Did they just send the Olympic cauldron up into the Paris skies in a hot-air balloon? IS the cauldron a hot-air balloon? Will it just float around there in the sky for two weeks? If you watched the Paris Olympics opening ceremony on Friday, you might have those questions and more.
Long story short: The cauldron will be on the ground during the day, but at sunset each night, a balloon will raise it up into the sky, but it will remain tethered to the ground.
The cauldron is 30 meters (98 feet) high with a 7-meter-diameter (22 feet) ring of fire. It will fly 60 meters (196 feet) above the ground from sunset until 2 a.m. “Fly” isn’t quite right, as it’ll still be tethered to the ground, but it will be up in the air. And the balloon itself isn’t a traditional hot-air balloon, although it looks like one. The flame is 100% electric.
Usually, the cauldron is lit while on the ground in the main Olympic stadium, and stays grounded, its flame burning brightly, for the entire length of the Games. But the Paris ceremony was different in many ways. Athletes didn’t march into a stadium, instead, they were on boats floating down the city’s Seine River. So there was no major stadium where the ceremony ended and where a cauldron could be placed and lit.
Instead, a number of different athletes, some French, some from other nations, including the US, passed the Olympic flame along, from athlete to athlete, until it reached the Jardin des Tuileries, near the famed Louvre Museum. Then, the Games paid homage to France’s historic hot-air-balloon history. The first-ever hot-air balloon flight took place in Paris in 1783 from this spot, with a more powerful balloon doing the same days later, from the same spot. A century later, in 1878, French engineer Henri Giffard, invented the “captive balloon,” made up of a gas balloon and a steam winch.
“The lighting of the Cauldron is always a highlight at the Games, because it signals the start of the Games,” Tony Estanguet, president of Paris 2024, said in a statement. “With a Flying Cauldron, we wanted to pay tribute to the spirit of daring, creativity, innovation — and sometimes madness! — of France, at the heart of the DNA of Paris 2024.”
The 100% electric flame burns no fuel. The ring of fire uses 40 LED spotlights to illuminate the cloud created by 200 high-pressure misting nozzles.
“Thanks to an innovation by EDF (France’s government-owned electric utility), the Paris 2024 Cauldron will shine for the first time with a 100% electric flame,” said Luc Rémont, chairman and CEO of EDF. “This ‘electric revolution’ was made possible thanks to the monumental work carried out by our teams and designer Mathieu Lehanneur. Their creativity and innovative strength have made it possible to design a flame without fossil fuel combustion, a flame made of water and light. The future is electric, and EDF’s teams are proud to have made history by helping to make Paris 2024 a more sustainable and responsible Games.”
The Paris Olympics run through Aug. 11.
