-time Olympic champion slalom canoeist, said “For the next 16 days, you will be the best version of humanity.

“You’ll remind us that the emotions of sport form a universal language that we all share. Until the 11th of August, we’ll be by your side.

“Your defeats will be our defeats. Your victories will be our victories. Your emotions will be our emotions.”

Some of the world’s top entertainers were part of the celebratory occasion, including US star rapper Snoop Dog who carried the Olympic torch through Paris ahead of today’s ceremony.

Lady Gaga and Céline Dion both performed as part of the festivities.

Dion, who withdrew from public engagements 18 months ago due to a neurological condition, signed off the opening ceremony with a famous ode to love by celebrated French singer Édith Piaf.

Piaf wrote the work, Hymne à l’amour (the Hymn to Love), to the love of her life, boxer Marcel Cerdan, who died in a plane crash barely a month after it was first performed, an NZ Herald report said.

Highlights

Watch highlights of the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics.