The state of being overwhelmed by spectacle, life, love, or grief and impermanence essentially boils down to one sharp, shocking memory. Or, a blur so captivating that it all bleeds in. The opening ceremony of Paris 2024 Olympics, 128 years after the first such event in Athens, was that kind of occasion. Stupendous, incredulous, captivating, courageous with so many shades of optimism that gold, silver and bronze smiled in envy. 

If a writer were to list the details, followed by names of athletes of the country you are writing from, favourite sports, sportspersons, cultural denominations, performers, artists, teams that put together this show, its writers, choreographers, managers and soldiers, the stories would never end. They shouldn’t. 

The stories from the Olympics that went live on July 26 should not end, because they raised a new dawn. They pronounced a new day in global sentiment with half of the world living in severe, exhausting decimations caused by war, starvation, climate related crises, political instabilities and geopolitical dilemmas.

Which is why the only way to write the first story of the Olympics is by making it personal. There was so much going on. The first ever nursery in the village for infants and kids of participating athletes. The first ever floating ceremony on the Seine. The first ever time the athletic participation in any edition of Olympics by gender is 50:50, which is 100 years after women were invited to participate. The first time that Canadian singer Celine Dion has returned to perform after being diagnosed with Stiff Person Syndrome. The first time the world has gone all out so much as one sporting family (206 National Olympic Committees) after COVID-19. The single way to make sense is to make it personal. 

What moves you, dear reader, from among the wide, vast, long and consuming repertoire of musical, artistic acts, sporting promises, the way Paris the city of love and fashion, of light and charm, pushed back the arsonists who attacked it yesterday or simply the colours of the uniforms of participating sportspeople—can be the narration of the moment. That’s what really matters.

Here is where we stand. 

Seine Sutra: First, the very choice of the arrival of athletes on boats on the river Seine for the Parade of Nations. 94 boats ferried 10,500 athletes passing by the Louvre and the Notre-Dame Cathedral, Grand Palais and other landmarks to finish at the feet of the Eiffel Tower. 

Scripting The Opening: The way in which the opening ceremony was imagined, scripted, choreographed and executed. Thomas Jolly the creative director of the Paris Olympics, also known as the Peter Pan of theatre, made it too French maybe but no one was complaining. The opening ceremony was written by Leïla Slimani, author of Lullaby, the bestselling novel with research and insights by Fanny Herrero, the screenwriter of the hit series Call My Agent! (2015-2020). French historian Patrick Boucheron added research and heft to the script which was completed in June 2023 and then kept under wraps. 

Celine Dion, All Caps, All Claps: Dressed in beaded Dior couture by Maria Grazia Chiuri, Dion “returned” marking resilience, spiritedness and the never say die flame of the Olympics in her own way. She closed the night by singing L’Hymne à l’amour from the base of the Eiffel Tower. All claps. In all caps. 

Art, Music, Recycling and Circularity: Twelve tableaux with 2000 artists are the headline. But god is in the details. Lady Gaga in pink and black feather-fringes reiterating her elastic popularity from the Oscars to the Met Gala and to the Olympics—is a star of our times. Cannons billowing celebratory coloured smoke, Opera, croissants, lit rooftops, lofty Parisian buildings, flags, national pride, cultural sub-plots and the Mona Lisa somewhere, all the time. The event had a French finish, even as it was coloured by 206 nations. Then there was the promise and evidence of recycling, circularity in design, material sustainability and the call to clean the river Seine while integrating AI. 

Ukraine, Palestine Send Athletes: Two depleted nations with no will to wilt or crumble in very different ways and very different political reasons—Ukraine and Palestine sent their teams and they made a strong statement. Top optimism stems from this fact. It is a feat of triumph and hope. 

The Indian Contingent’s Costumes: Led by badminton star PV Sindhu the only Indian woman to win two Olympic medals in the past, the Indian contingent looked jubilant and proud. But their costumes by designer Tarun Tahiliani for Tasva were a big disappointment. How clothes look is eventually how they will be judged. Here, they felt regressed in form, design and image perception, back to the India of the Doordarshan days. A dampener on a day when not even the rains and the raincoats of the participants could douse the excitement. At a never-before ceremony where the Mongolian costumes haven’t stopped being discussed even for a day since they were first unveiled or when Spain, Haiti, Canada and South Korea have sent out memorable designs, India needed a never-before idea from the handloom-heritage vocabulary as a game-changer.

Medals: Phew! and now, that the guessing games have ended and the games begun, let’s try to find what basketballer LeBron James (flag bearer of the US contingent), gymnast Simone Biles (who had bowed out last time citing mental health issues), javelin star Neeraj Chopra (India’s top hope for a medal or two), skeet shooter and new mum Amber Rutter from Great Britain who gave birth in April, will come up with. The others too, in gold, silver, bronze.

Banner: The horsewoman (C) arrives with the Olympic flag at the Trocadero during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on July 26, 2024. Photo by Stephanie Lecocq/Pool/AFP

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