The Opening Ceremony in Paris for the Summer Olympics and the Seine as a Swim on a Filthy River: Watch for NBC, ESPN and NBC
NBC will broadcast a preview show at noon Eastern on Friday, August 10, and it will be followed by Olympics coverage. The ceremony will be broadcast live on TV, and also streamed via NBC.com and NBC Sports apps.
The opening ceremony in Paris will last over four hours. The traveling ceremony will start in East and end in West at the Trocadéro.
Kelly Clarkson and Mike Tirico will host the opening ceremony coverage, with contributions from Today hosts.
For the first time in the history of the Summer Olympics, the opening ceremony will not be held inside a stadium. The choice made by the organization, in agreement with the city of Paris and the French government, is bold and unique, and opens up new avenues for sports competitions. The Parade of athletes, with over 10 thousand people belonging to the more than 200 participating Olympic committees, will take place on the Seine and will be broadcast live on TV or online. (Need to know how to watch the Summer Games? Look no further.)
And of course, there’s the Seine, the famously filthy river that winds through Paris and — after years of promises, $1 billion of investment and some bacteria-related setbacks — is finally swimmable just in time for the triathlon and long-distance swimming events.
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The number of athletes Russia sends to the Olympics has traditionally been hundreds a year, but following years of scandals such as drug use and its war in Ukraine, it is sending fewer this year.
Fallout continues from a doping scandal earlier this year, in which nearly two dozen elite Chinese swimmers were cleared by the world’s anti-doping agency despite testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug, sparking accusations of a cover-up and, most recently, a U.S. Department of Justice investigation.
There will be disruptions across the city, from protests to public transit crowding to road closings. It will all happen against a backdrop of several scandals in the sports world.
There are plenty of storylines to watch, from the U.S. women’s gymnastics team’s search for redemption to the rivalry between American and Jamaican sprinters to a new generation of U.S. soccer players taking the field before the opening ceremony even begins.
There will be 329 events across 39 sports, including for the first time ever, breaking (aka break-dancing). Competitions will take place as far away as Marseille and Tahiti. Some teams are taking their own air conditioning to the Olympic Village, which is being cooled by a system of water pipes, as part of the organizers effort to host the Greenest-ever Games.
And of course, NPR’s own Olympics team will bring you recaps, coverage and color — including on the ground in Paris — online and on air over the next few weeks.
The delegations will go to the center of Paris. The parade will go in front of the Trocadéro, where the ceremony and the final performances will take place. The Olympic brazier will not be installed on the Eiffel Tower as planned, instead the flame will be hosted at the Jardin des Tuileries. The athletes competing will be at the Games along with the performers, and they are rumored to include Lady Gaga.