2024 Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony: Celine Dion and the best of France highlight unique cauldron lighting

Rain did not deter the first outdoor parade of nations down the iconic Seine River

Competing athletes from more than 200 countries and delegations gathered along the Seine river for Friday's 2024 Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony, and event that featured the first outdoor Parade of Nations. Despite heavy rain throughout the evening and into the night, the ceremony nonetheless went forward in elaborate fashion, culminating in a celebration of France as the host nation.

While the Olympic cauldron is normally placed in an arena, the flame took a unique journey that began with Zinedine Zidane and later came to feature others like Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams, Amelie Mauresmo and Tony Parker before a host of French athletes finally took it along to the Trocadero. The Olympic flame was then used to light not a cauldron, but a hot air balloon -- a deliberate nod to the very first flight of a hot-air balloon by the Montgolfier brothers at Versailles in 1783.

The flight of the hot air balloon was punctuated with a musical performance by Celine Dion, her first since being diagnosed with Stiff-Person Syndrome.

The United States was well represented in the opening ceremony, with LeBron James and Coco Gauff serving as the nation's flag bearers. Those two will be among the many Team USA participants seeking gold, a group which includes Simone Biles and Katie Ledecky, both of whom opted to skip the ceremony in order to ensure that they were in peak condition for their competition this weekend.

NBC will air an encore of the opening ceremony tonight at 7:30 p.m ET, and you can stream them on fuboTV (try for free). You can also read below for a play-by-play recap of the ceremony.