WASHINGTON — The Opening Ceremony for the Olympics featured the culmination of the torch's journey into the heart of Paris signifying the start of the Games.
Two big questions remained just hours before the Olympics began: Who would actually light the cauldron and where would it be?
The answer to that question, as of a few hours before the festivities, was a mystery closely guarded by French officials. In fact, organizers said the person (or, as it turns out, persons) picked to light it didn't even know they'd been chosen until right before.
Who lit the Olympic cauldron in Paris?
Charles Coste, the oldest French Olympic champion at 100 years old, took the Olympic flame from his wheelchair, then passed it on to French judo great Teddy Riner and sprinter Marie-José Pérec.
They lit a cauldron attached to a hot-air balloon, which then floated into the Paris night.
The fire ring is 7 meters in diameter (about 23 feet), and the balloon is 30 meters (about 100 feet) tall and 22 meters (about 72 feet) wide.
Instead of the usual ground-bound cauldron used at most Summer and Winter Games, the special edition for the Paris Olympics is intended as a tribute to the first ride taken in a hydrogen-filled gas balloon — made in 1783 by two of that balloon’s French inventors. They departed back then from the Tuileries Garden, which is near the Louvre Museum in the heart of Paris and where the Olympic cauldron was lit before floating into the sky.
Created by French designer Mathieu Lehanneur, the cauldron is meant as a symbol of liberty – an element in the national slogan of “Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité.”
Soccer icon Zinedine Zidane, who led France to World Cup ecstasy in 1998, was among earlier guesses for who might light the Olympic cauldron. He instead was part of a final torch relay late in the ceremony.
Zidane handed off to Rafael Nadal, a Spaniard who won 14 of his 22 Grand Slam tennis titles at the French Open. Then, on a boat along the Seine, Nadal gave the torch to Serena Williams, an American who collected three of her 23 major singles championships in Paris.
Lighting the Olympic cauldron is one of the highest ceremonial honors the host nation can bestow on somebody. Traditionally, the person has been a national figure of great importance, such as Muhammad Ali or Steve Nash.
During the 2022 Winter Olympics, Chinese athletes Zhao Jiawen and Dinigeer Yilamujiang delivered the flame to the center of a snowflake for the unconventional cauldron lighting.
During the last Summer Olympics, Japanese tennis star Naomi Osaka had the honor of lighting the cauldron at the Opening Ceremony.
About 10,000 people carried the torch for part of the months-long journey from Greece to Paris. Some of those runners included a paraplegic athlete using a robot exoskeleton to walk and rapper Snoop Dogg.
The Opening Ceremony in Paris was one of the most unique in Olympic history. Instead of the traditional march, athletes rode boats down the River Seine, while tens of thousands of people crowded the banks of the river that winds through the heart of Paris.
