A STUNNING CEREMONY WAS BEYOND MAGICAL, BUT PARIS IS DEALING WITH VILLAINS

A wild and wet production dropped jaws across the world, with a four-hour cultural cabaret in a rainstorm, but as the Summer Games begin, arsonists attacked high-speed rail lines and brought terror

     From a headless Marie Antoinette to a gay scene in a bedroom, from cartoons targeting the Mona Lisa to dancers and acrobats in our dreams, from a masked man using rooftops and zip lines in stealing the Olympic flame, all the way to Lady Gaga singing in French and Kelly Clarkson saying a dozen times — “this is so cool!” — the opening ceremonies kept roaring in the pounding rain showers.

     “The rain can’t stop us,” said LeBron James, wrapped deeply in a plastic poncho.

     Past dusk, the Eiffel Tower glittered in gold with five white rings, in a striking show unprecedented in the realm of a sporting festival that must revive its former self. The River Seine introduced the athletes in a wild logistical gamble, after French President Emmanuel Macron admitted to once thinking, “A crazy and not very serious idea.” Paris brought smiles and tears amid demanding elements Friday night, prompting Mike Tirico to state on NBC, “This has been a technical and logistical nightmare.” The entire first day was dark, in fact, starting with arsonists who attacked France’s high-speed rail lines and prevented travel for almost a million in Europe.

     The question turns to hellfire. How troublesome will the world’s villains make the journey until Aug. 11? The terrorists will deal with 45,000 police officers and 10,000 soldiers, a number that might not be enough. In game action already, events already have faced cheating and violence. What is next? And the cauldron just was lit.

     “The operation was prepared, coordinated, critical points were targeted, which shows they knew enough about the network to know where to strike,” French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said.

     “A desire to seriously harm,” said the railway CEO, Jean-Pierre Farandou. “It should have been a celebration. We were going to have fun. All that is ruined.”

     There were bigger words. “Thank you, France, for such a magical welcome. What a better place than Paris to share the magic of the Games,” said Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee. “In a world torn apart by wars and countries, it is thanks to this solidarity that we can come together. Long live the Olympic Games! Long live, France!”

     The Parisian culture overcame the alarm. We saw romance. We saw fashion. We saw colors. We saw the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe and Notre Dame Cathedral. We saw big heads popping out of the water, which apparently was clean because the mayor took a dive and said so. Then we saw Rafael Nadal, who put his feet in the clay at Roland Garros and won 14 French Open titles, help Serena Williams, Carl Lewis and Nadia Comaneci end the evening after 6,800 athletes rode 90 boats for 3.7 miles. In the final moments, almost four hours in, under yellow lights that opened sunshine above the city, Celine Dion serenaded in the continuing rain.

     All I can ask, as a Los Angeles resident, is whether our city no longer should bother with a ceremony. In the unsure future of the Games, no city will match this epic and invite people to watch for two weeks, even if surveys show only that gymnast Simone Biles will gain wide attention. When in doubt, shout Paris. “We want to show the whole world and to all of the French that in this country, we’re capable of exceptional things,” said Tony Estanguet, who is leading the organizing committee.

     It was comforting to see joy when security is so overwhelming. The horrors of deadly extremist attacks never are forgotten, with steel bars and fencing above the Seine. But Thomas Jolly, the French theater director, was almighty in thrusting what we know and will continue to learn about Paris. For now, we’ll set aside the low television audiences and pandemic fears of Tokyo and Beijing.

     “The tone is completely different,” said Sarah Hirshland, chief executive of the U.S. Olympic Committee. “We now have permission to have fun.”

     Let’s try, until another siren.

     ###

     Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.