The 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France, officially kicked off on Friday with the Opening Ceremony that featured a parade to introduce the athletes of each participating nation and various forms of entertainment for them, their supporters, and spectators from around the world.

Leading the formal delegation of U.S. dignitaries and officials at the games was first lady Jill Biden, who observed the famous torch-lighting event after watching her husband, President Joe Biden, figuratively pass the political torch to his vice president days earlier, CNN reported.

In fact, it was mere hours after the president announced on Wednesday that he had ended his re-election campaign that the first lady, who had already planned to attend the Paris games, boarded a flight to make the roughly 4,000-mile trip to France.

Leading the U.S. delegation in France

Vanessa Valdivia, a spokeswoman for Jill Biden, said in a statement, "The First Lady is excited to head to the Olympic Games, where we are all united as a country in support of one team: Team USA."

In addition to serving as the top U.S. representative at the Opening Ceremony, Biden also met with some of the athletes and their families and plans to attend "various Olympic events" to cheer on the American competitors in person.

Biden also led the U.S. delegation to the pandemic-delayed 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, that were actually held in 2021, though this year's experience will be markedly different without the mask mandates and nearly empty stadiums that detracted from the Tokyo Games.

"These Games are especially meaningful for her because when she went to the Tokyo Olympics in the summer of 2021, the athletes couldn’t bring their families with them due to Covid," Valdivia explained. "This time she’ll be able to celebrate the families and cheer with them for their Olympians."

Another noticeable difference with this year's games is that while Biden led the U.S. delegation for the Opening Ceremony, she will not do so for the Closing Ceremony in two weeks, as that honor will instead be passed along to second gentleman Doug Emhoff, the husband of presumptive Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, and he is also expected to take over for Biden in headlining a fundraiser event for Americans living in France that the first lady was previously supposed to attend.

Greeted and encouraged U.S. athletes and families

The Associated Press reported that first lady Biden, upon her arrival in Paris on Thursday, spent part of that day ahead of the Opening Ceremony meeting with U.S. athletes and their families.

"As they leap and sprint and turn, America’s athletes aren’t only propelled by the years of sweat and sacrifice they poured into their training -- your love is also there," Biden told the supportive family members. "Pushing them further, helping them go faster, lifting them higher as they reach for the gold. You love some pretty incredible people. Thank you for sharing them all with us."

She added that as those family members watched their loved ones compete over the next two weeks, "Know that the nation is by your side, cheering just as hard, adding our belief and our hope to yours. God bless you all, and go Team USA!"

The first lady's "fashionable" Olympic appearances

The media coverage of first lady Biden's attendance at the Olympic Games wouldn't be complete without a nod to her choice of fashionable attire, and Women's Wear Daily observed that Biden continued a noticeable "blue" motif that has been ongoing for the past several months.

For the Opening Ceremony on Friday, Biden wore a pastel blue top and midi skirt with a "dainty" belt and matching blue pumps.

One day earlier, while greeting some of the athletes and families on Thursday, the first lady wore a white long-sleeved shirtdress featuring blue floral patterns and butterflies with a thin belt, open collar, and blue suede heels -- though, as seen in the AP's coverage, those heels were later swapped out for decidedly more comfortable blue sneakers.