A masked woman riding a robotic horse was one of the highlights of the show on the Seine during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on 26 July.
The 1.80 metre-long electric trimaran that carried the mechanical steed was designed by the Breton company MMProcess at the Blam workshop.
The installation required a year's work.
Tests were first carried out at sea in June, at Saint-Pierre-Quiberon, Morbihan. And then, in Paris in the greatest secrecy, in the middle of the night.
"The first challenge is to make a boat that protrudes so little from the surface of the water, we only protrude 15 centimetres from the water," Madeg Ciret-Le Cosquer, co-founder of MMPProcess said.
From creator to skilled horse rider
To create the illusion that the animal was flying on the waves, the MMPProcess team had to build a trimaran and find a skilled rider.
They were looking for a horse rider or a pilot to jump on the mechanical horse. However, they did not find someone as "it was still quite dangerous".
The mysterious escort on the evening of the ceremony ended up being the engineer and trimaran's co-creator Morgane Suquart.
“I really, really enjoyed it - it was a magical moment, the pleasure was really above the stress, above everything," said Suquart.
Check out the video above for footage of how the opening ceremony illusion was carried out.
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