Perec, 56, won three gold medals across two Olympics in athletics and was the heavy favourite to light the cauldron near the Louvre Museum.

Riner, who is competing in Paris, has won two individual judo gold medals and one team gold.

“A man and a woman for the first parity Games was an obvious choice. I waited this morning to tell them,” Paris 2024 organising committee president Tony Estanguet told reporters.

Perec is widely considered France’s greatest summer Olympian, having won the 400m at the Barcelona Games in 1992 before claiming a 200-400m double four years later in Atlanta.

Like Riner, Perec was born in the overseas territory of Guadeloupe.

Riner, 35, will bid for a third individual gold when he starts his event in the +100kg category.

They were each handed a torch in the Jardin des Tuileries after several top sporting names, including French football great Zinedine Zidane, Spain’s 14-time French Open tennis champion Rafael Nadal, American 23-time Grand Slam winner Serena Williams, and Romanian gymnastics great Nadia Comaneci.