Keeping up with the Paris Olympics is in your guide
The Open Water Games in Paris: Live Spectroscopy, Prime Time, and Primetime Observations from the First Day of the Games
In addition, there is a live competition during the mornings and afternoons, as well as an enhanced Olympic prime time show which features highlights and behind-the-scenes moments from the day in question.
And don’t worry if you can’t give the spectacle your full attention in the middle of the day. NBC will stream the opening ceremony on its website at 7:30pm, followed by a live coverage on NPR in the afternoon and again at night.
Kelly Clarkson and Mike Tirico will be hosting the opening ceremony coverage, with contributions from Today hosts.
The Seine is also the site of the opening ceremony on Friday, where some 100 boats carrying tens of thousands of athletes and performers will glide down a 3.7-mile stretch of the river as spectators gather on the river banks to mark what organizers are calling the first outdoor opening ceremony in modern Olympic history.
After years of promise and some rough luck, the famously filthy river that winds through Paris has finally been swimmable just in time for the triathlon and long-distance swimming events.
Olympic powerhouse Russia, which traditionally sends hundreds of athletes to the games, is sending only around a dozen this year, after years of doping incidents and heightened international condemnation over its war in Ukraine.
The scandal of nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers testing positive for performance-Enhancing Drugs despite being cleared by the world’s anti-doping agency continues, as evidenced by a cover up by the US Department of Defense.
The officials are prepared for disruptions across the city, from protests to public transit crowding. 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.
Break-dancing is going to be a new event for the first time. Competitions will take place as far away as Marseille and Tahiti. Some teams at the Games are bringing their own air conditioning to the Olympics, which is being cooled by 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.
In the center of Paris the delegations will enter. The final performance will take place at the Trocadéro, after the parade ends in front of the building. The Eiffel Tower won’t have the Olympic brazier because the Jardin des Tuileries will host the Olympic flame. The athletes competing in the Games will be in attendance along with the performers, and are rumored to include Dion and Lady Gaga.
