Paris is abuzz ahead of the Olympics opening ceremony as a festive atmosphere takes hold

PARIS — Just a day before the 2024 Paris Olympic Games opening ceremony, the French capital was abuzz Thursday as it prepared to host the world’s biggest sporting party.

PARIS — Just a day before the 2024 Paris Olympic Games opening ceremony, the French capital was abuzz Thursday as it prepared to host the world’s biggest sporting party.

Though the Olympics soft-launched Wednesday with soccer and rugby sevens, the real action will begin Friday night when the city will stage perhaps the most ambitious inauguration in the Games’ history.

Almost 100 boats will take 10,500 athletes down the Seine — in many ways the star of the show over the next two weeks — in what will be the first time the ceremony has been held outside a single stadium.

The river is already lined with bleachers, and dotted with venues ready to host sports as varied as fencing and taekwondo to basketball and break dancing. And although these areas remain eerily quiet for now, protected by a network of high-security metal barriers, there was a festive atmosphere just up the street at the Arc de Triomphe, where people from all over the world had gathered.

Stream every moment and every medal of the 2024 Paris Olympics on Peacock, starting with the opening ceremony Friday at 12 p.m. ET.

https://www.nbcnews.com/sports/olympics/paris-abuzz-ahead-olympics-opening-rcna163585

---