2024 Paris Olympic Games Kicker : President Paul Biya’s Active Participation

Friday July 26, 2024 was certainly one of the longest days in the history of the French Republic. The anticipated glamour of the official opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympic Games and the context under which this year’s edition of the international multi-sport competition is holding made the French capital a centre of global attraction. Of course, the event was such that the millions of people who had thronged the French capital, added to highly-motivated Paris-based citizens, could not afford to miss. Their expectations were high!
Cameroon’s President, Paul Biya and wife Chantal Biya, were among the over a hundred Heads of State and Government as well as other influential world leaders who honoured the invitation of French President, Emmanuel Macron, and that of the International Olympic Committee President, Thomas Batch, to be living witnesses to the colourful opening ceremony. Even the day-long rain that soaked Paris neither deterred any guest from attending nor took away anything from the splendour of the outdoor scintillating opening ceremony.
The Head of State and wife, likewise other guests and the global observers alike, relished the multifaceted opening ceremony whose every moment and activity were enjoyable with much to reflect on thereafter. The over 10,500 athletes treated the world to a boat parade in the Seine River. Their diverse gesticulations as the boat moved left the millions of guests in awe. 
To say the least,  the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games was exceptional from several standpoints. For the first time in the history of the Summer Olympic Games, for example, the opening ceremony in Paris Friday took place outside a stadium. A ceremony on the river where the parade of athletes held on the Seine with boats for each national delegation. The boats were equipped with cameras to allow television and online viewers to clearly see the athletes as they moved from east to west, crossing through the centre of Paris in a six-kilometre route in front of the Trocadéro, where the remaining elements of Olympic protocol, mostly speeches and other final shows, held.
The three speakers who took to the rostrum notably the President of the Organising Committee, Tony Estanguet, the President of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach and the official kicker given by President Emmanuel Macron, all emphasised on the need for all to uphold the values of the modern Olympic movement for a better world.

Global Fraternity Over Common Meal
International solidarity was once again brought to the fore here in Paris last Friday July 26, 2024 as French President, Emmanuel Macron, hosted hundreds of his peers and other world leaders in a luncheon, a few hours to the official opening ceremony of this year’s Olympic Games. Cameroon’s Head of State, Paul Biya and wife Chantal Biya, were among the guests of the French President and occupied a strategic position during the Élysée Palace Reception.
The heavily-attended French State House Party was an opportunity for the distinguished guests to share pleasantries with their host and commune among themselves while savouring the best of what France and Europe offer in terms of cuisine. A rare moment also for the world leaders to once again meet each other, at least physically, and clearly assess individual friendship, bilateral and multilateral partnership between their countries and organisations. And truly, as the Heads of State and Government and other royalties got to the Élysée Palace, they could be seen greeting, hugging and charting with each other in all conviviality. 
Some of them even got themselves into visibly in-depth discussions, telling of the topics of their talks. The Reception indeed transformed the Élysée Palace into the capital of the world.
This was in the true spirit of solidarity, coincidentally one of the binding principles of the Olympic movement. In fact, the Olympic Movement strives to ensure that sports is practised without any form of discrimination and so in sustainability, humanism, universality and solidarity. More so ensuring the alliance between sport, education and culture. World leaders are therefore better placed to push through these values at national and internationa...