Paris Olympics Finds Groove With City Coming Back To Life As Opening Ceremony Lockdown Is Lifted & Sun Replaces Rain

What a difference 24 hours makes.

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After a washed-out opening ceremony and solid rain for most of Saturday, the Paris Olympics has finally gotten into its stride with blazing sunshine bringing out the best of the French capital.

At the same time a security cordon, putting much of central Paris off limits in the lead-up to Friday evening’s open-air opening ceremony on the River Seine, has been lifted over the last 48 hours, except for areas around Olympic venues.

Outside of the tournaments, one of the main attractions is the 30-meter-high Olympic cauldron, with a seven-meter diameter ring of fire.

Created by French designer Mathieu Lehanneur, it hangs from a golden balloon floating some 60 meters above the ground in the Tuilerie Gardens, between Place de la Concorde and The Louvre Museum.

Sunday saw sightseers flock to the gardens to catch site of the flame. It is possible to see the cauldron from afar, but 100,000 free tickets made available to allow people to look at it close up, were booked within hours of being made available.

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Inside the stadiums, the big news of yesterday was Simone Biles, who came out top in her women’s gymnastics qualifier despite pain in her right calf.

A raft of A-list stars joined the 20,300 strong crowd for Biles’ performance, including Tom Cruise, Greta Gerwig, Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande, Nick Jonas, Lady Gaga, Snoop Dogg,  Cynthia Erivo, Jessica Chastain, Baz Luhrmann, Anna Wintour, John Legend and Chrissy Teigen.

For France, a swimming legend appears to be in the making as Leon Marchand won his first gold medal in the individual medley, breaking Michael Phelps’ Olympic record with a time of 4:02.95.

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The 22-year-old could end up swimming in 12 races in total if he makes it through to the final of the 200-meter butterfly and crawl races as expected, in a feat that will see him compete in four races in one day on Tuesday.

The Toulouse-born Frenchmen is a student at Arizona State University, where he swims with its Arizona State Sun Devils team, while he trains under the guidance of Phelps’ former coach Bob Bowman.

In another swimming related story, plans to hold the swimming leg of the triathlon in the River Seine are on hold due to high levels of bacteria.

The torrential rains of Friday and Saturday are reported to have undone the city of Paris’ long-running efforts to clean up the Seine’s waters. So far, two attempts to hold qualifying events in the river have been canceled.

A bigger challenge In the backdrop remains security. Train services across the country had been restored on Monday after a series of arson attacks on electrical and signal boxes on Friday.

The French government said on Monday, however, that telecommunication lines across France had been targeted by vandals, causing connectivity outages.

Another issue hovering in the background is rising cases of Covid-19, which is not unexpected at such a mass gathering, with UK swimmer Adam Peaty testing positive for the virus just hours after winning Silver in the 100m breaststroke on Sunday.

But for now, the feel good mood in Paris is well-established.

At the area around the Trocadero stadium on Monday, the roar of crowds could be heard across the neighbourhood, while spectators queuing to enter, danced and sang with street performers.

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