July 12 (UPI) — First Lady Jill Biden will lead a group of four American delegations at the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris, the White House announced Friday.
Biden’s delegation will take the lead during the opening of the games on July 26, while second gentleman Doug Emhoff‘s delegation will lead the American contingent during the closing ceremony on Aug. 11.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra and Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., will head up the two other delegations announced Friday by President Joe Biden.
Specific members of the delegations will be released at a future date.
The Paris Olympics will mark the first time ever the 17-day sporting event’s opening ceremony will take place somewhere other than inside a stadium. The festivities will instead take place at the foot of the iconic Seine, a 482-mile river running from northern France to Paris.
The French Olympic organizing committee announced in 2021 the Seine would play an intricate role in the opening of the 33rd edition of the Games.
“The entire city has been turned into a vast Olympic stadium. The Seine represents the track, and the quays the spectators’ stands,” committee chair Tony Estanguet told Time in an interview in March.
“With the natural light of the setting sun, the event will be even more sublime, with a truly poetic dimension, inviting both athletes and the public to appreciate the natural beauty of the City of Light.”
About 100 boats will float in unison down a 3.7-mile section of the river, winding through Paris and under some of the bridges that make the city famous. On the way, they’ll pass Olympic venues and Paris landmarks such as the Louvre and Notre-Dame cathedral.
Friday’s news comes after police in France at the end of May arrested a teenager suspected of plotting an “Islamist-style” attack on a soccer stadium during the Olympic Games.
The 18-year-old Chechan national planned to target the Geoffroy-Guichard Stadium in St. Etienne, where soccer matches are scheduled for the summer Olympics.
More than 10,600 athletes are expected to compete in 329 events across 32 sports during the Olympic Games.