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Two masked figures featured in the Olympics opening ceremony in Paris, first as a torchbearer ran across rooftops before a caped rider galloped down the Seine on a metal horse to deliver the Olympic flag.
The rider, Floriane Issert, a non-commissioned officer in the Gendarmerie Nationale clad in silver armour, concluded her ride at the Trocadero, giving the Olympic flag a majestic entrance before it was hoisted.
Earlier, a mysterious figure wearing a black cloak, white hood, and with their face covered by a dark fencing mask, was heavily featured in the three-hour ceremony produced by director Thomas Jolly, and which included appearances from Lady Gaga, Zinedine Zidane and, for some reason, The Minions.
The spectacle saw 85 boats carry almost 7,000 athletes from 205 countries down the River Seine, which came just hours after a sabotage attack on the high-speed rail networks caused travel chaos across France.
The opening ceremony is the first in Olympics history to be featured outside of the main stadium, and kicked off with Zidane running across Paris to bring the flame to the start of the procession.
The torch was then picked up by a group of children and carried onto the Seine in a small boat, before the masked torchbearer – whose identity is soon to be revealed at the end of the performance – leaped across buildings and past monuments.
The torchbearer will likely light the Olympic cauldron to mark the start of the Games at the very end of the ceremony, with that detail kept secret from the pre-ceremony briefings.
Before then, galloping on a metal horse, a rider rode down the Seine and the course of the ceremony, draped in a cape emblazoned with the Olympic rings. As she passed under the Parisian bridges, the rider unfurled dove wings.
Elsewhere, Lady Gaga sang a French cabaret song near Notre-Dame cathedral, a giant plume of blue, white and red smoke was sent high above a bridge over the Seine and a winged man played accordion as the Olympics’ opening ceremony got under way in Paris on Friday.
A fleet of barges took athletes on a 6 km-stretch of the river, alongside some of the French capital’s most famous landmarks, as Lady Gaga, surrounded by dancers, sang “Mon truc en plumes” (My thing made of feathers).
Huge applause rang out for the Greek boat – the first one, by tradition – and even bigger cheers erupted for the boat that followed, carrying the refugees’ team.
Fountains threw up jets of water in the middle of the Seine as the boats went by, with athletes waving at the crowds, amid a huge visible police presence.
Spectators were treated to more postcard-like depictions of France as a huge cancan line performed by Moulin Rouge cabaret dancers on the banks.
Includes reporting from Reuters
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