Craig MeyerUSA TODAY NETWORK
Editor’s note: Follow Olympics opening ceremony live updates.
Over the next two weeks, the eyes of sports fans from around the world will be firmly fixated on France.
The 2024 Summer Olympics will be held in Paris, with the French capital playing host to the famed international competition for the first time in 100 years.
In the days and weeks to come, the best athletes from across the globe will vie for international glory with the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe and Cathédrale Notre-Dame providing a picturesque backdrop for the proceedings.
2024 PARIS OLYMPICS: Follow USA TODAY's complete coverage here
The festivities will begin Friday with an opening ceremony along the Seine River, with Olympians making the trip through the heart of Paris while on boats.
As part of the Parade of Nations, each country will have its delegation of competitors and other officials who will walk (and, in this case, sail) in front of tens of thousands of adoring fans in Paris and millions of viewers internationally. As is customary, that march will end with the host country, with French athletes providing a boisterous punctuation mark.
But who will be leading the group of French representatives and carrying the country’s red, white and blue flag?
Here’s what you need to know about the French flagbearers and the opening ceremony for the 2024 Paris Olympics:
Who are France’s flagbearers for the 2024 Paris Olympics opening ceremony?
During the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics, the French flags will be held by a pair of athletes from the host country, one male and one female — swimmer Florent Manaudou and discus thrower Mélina Robert-Michon.
While the French delegation has a number of high-profile inclusions like basketball players Victor Wembanyama and Rudy Gobert who could have filled the role, Manaudou and Robert-Michon are incredibly accomplished figures who could contend for medals in their respective sports.
The 33-year-old Manaudou will be competing in his fourth Olympics, having earned at least one medal in each of his previous three appearances. At just 21 years old, he won the gold medal in the 50-meter freestyle at the 2012 London Olympics, coming in with a time of 21.34 seconds, only four hundredths of a second behind the Olympic record.
He followed that showing up with a pair of silver medals at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, finishing second in the 50-meter freestyle and the 4x100 freestyle relay. During the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in 2021, he again placed second in the 50-meter freestyle, touching the wall 0.48 seconds after gold medalist Caeleb Dressel of the United States, who set an Olympic record with his time.
The 2024 Paris Olympics will be the seventh of Robert-Michon’s discus career, a run that began as a 21 year old in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. The apex of her Olympic career came in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, when she won a silver medal in the discus throw. Her throw of 66.73 meters in the final beat her own French national record and came just 2.48 meters shy of gold medalist Sandra Perković of Croatia.
Three years ago in Tokyo, Robert-Michon fell back a bit, dropping to 15th place and failing to qualify for the final. Most recently, she finished ninth in the 2023 World Championships and seventh in the European Championships in June.
2024 PARIS OLYMPICS: Meet all members of Team USA at the Summer Olympics
Olympics opening ceremony start time
- Date: Friday, July 26
- Time: 1:30 p.m. ET
The opening ceremony will begin from the Austerlitz Bridge beside the Jardin des Plantes in Paris at 1:30 p.m. ET, but coverage of it will begin at noon.
What channel is the Olympics opening ceremony on?
- TV channel: NBC
- Streaming: NBCOlympics.com | NBC app NBC Olympic app | Peaco*ck | Fubo (free trial)
The leadup to the opening ceremony for the 2024 Paris Olympics will air on NBC beginning at noon ET. It will re-air in primetime beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET.
Streaming options for the event include Peaco*ck — NBC’s dedicated streaming service — NBCOlympics.com, NBC.com, NBC Sports app, Peaco*ck and Fubo, the last of which offers a free trial to potential subscribers.
We occasionally recommend interesting products and services. If you make a purchase by clicking one of the links, we may earn an affiliate fee. USA TODAY Network newsrooms operate independently, and this doesn’t influence our coverage.
