PARIS — The Paris Olympic Games were opening under tight security and rainy skies Friday, only hours after a coordinated arson attack brought France’s national rail system to a standstill and rattled nerves in a city already on edge.

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French organizers have spent years planning the country’s showcase moment: a sprawling and secretive opening ceremony in which 94 boats were to ferry nearly 7,000 athletes from 206 delegations along a route almost 4 miles long. The route, past monuments and under bridges, was meant to celebrate the city itself as an Olympic venue.

Security, though, had been the primary concern for months, and authorities enlisted more than 50,000 officers to impose a smothering protective blanket over and around crowds that were expected to approach a half-million people. Friday morning’s attacks — fires that authorities said were deliberately set to disrupt the start of the Games — underscored just how difficult a task that would be.

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— NBC and Peacock were airing the ceremony live and will show it again at 7:30 p.m. Eastern. For the first time, it will be held not inside the barricaded confines of a stadium but on the Seine. Athletes were floating in boats through the heart of the dense, ancient city before 500,000 spectators packed into stands and leaning out of windows. The procession was to cover 3.7 miles of the river, passing buildings of different eras, shapes and sizes, including the Louvre and Eiffel Tower.

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— NBA star LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers and tennis star Coco Gauff were to serve as flag bearers for the United States at the opening ceremony. Ukraine will be competing in its first Olympics since the invasion by Russia in February 2022, shortly after the Winter Games that year in Beijing. The flag bearers for Ukraine were to be Elina Svitolina, a professional tennis player, and Mykhailo Romanchuk, a swimmer.

— A series of arson attacks on France’s rail network Friday disrupted service on three high-speed rail lines — the Atlantic, Northern and Eastern lines — with many trains canceled, railway company SNCF said in a statement. The fires, which were set in pipes carrying cables used for signaling and have been described as “criminal,” were all detected around 4 a.m., according to Patrice Vergriete, France’s transportation minister.

— No one was killed or reported injured, but the damage to France’s high-speed train lines caused major delays as thousands of local and international travelers were expected to converge on Paris for the ceremony and the Games. Amélie Oudéa-Castera, France’s minister for sports and the Olympics, said authorities were still evaluating whether athletes’ transportation would be affected over the weekend.

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— Train service was expected to be affected through Monday, interrupting plans for more than 1 million people, including French vacationers, Olympic athletes and tourists. The SCNF advised travelers to postpone their trips if possible.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Andrew Keh/Jeremy White
c.2024 The New York Times Company