PARIS (AP) — The identity of the person who would light the Olympic cauldron for the Paris Games on Friday night (spoiler alert: Marie-José Pérec and Teddy Riner) was up in the air … and so, it turns out, was the cauldron itself: a ring of fire carried by a hot-air balloon.

Teddy Riner and Marie-Jose Perec watch as the cauldron rises in a balloon in Paris, France, during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics, Friday, July 26, 2024. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Instead of the usual ground-bound cauldron used at most Summer and Winter Games, the special edition for the Paris Olympics is intended as a tribute to the first ride taken in a hydrogen-filled gas balloon — made in 1783 by two of that balloon’s French inventors.

Related Articles

Celine Dion serenades Paris, and now the Games can begin

An ailing Olympic movement turns to Paris for salvation

Risking life and limb for glory: Olympic surf competition to be held on world’s ‘heaviest wave’

How is wave forecasting done and how does it impact the Paris Olympics surfing competition?

PHOTOS: Paris Olympics opening ceremony

They departed back then from the Tuileries Garden, which is near the Louvre Museum in the heart of Paris — and where the 2024 Olympic cauldron was lit before appearing to float into the sky.

Created by French designer Mathieu Lehanneur, the cauldron is meant as a symbol of liberty — an element in the national slogan of “Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité.”

The ring is 7 meters in diameter (about 23 feet), and the balloon is 30 meters (about 100 feet) tall and 22 meters (about 72 feet) wide.