The man still matters. On a rain-sodden Friday evening, it was neither Palestine nor Ukraine nor France, but a 52-year-old footballer who quit the game almost 20 years ago who drew the biggest cheers from the crowd at the Trocadero, opposite the Eiffel Tower, where the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed in 1948.
The moment Zinedine Zidane walked onto the ramp with the Olympic torch, the crowd roared. The claps, the sighs, and that familiar chant of “Zizou Zizou”. The man himself proudly strutted around the ramp holding aloft the flame. The smile on his face did not disappear even for once. Fans tried to get a feel of their 1998 World Cup hero and he obliged.
From the direction of the Eiffel Tower, Paris’s other favourite showed up. A smiling Rafael Nadal emerged out of nowhere and another round of applause followed. Nadal did not float down the Seine for the official entrance of Spain’s delegation, but wasn’t about to miss out on the party at his final Olympics.
A warm hug between the two superstars and Zidane passed on the torch to the 14-time French Open champion. This was the most enduring moment of the opening ceremony which was unique and inclusive in every way.
Zinedine Zidane hands the Olympic Torch to Rafael Nadal, winner of a record 14 titles at the French Open, on Friday Getty Images
Zidane, a footballer of Algerian descent, who went on to wear the captain’s armband for Les Bleus, is one of the first faces of the French idea of multi-culturalism in the football team.
France for years was shackled by racial dogmatism, divided over the thorny immigration issue and it was the sportspersons targeted by the right-wing group who brought laurels for the country. Marie-Jose Perec, the three-time Olympic champion sprinter, Zidane the World Cup and Euro 2000 winner, and their latest superstar, Kylian Mbappe.
At a time when France is grappling with political uncertainty — even after the right-wingers were defeated in the general elections earlier this month — Friday’s opening ceremony showed the country has faith in its inclusive culture.
So you had Perec — the Guadeloupe-born athlete who migrated to France when she was 16 — and three-time Games and 11-time world champion Teddy Riner, also born in Guadeloupe, as the two who lit the Olympic flame.
True, the Games cannot solve every problem and discrimination and conflicts will not disappear, but Friday’s ceremony was the perfect way for France to drive home its message. Come what may, they will not bow down to divisive forces. And to think that more than one billion people watched that on TV. A peak of 35.4 million viewers with an average of 23.4 million.
A parody of Leonardo Da Vinci's famous fresco 'The Last Supper' featuring drag queens at the Olympic opening ceremony in Paris, in a picture shared on X, has sparked fury among the Catholic church and far-right politicians, while supporters praised its message of tolerance
Thomas Jolly, the ceremony’s creative director who built the show around scenes of French history, had the inspired idea to make the most of the city of love by using Paris as a stage. And the show was a statement that France’s revolutionary slogan — “liberty, equality, fraternity” — still offers a foundation for an ever more unequal world.
The continuous rain also gave a new dimension to his plan. Amelie Mauresmo, a champion tennis player during her heyday and an advocate of LGBTQ rights, had to negotiate puddles of water while running with the torch.
“It’s an amazing experience for me. I feel proud of my country,” Issouf Adeira, a 21-year-old Parisian of Ghanaian descent, said. “Rain was there but that is how it is in Paris. Nobody is complaining. And our maestro was there too,” the Novak Djokovic fan said, referring to Zidane.
As Tony Estanguet, the head of the Paris Olympics Committee, said, “Even if France is never in agreement on anything, in the moments that count, we know how to come together.”
Even for a brief while, two different worlds had indeed come together.
