At 11.24pm on Friday 26 July, Marie-José Pérec and Teddy Riner lit the Cauldron of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at the end of an exceptional Opening Ceremony. Created by French designer Mathieu Lehanneur, the Paris 2024 Cauldron is out of this world. This giant ring of fire topped by a monumental balloon took to the skies over Paris. For the first time in the history of the Games, the Olympic Flame will shine without fuel, thanks to EDF. From tomorrow, Saturday 27 July, the public will be able to get up close to this spectacular object via free online ticketing.
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MARIE-JOSE PEREC AND TEDDY RINER LIGHT THE CALUDRON BEFORE IT TAKES OFF TO SHINE IN THE PARIS SKY
At the end of a final Group Relay featuring legends of French and world sport, Marie-José Pérec and Teddy Riner stepped across the great water basin of the Jardin des Tuileries to set ablaze a cauldron never before seen in the history of the Games. French designer Mathieu Lehanneur came up with a new-generation hot-air balloon that carries a ring of fire with it.
Positioned on the ground during the day, the Cauldron will take off into the Paris sky at sunset each evening. Both monumental and light, it will be visible from hundreds of metres away, for all to see.
THE CAULDRON AT THE HEART OF THE CITY DURING THE DAY, TO BE VISIBLE TO AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE
One of the most beautiful views of Paris has changed. With the help of the Louvre, Paris 2024 has chosen to install the Olympic Cauldron in the Jardin des Tuileries, in the fabulous alignment of the Louvre and its Pyramid, the La Concorde obelisk and the Champs-Elysées dominated by the Arc de Triomphe.
In keeping with the “Games Wide Open” spirit, Paris 2024 will be offering the public the chance to get up close to the Cauldron via free ticketing. From tomorrow, Saturday 27 July, and every day during the Games, 10,000 people will be able to approach the Cauldron, at a rate of 300 admissions per quarter of an hour. This opening of the Jardin des Tuileries from 11am to 7pm, with a capacity set at 3,000 people simultaneously, puts the Cauldron within easy reach of the public during the day before it returns to the Paris skies at nightfall.
WITH EDF, A WARM, FUEL-FREE FLAME
For the first time in the history of the Games, the Olympic Flame will shine without fuel thanks to EDF, Premium Partner of Paris 2024. A meticulous combination of a cloud of mist and beams of light, the Olympic Flame will flicker with electricity as its sole source of energy. As part of its partnership with Paris 2024, EDF is supplying 100% renewable electricity produced in France to power the Games venues, which now include the Cauldron.
Visible and warm, this Flame is also a technical feat. The ring of fire, almost 7 metres in diameter, incorporates 40 LED spotlights to illuminate the cloud created by 200 high-pressure misting nozzles. Above all, EDF has succeeded in guaranteeing the flow of electricity and water 60 metres above the ground, when the Cauldron is in flight.
THE LAST OBJECT OF THE OLYMPIC TORCH RELAY
The Torch, the Relay cauldron and the Olympic Cauldron are the three objects designed by Mathieu Lehanneur for the epic journey of the Olympic Flame. With a resolutely innovative design, these objects share the same metallic hue, the result of mixing the gold, silver and bronze medals.
By lighting the Cauldron, Marie-José Pérec and Teddy Riner launched the Olympic Games Paris 2024 and concluded the Torch Relay, which created the enthusiasm for the Games throughout France still evident at the Opening Ceremony.
While the symmetry of the Torch symbolises Equality, the Relay cauldron, with its pure, circular ring, symbolises Fraternity. All that was missing was Liberty to complete the national motto. Between earth and sky, the Paris 2024 Flying Cauldron is the perfect representation of this.
AN EXTENSION OF THE FRENCH HISTORY OF FIRST FLIGHTS
The Paris 2024 Olympic Cauldron is part of the long history of Icarus’s dream. It was in Paris, in 1783, that the very first flight in the history of humanity took place. The scientist Pilâtre de Rozier and the Marquis d’Arlandes took to the skies on the basis of research by the Montgolfier brothers.
Also in France, while the Montgolfiers were developing their hot-air balloon rather empirically, the physicist Jacques Charles invented the gas balloon, filled with hydrogen. A more powerful, safer and more sophisticated balloon, it took off a few days after Pilâtre de Rozier’s flight, from the same spot in the Jardin des Tuileries, in front of 400,000 astonished people.
A hundred years after the first hot-air balloon adventure, in 1878, it was once again at the Tuileries that a French engineer, Henri Giffard, invented the captive balloon, made up of a gas balloon and a steam winch, which was to be a resounding success.
In the Jardin des Tuileries, in the heart of the Louvre estate, the Cauldron of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 is also part of the great history of ballooning in Paris.
“The lighting of the Cauldron is always a highlight at the Games, because it signals the start of the Games. At Paris 2024, we were once again very inspired, and with Mathieu Lehanneur, we wanted to take the concept even further. With a Flying Cauldron, we wanted to pay tribute to the spirit of daring, creativity, innovation – and sometimes madness! – of France, at the heart of the DNA of Paris 2024. The Cauldron is also the symbol of our slogan: Games Wide Open. Located at the heart of the city, in the Jardin des Tuileries, close to the Seine for the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games, and at the bottom of the Champs-Elysées and the Place de la Concorde for the Opening Ceremony of the Paralympic Games, it will also be visible to the public through a free ticketing system. We can’t wait for you to see it!” Tony Estanguet, President of Paris 2024
“This absolutely unique Cauldron represents all the spirit I wanted to give to the Olympic and Paralympic objects. Light, magical and unifying, it will be a beacon in the night and a sun within reach during the day. The fire that burns in it will be made of light and water, like a cool oasis in the heart of summer. I created the Torch, the Relay cauldron and the Olympic Cauldron as three chapters in the same story. The Cauldron is the epilogue and the ultimate symbol of that story.” Mathieu Lehanneur, Designer of the Cauldron for the Olympic Games Paris 202
“Thanks to an innovation by EDF, the Paris 2024 Cauldron will shine for the first time with a 100% electric flame. This ‘electric revolution’ was made possible thanks to the monumental work carried out by our teams and designer Mathieu Lehanneur. Their creativity and innovative strength have made it possible to design a flame without fossil fuel combustion, a flame made of water and light. The future is electric, and EDF’s teams are proud to have made history by helping to make Paris 2024 a more sustainable and responsible Games.” Luc Rémont, Chairman and CEO of EDF
“The Jardin des Tuileries is a place that is wide open to the city. The largest green space in the heart of Paris, it is also, with almost 14 million visitors a year, the most visited park. The unusual shape of this water basin resonates magnificently with the history of the Louvre national estate, on which balloons have been stamping their mark since 1783: a place of technological innovation, a place of history and images, and a place of entertainment for the people.” Laurence des Cars, President and Director of the Louvre
Press contacts
Paris 2024: media@paris2024.org
Mathieu Lehanneur: Press@mathieulehanneur.com
EDF: Service-de-presse@edf.fr
Louvre: presselouvrejop@louvre.fr