The cauldron at the Paris Olympics looks like a hot-air balloon

By: The Associated Press Posted: 5:09 PM CDT Friday, Jul. 26, 2024

PARIS (AP) — The identity of the person who would light the Olympic cauldron for the Paris Games on Friday night (spoiler alert: Marie-José Pérec and Teddy Riner) was up in the air … and so, it turns out, was the cauldron itself: a ring of fire carried by a hot-air balloon.

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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/07/2024 (437 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Instead of the usual ground-bound cauldron used at most Summer and Winter Games, the special edition for the Paris Olympics is intended as a tribute to the first ride taken in a hydrogen-filled gas balloon — made in 1783 by two of that balloon’s French inventors.

They departed back then from the Tuileries Garden, which is near the Louvre Museum in the heart of Paris — and where the 2024 Olympic cauldron was lit before appearing to float into the sky.

Teddy Riner and Marie-Jose Perec watch as the cauldron rises in a balloon in Paris, France, during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics, Friday, July 26, 2024. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Created by French designer Mathieu Lehanneur, the cauldron is meant as a symbol of liberty — an element in the national slogan of “Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité.”

The ring is 7 meters in diameter (about 23 feet), and the balloon is 30 meters (about 100 feet) tall and 22 meters (about 72 feet) wide.