PARIS — Lighting the Olympic cauldron symbolically opened these Games — and, as much as possible, might have also taken a torch to some awful pandemic memories.

“It has been one of the biggest global events we’ve had since Covid, so it’s definitely a celebration on that front,” said Olympic visitor Arial Su, 32, a Taiwanese native who lives in London.

The past two Games were staged in bubbles in and around Beijing and Tokyo as Covid was still a factor. And while some athletes…