Africa: Paris 2024 Olympics Opening Ceremony Is the First Not to Take Place in a Stadium

The 1992 Games were perhaps the most successful modern Olympics. More than 9,300 athletes represented 169 countries, including South Africa for the first time since apartheid.

I attended my very first Summer Olympic Games in 1992 in Barcelona, Spain - just like my country, South Africa, which competed at the 1992 Summer Olympic Games for the first time since 1960, with 93 competitors, 68 men and 25 women, who took part in 87 events in 19 sports.

South Africa was permitted to rejoin the Olympic Movement after its citizens voted to abolish apartheid.

advertisementDon't want to see this? Remove adsThe 2024 Summer Olympic Games - officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad and branded as Paris 2024 is an international multi-sport event taking place from 24 July to 11 August 2024 in France, with the opening ceremony having taken place on 26 July.

Paris is the host city, with events held in 16 additional cities spread across Metropolitan France and one subsite in Tahiti, French Polynesia.

For the first time in the history of the Summer Olympics, the opening ceremony - the largest in Games history - did not take place in a stadium, but in the heart of the city along its main artery, the Seine River, with boats carrying each national delegation. The boats were equipped with cameras to allow television and online...

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