Some 70,000 spectators and nearly 300 athletes are expected in Paris to celebrate the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games one last time on Saturday. The “champions parade” will be, according to the organizers, like a fifth ceremony.
“It’s to take a little extra. That’s exactly how I took the subject and proposed it,” says Thierry Reboul, who wants to “give some ingredients of what we’ve been doing for two months” to this “obligatory, somewhat sacred passage of the athletes who come to parade on the Champs.”
Three highlights from 4 p.m. to midnight
The event will take place in three stages. The parade itself will begin at 4 p.m. For two hours, volunteers, Olympic and Paralympic Games stakeholders (staff members, members of the organization, etc.) and then Olympic and Paralympic athletes will parade along the Champs-Elysées. This first stage should last two hours. The French judo team and the French rugby 7s team, as well as Léon Marchand and the Lebrun brothers, have already confirmed their presence.
The end of the parade, scheduled for 6 p.m., will be followed by institutional speeches that will open the protocol sequence. This should begin 1 hour 30 minutes later, from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. On the program: rekindling of the flame at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, then a ceremony to present decorations to medal-winning athletes and para-athletes by the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron at the Place de l’Etoile.
There will then be an hour of playtime before the start of the concert at Place de l’Etoile at 9 p.m. For two hours, spectators will relive “the great moments of the Paris 2024 ceremonies,” said Tony Estanguet. “A number of artists – including Lucky Love – are doing us the honor of returning,” assured Thierry Reboul. Then a DJ set will take over from 11 p.m. to midnight.
No fewer than 4,000 police officers and gendarmes will be deployed in Paris on Saturday, while a traffic ban around the perimeter will be in effect from 10 a.m. The public is invited to arrive as early as possible, as the areas will be open from 1 p.m.
The complete program
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14 h : welcoming the public on the Champs-Elysées (spectators with tickets)
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15 h 30–18: parade of champions, volunteers, organizers and the sports movement on the Champs-Elysées, from the Georges V metro station to the Place de l’Etoile
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18 h 30–20 h: Rekindling of the flame at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and decoration ceremony
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21 h: Concert with artists from the ceremonies of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games
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23 h–00 h: DJ set from the Arc de Triomphe
- RMC Sport
