Dancers, sports greats to welcome Games medallists at free Paris fanzone

PARIS : Dance performances, DJ sets and sports greats including Serena Williams are set to entertain visitors at a free, unticketed Paris Olympics fanzone where medal winners from around the world will be invited to strut their stuff down a catwalk in front of the Eiffel Tower.

France's rugby sevens gold medallists will open the "Parc des Champions" venue, in the Trocadero Gardens, on Monday evening, and expectations will be high after scrum-half Antoine Dupont and his team put on a choreographed victory dance for an ecstatic Stade de France crowd on Saturday.

"We wanted something more intimate, less formal than a typical medal ceremony, so we decided on this idea of a parade, or a catwalk, where every athlete will be able to express themselves, their culture and their values," said Martin Fourcade, president of the Paris 2024 Athletes' Commission.

The fanzone is free of charge, with a capacity of 13,000 and entry on a first-come first-served basis, setting it apart from country hospitality houses where access can cost more than a hundred dollars, with fans paying extra to meet their sporting heroes.

Drag dancers will bring a sports-themed "voguing" ball to the Trocadéro stage, with other acts including a 40-strong contemporary ballet troupe dressed in unisex black kilts performing extracts from Swan Lake by star choreographer Angelin Preljocaj. Voguing is a dance style that grew out of African American LGBT communities in Harlem, and is marked by angular body and hand movements and photographic poses.

The Trocadero Gardens venue was the setting for some of the key scenes of Friday's opening ceremony, and where French President Emmanuel Macron and dignitaries from around the world watched the proceedings with the best view