The 2024 Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony concluded with a one-of-a-kind lighting ceremony: a hot-air balloon as the Olympic cauldron.
The cauldron was lit following a relay involving French, Spanish and American sport legends, beginning with footballer Zinedine Zadane and 14-time French Open winner Rafael Nadal and ending with judo athlete Teddy Riner and retired sprinter Marie-Jose Perec. The relay across the City of Light also included four-time NBA champion Tony Parker, handball star Allison Pineau, track-and-field great Carl Lewis, tennis stars Serena Williams and Amelie Mauresmo, and 100-year-old Charles Coste -- the oldest-living French Olympian. Along the way, the torch passed by many of Paris's iconic sites, from The Louvre to the Eiffel Tower, and followed the same route the parading athletes took along the Seine River.
The cauldron lifted off from the Tuileries Gardens, paying tribute to the first modern hydrogen gas-filled balloon that took off from the same location in December 1783. The balloon carried two of its French inventors, physicist Jacques Charles and engineer Nicholas-Louis Robert, from the gardens that sit between The Louvre and the Place de Concorde. Paris has been known for its rich history in hot-air ballooning, dating back to when the Montgolfier brothers launched the first hot-air balloon in front of King Louis XVI at Versailles in September 1783. The first untethered hot-air balloon flight, again designed by the Montgolfier brothers, carried French physician Jean-François Pilatre de Rozier and François Laurent, the marquis d' Arlandes, and took off for a 5.5-mile journey through Paris on Nov. 21, 1783.
The ceremony concluded with a performance by Canadian star Celine Dion, who performed publicly for the first time since being diagnosed with Stiff Person Syndrome in 2022.
Olympic action resumes on Saturday with a plethora of sports, including handball, rowing and volleyball, at 3 a.m. ET on USA Network.