Over the next two weeks, the eyes of sports fans around the world will be fixed on France.
The 2024 Summer Olympics will be held in Paris, with the French capital hosting the famous international competition for the first time in 100 years.
In the coming days and weeks, the world’s best athletes will compete for international glory, with the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe and Notre Dame Cathedral providing a picturesque backdrop.
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The festivities will begin on Friday with an opening ceremony along the Seine, with Olympic athletes making the journey to the heart of Paris aboard boats.
As part of the Parade of Nations, each country will have its own delegation of competitors and other officials who will parade (and, in this case, sail) in front of tens of thousands of adoring fans in Paris and millions of television viewers abroad. As usual, this march will end with the host country, with the French athletes thunderously marking the start of the competition.
But who will lead the group of French representatives and carry the country’s red, white and blue flag?
Here’s what you need to know about the French flag bearers and the Paris 2024 Olympics opening ceremony:
Who are the French flag bearers for the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games?
At the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the French flags will be carried by a duo of athletes from the host country, a man and a woman: swimmer Florent Manaudou and discus thrower Mélina Robert-Michon.
While the French delegation includes a number of high-profile figures such as basketball players Victor Wembanyama and Rudy Gobert who could have filled this role, Manaudou and Robert-Michon are incredibly accomplished figures who could be medal contenders in their respective sports.
Manaudou, 33, will be competing in his fourth Olympic Games, having won at least one medal in his three previous appearances. At just 21, he won the 50-metre freestyle gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics, with a time of 21.34 seconds, just four hundredths of a second off the Olympic record.
He then won two silver medals at the 2016 Rio Olympics, finishing second in the 50-meter freestyle and the 4×100-meter freestyle relay. At the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, he again placed second in the 50-meter freestyle, touching the wall 0.48 seconds behind gold medalist Caeleb Dressel of the United States, who set an Olympic record with his time.
The Paris 2024 Olympics will be the seventh of Robert-Michon’s career as a discus thrower, a career that began at the age of 21 at the Sydney 2000 Olympics. The pinnacle of her Olympic career came at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics, when she won a silver medal in the discus. Her throw of 66.73 metres in the final broke her own French national record and was just 2.48 metres behind gold medallist Sandra Perković of Croatia.
Three years ago in Tokyo, Robert-Michon had fallen back a little, falling to 15th place.th place and failed to qualify for the final. Most recently, she finished ninth at the 2023 World Championships and seventh at the European Championships in June.
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Olympic Games Opening Ceremony Start Time
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Date:Friday July 26
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Time: 1:30 p.m. ET
The opening ceremony will begin from the Pont d’Austerlitz, next to the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, at 1:30 p.m. ET, but coverage will begin at noon.
What channel is the Olympic opening ceremony broadcast on?
The Paris 2024 Olympics Opening Ceremony will air on NBC starting at noon ET. It will be rebroadcast in prime time starting at 7:30 p.m. ET.
Streaming options for the event include Peacock — NBC’s dedicated streaming service — NBCOlympics.com, NBC.com, the NBC Sports app, Peacock and Fubo, the latter of which is offering a free trial to potential subscribers.
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This article was originally published on USA TODAY: Paris Olympics 2024: Who are the French flag bearers for the opening ceremony?