Paris 2024Olympics: Paris Olympics Kick Off with Controversial Opening Ceremony as China Wins First Gold

This year’s Summer Olympic Games took off yesterday in Paris, France with a fascinating opening ceremony which however was on a very wet day.

Bad weather has been a common theme of this Olympic so far, with rain pouring down across the city and the men’s street skateboarding event being moved to Monday. At Roland Garros, home of the French Open, covers are on most of the outside tennis courts, and spectators mill around the venue under raincoats and umbrellas.

The rain-drenched opening ceremony featured various events, including acrobatics, heavy metal, and a Celine Dion performance.

The first medals of the games have already been won, with China taking home gold mixed air rifle team and women synchronised divers after last night’s opening ceremony. Australia later claimed a gold in the women’s cycling.

Tennis

In Saturday’s events, watch out for women’s world No. 2 tennis player Coco Gauff, who will make her Olympic debut for the US.

World No. 1 Iga Świątek, who won her fifth grand slam title here last month, is first up on Philippe-Chatrier against Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu and is already wrapping up the first set 6-2. Her chances are good; the competition is staged on clay, her favored surface.

Swimming

US great Katie Ledecky is set to compete in the women’s 400m freestyle final on Saturday.

Basketball

Australia defeated Spain in the opening group game of the men’s basketball tournament, surviving their first test of the 2024 Games with a 92-80 victory. The Boomers pulled away in the final quarter after the contest had tightened in the middle portions of the game.

Springboard

Divers Sarah Bacon and Kassidy Cook won the USA’s first medal of the Paris Olympics, a silver in the women’s synchronized 3m springboard event. They finished just behind China’s Chang Yani and Chen Yiwen, who took their country’s second gold medal of the Games at just the second opportunity. Great Britain’s Yasmin Harper and Scarlett Mew Jensen finished in third.

Last Supper Controversy

The 2024 Olympics Opening Ceremony featured a scene reminiscent of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Last Supper” with drag queens and other performers. The scene ended with the revelation of a beefy blue Dionysus, apparently ready to partake in earthly pleasures. The scene was criticized by Matteo Salvini, an Italian official, who posted the images side-by-side on X, stating that “Opening the Olympics by insulting billions of Christians around the world was a terrible start, dear French. Seedy.“

Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker posted a video of the scene with a Bible verse, Galatians 6:7-8. Paris Olympics officials pushed back on the contention that the performance was anti-Christian, stating that the tableaux were intended to celebrate community and tolerance.

Pop culture has parodied “The Last Supper” for decades, and this was not the first sociopolitical controversy of the Games.

We promise to bring daily briefs on how the day’s games panned out.

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