PARIS (AP) — The identity of the person who would light the Olympic cauldron for the Paris Games on Friday night (spoiler alert: Marie-José Pérec and Teddy Riner) was up in the air … and so, it turns out, was the cauldron itself: a ring of fire carried by a hot-air balloon.
Teddy Riner and Marie-Jose Perec watch as the cauldron rises in a balloon in Paris, France, during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics, Friday, July 26, 2024. (AP Photo/John Locher)
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.
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They departed back then from the Tuileries Garden, which is near the Louvre Museum in the heart of Paris — and where the 2024 Olympic cauldron was lit before appearing to float 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.”
The 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.