Paris 2024 Summer Olympics Guide

TThe Summer Olympics are returning to Paris after 100 years. The last time the French capital hosted the international competition was in 1924, when there were 22 sports. This time, there will be 32, including one that will debut at the Olympics.

Additionally, for the first time in the history of the Summer Games, the Olympic Opening Ceremony will not be held in a stadium. Instead, organizers plan to parade a flotilla of boats down the Seine, which runs through the heart of the city.

See more information: Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has a lot to do with the 2024 Olympics

Here’s everything you need to know to be ready for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics.

When are the Paris 2024 Olympics?

O Opening ceremony of what is officially the XXXIII Olympiad is scheduled to begin at 7:30am ET on July 26th – although the football and seven-a-side rugby events will begin on July 24th.

What are the sporting events?

This summer, 10,500 athletes from more than 200 national committees, as well as a refugee team will compete in 329 events.

The Paris Olympics will include 28 returning sports, following the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics (which took place in 2021 due to COVID-19), as well as four special additions: sport climbing, skateboarding, surfing and breakbreaking – the last of which is making his debut at the Olympics. The International Olympic Committee accepted the Paris 2024 organizers’ proposal to include these additional sports because they “contribute to making the Olympic Games program more gender-balanced, younger and more urban.”

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Below are the competition dates for each sport. For a detailed schedule, Click here.

Where are the various games being held?

Most – but not all – of the Summer Olympics will be held in or around the city of Paris. Ten of 35 official locations are outside the host metropolitan area, including the French cities of Nice, Marseille and Bordeaux. Meanwhile, the surfing competition will take place 16,000 kilometers away, in the waves of the island of Tahiti, in French Polynesia.

Paris 2024 organizers have emphasized its commitment to sustainability using mainly pre-existing facilities such as the Stade de France – which is the home stadium of the French national football team and will be the venue for the closing ceremony as well as various athletic events – as well as environmentally friendly temporary structures, including the Athletes’ Village, which was built on a former industrial wasteland. Only one permanent competition venue – the Saint-Denis Aquatic Center – was built specifically for the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Paris 2024 organizers have announced ambitious – and controversial – plans to hold the marathon swimming events and swimming legs of the Olympic and Paralympic triathlons on the Seine, which has been closed to swimming for more than a century due to persistent pollution. But even after an extensive and costly cleanup effort, authorities managed to recognized that swimming events planned for the river may have to be postponed or canceled if the water remains too dirty.

See more information: Inside the Billion-Dollar Effort to Clean the World’s Most Romantic River

Are tickets still available?

Millions of spectators are expected to watch the Summer Games in person, according to Paris 2024 organizers, and although some screenings are sold out – early birds have already purchased their tickets after registering as early as December 2022 – tickets for a number of events remain availableincluding some for just €15 (about $16).

How can I watch the Olympics on TV?

NBCUniversal is the official U.S. broadcaster of the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics, and although Paris is six hours ahead of Eastern Time, each day NBC will air at least nine hours of daytime coverage, plus a three-hour program on primetime recapping the biggest moments. Meanwhile, streaming platform Peacock will – for the first time in Summer Games history – present all sports and events live, as well as full replays. NBCU’s Telemundo will provide coverage of the Games in Spanish.

The BBC is the UK’s official broadcaster, whilst other Olympics broadcasters can be found here.

Which countries are expected to perform best?

Team USA is expected to take home the most medals, which would be their eighth consecutive Summer Games topping the leaderboard. According to a May forecast by data analytics firm Gracenote, the US team is expected to win 39 gold, 36 silver and 50 bronze medals for a total of 125, surpassing the 113 medals the team won during the Tokyo 2020 Games.

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The forecast is that China will follow suit, taking home a projected 90 medals. And Great Britain is expected to come third with a projected 62 medals. Host country France is expected to win 55 medals – almost double what they won in Tokyo.

When and where will the next Olympics be?

The Summer Paralympics take place right after the Summer Olympics, starting on August 28th and ending on September 8th.

The Winter Olympics are scheduled for February 2026 in the Italian cities of Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo. And the next Summer Olympics will take place in Los Angeles in 2028.