Paris Olympics 2024 opening ceremony highlights: PV Sindhu, Sharath Kamal lead India, France prez Emmanuel Macron declares the Games open

Paris Olympics 2024 opening ceremony: The live blog session has concluded. For more news, views and updates, stay tuned with Moneycontrol.com.

Paris Olympics 2024 opening ceremony live updates: Celine Dion performs the final act of the night as she sings Édith Piaf’s famous work, Hymne à l’amour (the Hymn to Love).

Paris Olympics 2024 opening ceremony live updates: Many more Olympic and Paralympic athletes join them and carry the torch towards the Jardin des Tuileries. Teddy Riner and Marie-José Pérec are the final torch bearers and they carry the torch towards the cauldron in the Jardin des Tuileries. A hot air balloon is attached to the cauldron, which rises after the flame gains intensity.

Paris Olympics 2024 opening ceremony live updates: The Olympic torch is passed to ex-French tennis player Amélie Mauresmo, who then hands it over to Tony Parker, French-American former basketball point guard.

Paris Olympics 2024 opening ceremony live updates: Rafael Nadal travels across the Seine river in a boat and passes the Olympic torch to tennis icon Serena Williams. She then hands it over to Nadia Comaneci, followed by Carl Lewis.

Paris Olympics 2024 opening ceremony live updates: France President Emmanuel Macron declares the Games open. He says in French: “I declare the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad open!”

Following this the masked man hands over the Olympic torch to France football legend Zinedine Zidane, who then passes it to tennis great Rafael Nadal.

Paris Olympics 2024 opening ceremony live updates: Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee, addresses the athletes assembled for the opening ceremony.

Paris Olympics 2024 opening ceremony live updates: Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, is honoured with the Olympic Laurel Award for his work in lifting and supporting the Refugee Olympic Team.

Paris Olympics 2024 opening ceremony live updates: Volunteers line up in front of the iconic Eiffel Tower, each carrying a participating nation's flag. Meanwhile, the mysterious masked also arrives on an electric powered horse, following which he hands over the Olympic flag to be hoisted.

Paris Olympics 2024 opening ceremony live updates: We are done with the Parade of Nations, and it was followed by dance and musical performances, all of which got tremendous response from the crowd.

Paris Olympics opening ceremony live updates: The United States of America arrives at the Parade of Nations. They are the most successful nations at the Games.

After USA, hosts France also join the party.

Paris Olympics opening ceremony: The Pakistan contingent arrive at the Parade of Nations, with star javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem as the country's flag bearer.

Paris Olympics 2024 opening ceremony live update: As reported by Associated Press, the Nigerian women’s basketball team were not allowed to board the delegation’s boat for the opening ceremony.

The team was informed by a Nigerian official, who told players and coaches that the boat was crowded. The team then went back to the Games Village after being turned down.

Olympics 2024 live updates: Paris Olympics pays tribute to iconic female personalities from the past, featuring Olympe de Gouges, Alice Milliat, Gisèle Halimi, Simone de Beauvoir, Paulette Nardal, Jeanne Barret, Louise Michel, Christine de Pizan, Alice Guy, and Simone Veil.

Paris Olympics 2024 opening ceremony Live Updates: Members of the Indian contingent arrive at the Parade of Nations, with PV Sindhu and Sharath Kamal as flag bearers.

They are followed by Indonesia, Islamic Republic of Iran, Iraq, and Ireland.

Paris Olympics 2024 opening ceremony Live Updates: Visuals of Lady Gaga performing at the opening ceremony.

Meanwhile, the masked man is taking the Olympic torch on a tour of the city. It will be interesting to see, how they've planned the mysterious person's ending.

A local pop artist also performed in between, following which the Parade of Nations have resumed.

Paris Olympics 2024 opening ceremony Live Updates: The dance performance tried to highlight the French revolution, which took place between 1789-1799.

It is followed by a musical narration of Paris being the "city of love". The performance very prominently showcases love and diversity, which is a great message. Vibrant colours are on display, making it appear like a true spectacle.

Paris Olympics 2024 opening ceremony Live Updates: Dance performers grab the spotlight and mesmerise the fans at the event.

Meanwhile, a guy is shown briefly at regular intervals running and performing stunts with the Olympic torch.

Paris Olympics 2024 opening ceremony live updates: Nations of Parade resumes as Bangladesh contingent is introduced. We also get a glimpse of the Indian contingent, who are enjoying the moment as they wait for their turn.

Paris Olympics 2024 opening ceremony live updates: The Parade of Nations takes a momentarily pause after the introduction of Bahrain. Lady Gaga takes the spotlight and enthralls the spectators gathered for the opening ceremony.

Paris Olympics 2024 opening ceremony live updates: Greece leads Parade of Nations, and are followed by Refugee Olympic Team.

Paris Olympics live updates: Here is the schedule for all India events on Day 1

SHOOTING

10m air rifle mixed team qualification: Sandeep Singh/Elavenil Valarivan, Arjun Babuta/Ramita Jindal (12:30pm IST).

10m air pistol men's qualification: Arjun Singh Cheema and Sarabjot Singh (2pm IST).

10m air pistole women's qualification: Manu Bhaker and Rhythm Sangwan (4pm IST).

BADMINTON

Men's singles group match: Lakshya Sen vs Kevin Cordon (Guatemala) (7:10pm IST)

Men's doubles group match: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty vs Lucas Corvee and Ronan Labar (France) (8pm IST)

Women's doubles group match: Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto vs Kim So Yeong and Kong Hee Yong (Korea) (11:50pm IST)

BOXING

Women's 54kg opening round bout: Preeti Pawar vs Thi Kim anh Vo (Vietnam) (12.05am of Jan 28).

HOCKEY

Pool B match: India vs New Zealand (9pm IST)

ROWING

Men's single sculls: Panwar Balraj (12:30pm IST)

TABLE TENNIS

Men's singles preliminary round: Harmeet Desai vs Zaid Abo Yaman of Jordan (7:15pm IST)

TENNIS

Men's doubles first round match: Rohan Bopnna and N Sriram Balaji vs Edouard Roger-Vasselin and Fabien Reboul (France) (3:30pm IST)

Paris Olympics: The Indian badminton team pose for a group picture in traditional attire ahead of the opening ceremony.

Satwik-Chirag will participate in men's doubles

PV Sindhu, two-time Olympic medallist, will represent India in women's singles

Tanisha and Ashwini take part in women's doubles

HS Prannoy and Lakshya Sen will lead India in men's singles

Paris Olympics 2024 opening ceremony Live Updates: There are chances of 70-80 percent chance of "moderate to heavy" rain during the opening ceremony of Paris Olympics, French weather channel La Chaine Meteo said.

Paris Olympics 2024 opening ceremony Live Updates: The Olympics are yet to start officially but an incident of doping has already surfaced. Iraq's male judoka Sajjad Sehen has tested positive for two anabolic steroids and will not participate further at the Games. Sehen was scheduled to compete in the men's 81kg class, which begins on Tuesday (July 30).

Paris Olympics 2024 live updates: La Concorde Urban Park, which will host events like 3x3 basketball, BMX freestyle cycling, breaking, and skateboarding.

Invalides is another venue, which is dedicated to archery, the marathon finish, and road cycling.

The Grand Palais is the place where fencing and taekwondo will take place.

Paris Olympics 2024 opening ceremony live updates: The course of the parade is approximately six kilometers long. It starts at the Austerlitz Bridge, and the boats will sail from east to west of the Seine river. During the course, it'll pass through multiple bridges and gateways. The athletes will also come across venues dedicated to the Paris Games. The parade will conclude at the Iena Bridge, which connects the Eiffel Tower with the Trocadéro district.

Paris Olympics 2024 opening ceremony live updates: Greece will be the first country to march in the Parade of Nations. This is to celebrate the country's rich legacy as the birthplace of Olympics. The first modern era Olympics was held in Athens back in 1896. Greece will be represented by NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo and race walker Antigoni Drisbioti as the flag bearers.

Paris Olympics 2024 opening ceremony live updates: The rail network disruption in France has caused plenty of inconvenience both for the general public and dignitaries, who are suppose to arrive at the city for the opening ceremony. Among them is non other than United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

As per a report in BBC, he was forced to change his travel plans to France due to disruption on the Eurostar network. The report mentioned that the prime minister took a flight to Paris instead.

He will be attending a leaders reception, which is being hosted by French president Emmanuel Macron before leaving for the ceremony that takes place along the Seine river.

Olympics 2024 opening ceremony: In one of the many interesting stories taking place at the Paris Olympics, the story of Chile's paddler Zhiying Zeng is quite captivating.

Zeng, 58, is all set to make her debut for Chile in table tennis. She is seeded No. 60, in a field where the top two players will both be wearing the Chinese jersey she once donned.

Read more | Zhiying Zeng – from child prodigy in China to Chile’s grandmother of ping pong

India at Olympics 2024: In other news, Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra will receive the highest recognition, which is the Olympic Order, by International Olympic Committee (IOC).

He also carried the Olympic flame on Thursday and shared photos of it on personal social media profile.

Olympic 2024: In some exciting news, popular rap artist Snoop Dogg was one of the final torchbearers carrying the flame towards the Olympic cauldron.

Snoop also shared a photo of him holding the torch on social media. Just in case if you missed it, we have it covered for you.

Olympics 2024: The SNCF also released an official statement on the incident, confirming acts of vandalism on the Atlantic, Northern and Eastern high-speed lines.

It read: "Last night, the SNCF was victim of several acts of vandalism on the Atlantic, Northern and Eastern high-speed lines. Fires were deliberately set to damage our installations."

France's prime minister Gabriel Attal said “intelligence services and law enforcement agencies” have been "mobilised" following arson attacks on railway lines. He said officers had been asked to “find and punish the perpetrators of these criminal acts”. He described the consequences for the rail network as "massive and serious".

The “acts of sabotage” were carried out in a “prepared and coordinated manner”, he said.

Olympics 2024: As France prepares for sports biggest spectacle, the country has been hit by a major crisis. Hours before the opening ceremony in Paris, the French railway company SNCF has circulated an information, reporting a series of “malicious acts” aimed at paralysing its high speed rail network.

India at Olympics 2024: A total of 117 athletes across 16 sports will take part in Paris Games. Wishing luck to all the Indians taking part in the high octane sporting event. India, who did produce a decent show in Tokyo three years back, will hope for an even better outing as the Olympic action shifts from Asia to Europe.

India at Olympics 2024: The opening ceremony of Paris Olympics is expected to start at 11:30 pm as per IST and will go around for 2-3 hours.

India at Olympics 2024: In a first of a kind, the Paris Olympics opening ceremony will be held in boats instead of the usual tracks. Around 100 boats will be used for the event, and will sail through the Seine river. The boats will cover the iconic landmarks around the capital city of France.

India at Olympics 2024: Veteran paddler Sharath Kamal and ace shuttler PV Sindhu are India's flag bearers at the Paris Olympics 2024 opening ceremony.

Olympics 2024: Hello and welcome to the Live coverage of the Paris Olympics 2024. The stage is set, the athletes are ready as the capital of France gets ready for sports biggest spectacle. Stay tuned for all updates around the opening ceremony!