As the 2024 Summer Olympics conclude, viewers are turning their attention to the Closing Ceremony in Paris, with one performer capturing widespread attention and sparking questions.
The “Golden Voyager,” performing in the middle stages of Sunday’s Closing Ceremony, was introduced in the Stade de France, in an imagining of a time without the Olympics.
While it’s unknown who is playing the role of the Golden Voyager in the ceremony, the character has quite the history.
The character was inspired by a number of references from France’s historical heritage, starting with the Spirit of the Bastille, according to the creators. It also references “The Génie de la Liberté,” also called the Génie de la Bastille, is a bronze gilded statue cast in 1836 by Auguste Dumont. This allegorical statue represents Liberty and surmounts the July Column, located in the center of the Place de la Bastille in Paris.
It was meant to evoke creatures from science fiction and video games.
According to the artistic directors, another inspiration was The Voyager Golden Record, launched into space in 1977 by the Voyager spacecraft, inspired both the title of the Ceremony and the name of the character. This golden record, which serves as a time capsule in interstellar space and is embedded with greetings from human civilization, was made in France.
The mysterious performance runs parallel to a similar showing in the Games’ Opening Ceremony, when a masked torch-bearer that contained references to the popular video game series “Assassin’s Creed.”