The Paris 2024 Olympic Games opening ceremony was both everything we could have hoped for and like nothing we might have expected.
Among its features was a mystery, masked flame bearer cavorting across Paris' most famous landmarks before riding a magnificent horse down the Seine as rain poured down on the city.
Speculation that this mystery figure would unmask themselves and reveal the athlete who would light the Olympic flame, though, proved unfounded.
The sacred torch was, instead, passed through a succession of diverse sporting legends before the cauldron was ultimately lit by Marie-José Pérec and Teddy Riner.
Here's a list of who held the famous flame, in order.
Zinedine Zidane
After appearing right at the start of the ceremony in a video, we thought perhaps that Zidane's part had already been played, but no.
Zizou, the winner of the 1998 World Cup and 2000 European Championships and the favourite son of France, was the first star to hold the flame.
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Although he never played in an Olympics for France, the 108-time capped international was a key supporter of Paris' bids for the Games in 2012 and, successfully, in 2024.
Rafael Nadal
Perhaps an odd choice given he is not, in fact, French, Rafael Nadal was the next sporting legend to be handed the flame — mirroring the moment when Zidane handed a much younger Nadal the first of his record 14 French Open titles all the way back in 2005.
Nadal, as a near-permanent tenant of the winners circle at Paris institution Roland Garros, perhaps wasn't as unlikely a selection after all.
Nadal, flame in hand, then moved back down the Trocadéro to the river, where more stars awaited.
Serena Williams, Nadia Comăneci and Carl Lewis
Yeah, none of these are French either.
American tennis Serena Williams, who has three French Open titles as well as four Olympic gold medals, joined Nadal on the boat.
Romanian gymnastics legend Nadia Comăneci also appeared on the boat.
Comăneci won five Olympic gold medals, three of them as a 14-year-old in Montreal in 1976.
Carl Lewis was the next cab off the rank. The American sprinting legend won nine Olympic gold medals, one Olympic silver medal, and eight World Championships in the 100m/200m sprints and long jump events.
Amélie Mauresmo
Finally off the river, the baton was handed to a French athlete.
Amélie Mauresmo took over at des Tuileries, the silver medallist from Athens in the singles tennis competition continuing tennis' strong representation at this stage of the proceedings.
Mauresmo, who won Wimbledon and the Australian Open in her career, is now the tournament director of the French Open.
Tony Parker
After a short jog, Belgium-born French American basketball star Tony Parker joined Mauresmo in carrying the flame for a short period.
Parker was a four-time NBA champion with the San Antonio Spurs and he also won major titles with the France national team, although not at an Olympics.
Alexis Hanquinquant and Nantenin Keïta
Joining Parker and Mauresmo were two of France's most successful Paralympians, Alexis Hanquinquant and Nantenin Keïta.
Hanquinquant is a triathlete who won the Men's PTS4 event at the 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo, while Keïta is a four-time Paralympic medal winner, including gold in the 400 m T13 category at the Rio Games of 2016.
Marie-Amélie Le Fur
Three-time Paralympic champion Marie-Amélie Le Fur also joined them at this point.
Le Fur, who was a former French able-bodied junior champion, has competed in the F44 sprint and long jump events since her left leg was amputated below the knee following a scooter accident in 2004.
She is also now president of the French Paralympic and Sports Committee.
Michaël Guigou and Allison Pineau
Michaël Guigou is not a name familiar to many people in Australia, but in France he is a hero.
A three-time Olympic champion in the all-conquering French handball team, Guigou is one of the best-known French champions of all time.
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Guigou's women's counterpart, Allison Pineau, also joined in at this point.
Pineau is a former IHF World Player of the Year and has two Olympic medals, including a gold from the Tokyo Games.
An assortment of other legends
The stars followed in quick succession from here on out:
Two-time Olympic champion in 1984 and 1988, fencer Jean-François Lamour, who is now a French politician.
Félicia Ballanger won two of her three Olympic track cycling gold medals in Sydney in the sprint and 500m events, as did fellow cyclist Florian Rousseau, who added a silver in Sydney as well.
Émilie Le Pennec went down in history in 2004 by becoming the first-ever artistic gymnastics Olympic champion from France when she won the uneven bars.
Another Olympian-turned-politician, David Douillet, won judo heavyweight gold medals in 1996 and 2000 in Atlanta and Sydney.
Clarisse Agbégnénou, who will be competing in the 63kg judo competition on Tuesday, also stepped up. She won gold in Tokyo and silver in Rio.
Former world record holder in the 50m and 100m freestyle events Alain Bernard is a four-time Olympic medallist, including winning gold in the 100m free in Beijing.
Another world-record-breaking swimmer, Laure Manaudou, won three Olympic medals in her career, all in Athens, where she won bronze in the 100m back, silver in the 800m free and gold in the 400m free.
Pole vaulter Renaud Lavillenie won gold at the 2012 Olympics in London and silver in Rio.
France's most decorated female Olympian with five medals, two of them gold, Laura Flessel is another fencer who moved into the cut and thrust of French politics after her career, serving as Minister of Sports from 2017 to 2018.
Charles Coste
This man gets his own chapter.
A former cyclist, Charles Coste was born in Ollioules in 1924, the last time Paris hosted the Olympics.
Winning his only gold medal in the team pursuit at the 1948 Olympics in London, Coste is France's oldest-living Olympic champion.
Marie-José Pérec
Perhaps most famous to Australians for fleeing the country during the Sydney Olympic Games instead of looking to win the 400m for the third-straight Games — a race won of course by Cathy Freeman — Marie-José Pérec deserves more than that.
A three-time Olympic champion and two-time world champion, Pérec is one of France's greatest-ever runners and was fully deserving of the honour of lighting the flame.
Teddy Riner
The biggest of stars in modern French Olympic history in almost every sense, Teddy Riner is one of the greatest judokas of all time.
As well as his three Olympic gold medals, Riner has won 11 World Championships gold medals, the first and only judoka (male or female) to do so.
The 150kg man known affectionately as Teddy Bear is one of the faces of this Games. He gets his campaign for a fourth Olympic gold underway on August 2.
