History will be made in Paris on Friday when more than 10,000 of the world’s best athletes gather for a never-before-seen opening ceremony that will highlight the most iconic Parisian landmarks. 

The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris marks a return to normalcy after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the Games in Tokyo to be delayed until 2021. Friday’s celebrations will set the tone as the parade of athletes makes its way down the Seine River by boat. 

It is the first time the opening ceremony will take place outside a stadium.

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Read below for information on the 2024 Paris Olympics opening ceremony. 

Approximately 10,500 athletes from 206 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) will take part in Friday’s festivities. More than 90 boats will carry these athletes on the Seine as spectators line up to watch. According to the Olympics website, larger NOCs will have their own boat while smaller ones will share a vessel.

About 220,000 invited and security-screened spectators are expected to fill the upper tiers of the Seine's banks, and an additional 104,000 paying spectators will watch from the lower riverside and around the Trocadéro plaza.

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The parade will follow the 3.7-mile stretch of the Seine beginning at the Austerlitz Bridge beside the Jardin des Plantes. Along the way, they will see up close some of Paris’ most historic landmarks, including Notre-Dame and the Louvre, before ending at the Iena Bridge, which links the Eiffel Tower on the left bank of the Seine to the Trocadéro district on the right bank.

Live coverage of the opening ceremony is set to begin at 1:30 p.m. ET and airs on NBC and streams on Peacock and NBC Olympic platforms. 

U.S. Open winner Coco Gauff and NBA star LeBron James will lead Team USA as the flag bearer in Friday’s celebrations. In what will be her first Olympics, Gauff is the first American tennis player to carry the flag.

"I’m not putting too much pressure on it because I really want to fully indulge in the experience," she said of her Olympic debut. "Hopefully I can have the experience multiple times in my lifetime, [but] I’ll treat it as a once-in-a-lifetime experience."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Former President Donald Trump used his Truth Social platform on Thursday evening to rip into FBI Director Christopher Wray after his congressional hearing regarding the assassination attempt on Trump.

Wray testified that he wasn’t sure if it was a bullet that struck Trump in the ear while he was at an outdoor rally in Butler, Penn., on July 13.

"I think with respect to former President Trump there’s some question about whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel that, you know, hit his ear," Wray said at Wednesday’s hearing.

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Trump, who nominated Wray as the FBI director in 2017, went full blast on his former appointee after the hearing.

"FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress yesterday that he wasn’t sure if I was hit by shrapnel, glass, or a bullet (the FBI never even checked!), but he was sure that Crooked Joe Biden was physically and cognitively "uneventful" - Wrong!" Trump wrote on his on social media site. 

"That’s why he knows nothing about the terrorists and other criminals pouring into our Country at record levels. His only focus is destroying J6 Patriots, Raiding Mar-a-Lago, and saving Radical Left Lunatics, like the ones now in D.C. burning American flags and spray painting over our great National Monuments - with zero retribution. 

"No, it was, unfortunately, a bullet that hit my ear, and hit it hard. There was no glass, there was no shrapnel. The hospital called it a "bullet wound to the ear," and that is what it was. No wonder the once storied FBI has lost the confidence of America!"

Trump was shot in his right ear at the rally and U.S. Secret Service agents swooped in to surround him, pick him up off the stage and help walk him down the stairs and into a vehicle waiting for him.

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The presumed shooter, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, was shot dead by the Secret Service. Two other people were injured from gunfire and former firefighter Corey Comperatore died at the scene while protecting his family.

Trump was treated and released at a nearby hospital and then showed up at the Republican National Convention just days later with a bandage on his ear.

Kimberly Cheatle, who was the director of the Secret Service at the time, faced calls for her resignation, to which she vehemently said she would not step down. After her testimony before Congress this week, Cheatle resigned.

Wray now faces similar scrutiny, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.

"We’ve all seen the video, we’ve seen the analysis, we’ve heard it from multiple sources in different angles that a bullet went through his ear. I’m not sure it matters that much," Johnson said at the hearing.

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Johnson added that Wray "was not forthcoming with some of the information that we would expect."

"There’s a lot of frustration and concern about the leadership with these agencies," Johnson said.