Olympic Games off to a flying start with incredible cauldron feat
The Paris Games started in saturated but spectacular style – rain couldn’t dampen the joy of athletes cruising the Seine as a global audience watched an unforgettable feast of the senses and soul
READING LEVEL: GREEN
A beheaded Marie Antoinette* started singing while a French heavy metal band thrashed guitars and fire erupted across the River Seine.
There was Les Mis*, dancers from Moulin Rouge*, Celine Dion sang her heart out, there was the cancan*, Lady Gaga performed on a golden stage, a metal horse galloped across the famous river and weightlifting, boxing, pole vaulting Minions stole the Mona Lisa.
Torrential rain in Paris made it hard work for the estimated 350,000 spectators along the Seine and it was like no ceremony the Olympics had ever seen. Only one city could pull this off: Paris.
The five-hour spectacle fused sport and art in the heart of one of the world’s most vibrant and flamboyant* cities. It was unpredictable, creative, cheeky and bold.
Marie Antoinette sang her pretty little head off, so to speak, in a killer segment that showed the wildly creative ceremony at its inspired best.
The Olympics’ first ceremony outside a main stadium was free to spectators, and a free-for-all in diversity of content, grandly switching haphazardly from the parade of athletes’ boats to Lady Gaga singing in French on the banks of the Seine to a mystery hooded central character zipping through the streets and across rooftops … only in Paris could this experiment work.
Footage of the Minions huffing, puffing and giggling through their slapstick Olympic routine while squealing “ooh la la” and mocking French stereotypes*, all while getting their hands on the Mona Lisa, was deeply humorous and entertaining.
The ceremony was wet, wild and ultimately wonderful … and that was all before the galloping steel horse. What a great and ghostly image.
The low-key entrance of the athletes saw Australia’s flag-bearers Jess Fox and Eddie Ockenden standing on a boat with everyone else – and they were totally stoked about it too.
The Eiffel Tower was a stunning late-night backdrop as the clock approached midnight.
The illuminated steel horse carrying the Olympic flag was a stunning image. Athletes were all smiles near the Eiffel Tower. The ceremony was like Parisians: crazy, zany, beautiful, flawed, daring, funny, smart, passionate and completely intriguing.
The lavish, experimental opening ceremony for the Paris Olympics promised to be different and it was, finishing with the Olympic cauldron, lit by French athletes Marie-Jose Perec and Teddy Riner, improbably floating above the city in a hot-air balloon. Bravo!
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GLOSSARY
- Marie Antoinette: queen of France from 1774 to 1793, who is associated with the decline of the French monarchy
- Les Mis: Les Misérables is based on the French epic historical novel by Victor Hugo, first published in 1862 and popularised as a smash hit musical
- Moulin Rouge: cabaret dance hall in the Montmartre section of Paris, France, opened in 1889 and famous for its cancan dancers and the drawings of its performers by French artist Toulouse-Lautrec
- cancan: a high-kicking, high-energy French dance performed by a female chorus
- flamboyant: lively, animated, exuberant
- stereotypes: fixed general images or set of characteristics representing a particular type of person or thing, but which may not be true in reality
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QUICK QUIZ
- Who were Australia’s flag bearers at the opening ceremony?
- Which two famous female singers were among the performers?
- Who stole the Mona Lisa as part of the sprawling ceremony across Paris?
- Which two French athletes lit the cauldron?
- How did the cauldron rise into the sky?
LISTEN TO THIS STORY
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Ceremony scrapbook
Sketch pictures (or find photographs) of some of the key moments from the opening ceremony. Assemble these to create a scrapbook album of the Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony. Write a short caption (two to three sentences) to accompany each of the sketches/photographs to explain what is shown. Try to match the level of descriptive vocabulary used in this news story when writing your captions.
Time: allow 40 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Visual Arts
2. Extension
A range of rich adjectives have been used throughout this news story to describe the opening ceremony and its parts. Grab your yellow highlighter and see if you can find and highlight all of them.
Do you see any adjectives that have the same or similar meanings? Copy these groups of words into your book, then try to add more matching synonyms.
Time: allow 30 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English
VCOP ACTIVITY
Imaginative dialogue
Imagine you were there in Paris at the opening ceremony.
Create a conversation between two characters, athletes or performers mentioned in the article – you may need or want to include yourself as one of them. Don’t forget to try to use facts and details from the article to help make your dialogue as realistic as possible.
Go through your writing and highlight any punctuation you have used in green. Make sure you carefully check the punctuation used for the dialogue and ensure you have opened and closed the speaking in the correct places.