The Olympic flame will be carried by Snoop Dogg through the Parisian district of Saint-Denis.
Paris — On Friday, the Olympic torch will complete the last stage of its arduous journey to the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, which will take place on the Seine River in the center of the City of Lights. To carry the torch, a star-studded group of people, including rapper Snoop Dogg, has been assembled.
The Olympic flame will be carried by the 52-year-old American pop culture icon through the Saint-Denis area, which is located north of Paris and is home to the Olympic Village and the Stade de France Olympic stadium.
Despite his fame as a musician, Snoop has a long history in the sports industry. Nearly two decades ago, he started the Snoop Youth Football League to help provide inner-city kids with access to the game.
He’ll be covering the Olympics as well. Snoop Dogg will offer “regular reports” and “his unique take on what’s happening in Paris” throughout NBCUniversal’s coverage, according to a statement released by NBC in December.
Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr., the father of Snoop, was born in Los Angeles, which will host the 2028 Summer Olympics.
The torch relay this year also began with a rapper. On May 8, when the flame first arrived in France, singer Jul, one of Marseille’s most well-known sons, was selected to light the Olympic cauldron.
Since then, en route to Paris for the July 26 opening ceremony, the torch relay has passed through about 500 cities and towns as well as a number of well-known landmarks.
Actress Laetitia Casta and rapper MC Solaar are among the French personalities chosen to carry the torch on the last day.
The last leg of the torch relay starts in Saint-Denis on Friday. It will pass close to the town’s basilica, home to the tombs of numerous French kings.
The torch will pause in the Olympic Village so that staff members and athletes can admire it. For several of the competitors, it will be their only opportunity to participate in the opening day events. The majority of athletes who will compete in real sporting events the next day have stated that they will practice or rest on Friday before going to bed early.
A few men’s rugby and soccer teams will be playing before Friday’s official opener, so they will already be in competition. Due to the amount of participating nations, there are more rounds in the two sports, which means that they take longer to finish when rest periods are taken into account.
The torch relay will carry on down the canal that connects Paris and Saint-Denis. The only Olympic facility constructed entirely for the Games, the new Olympic Aquatic Center in Saint-Denis, will be passed by. Events including synchronized swimming, water polo, and diving will take place there.
Architects Cécilia Gross and Laure Mériaud told CBS News that in order to accommodate the various activities occurring there and maintain the pool’s appearance from above, they had to be creative in how they designed the pool’s bottom and drew the lanes.
Following the Olympics, the aquatic complex will be converted and utilized as a community pool in the impoverished suburb with a large youth population, keeping true to the sustainability pledge made during the Paris Games.
After reaching the heart of Paris, the torch will join a flotilla on the Seine for the ceremonial opening down the river. The identity of the last torchbearer, who will light the Olympic cauldron to herald the official start of the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad, has not yet been made public by the organizers.
Superstar Céline Dion and Franco-Malian singer Aya Nakamura, whose name was allegedly proposed by President Emmanuel Macron, are scheduled to perform at the event. There was a lot of excitement on social media on Tuesday about Lady Gaga being spotted in Paris, which raised the possibility that she would be performing on opening night.
