Team Kenya, led by Malkia strikers captain Triza Atuka and African fastest man in 100m Ferdinand Omanyala, was among the over 200 countries which paraded across River Seine during the opening ceremony of the 33rd Olympic Games held on Friday night along river Seine in the French capital Paris.
Kenyan contingent of athletes and officials wore their red Maasai ceremonial kits.
The colorful ceremony, which was being held out of its traditional venue inside the stadium, saw nearly 7,000 athletes sail using more than 80 boats in a six kilometer distance across the river.
The Olympic flag was flown in front of the famous Eiffel Tower in Paris, while superstar pop singers Aya Nakamura, Lady Gaga, and Celine Dion braved torrential rain to give stunning performances.
The ceremony started at 8:30pm, with former French World Cup winner Zinedine Zidane relaying the Olympic torch and being witnessed by over 300,000 spectators who lined up across the river, from the balconies and rooftops to catch a glimpse of the momentous occasion.
Lady Gaga opened the program with a rendition of a beloved French cabaret song, Aya Nakamura, a Franco-Malian singer, delivered her hit song “Djadja,” and Céline Dion, perched atop Paris’s iconic Eiffel Tower, announced the lighting of the Olympic cauldron with Edith Piaf’s “Hymne à l’amour”.
Olympic legends Carl Lewis, Serena Williams, Rafael Nadal and Nadia Comaneci carried the Olympic torch aloft as they raced across the Seine in a speedboat before handing it to tennis great Amélie Mauresmo.
The ceremony took exactly 3 hours and 45 minutes, with the French President Emmanuel Macron declaring the 2024 Olympic Games open.
“I declare open the Games of Paris celebrating the 33rd Olympiad of the modern era,” said Macron, launching the Games exactly 100 years after Paris last hosted the Olympics.
The Paris 2024 Olympic games, which started on the 24th with rugby men’s seven, will officially start on Saturday, with the 1st medal event being the rugby sevens.
Olympic Games 2024 is being held under the motto ‘Games wide open’.
Kenya, with a team of 81 athletes, is competing in judo, swimming, rugby sevens men, fencing and volleyball women and athletics which form a large squad of Kenya’s representatives.
