Around 10 million people are expected in Paris as the Olympics kick off on Wednesday ahead of Friday’s opening ceremony.
The Paris 2024 Olympics kick off this Wednesday with the first football and rugby sevens games ahead of the opening ceremony on Friday 26 July at 19.30CET.
Paris 2024 runs till August 11. The hype is huge. This edition has already sold more tickets (8.6 million) than any previous Summer Games, organisers said in July, overtaking Atlanta 96’s 8.3 million. Over one million tickets went out already for the Paralympics.
The Venues: From the Eiffel Tower to the Pacific Ocean
The 33rd edition of the Games is held across 35 venues, mainly in Paris, but also across other French cities like Lille, Marseille, Lyon, Nice, and on the Pacific island of Tahiti.
Paris 2024 is going to have a strong urban focus, with several competitions held at iconic places like the Champs-Élysées, the Eiffel Tower, Place de la Concorde, Invalides, and Pont Alexandre – with the aim to keep athletes and citizens as close as possible.
Paris has been spruced up, with a monumental operation to clean the Seine, and many venues renovated to avoid erecting new buildings, as Paris 2024 aims to reduce the carbon footprint by 50% compared to the previous Games.
US most represented nation, Russian and Belarusian athletes in ‘Neutral team’
A total of 206 teams are participating featuring 10,500 athletes.
The US is the most represented country with 592 athletes, followed by France (573), Australia (460), Germany (427), Japan (404), China (388), Spain (382), Italy (361) and Great Britain (327). The smallest delegations – with only one athlete each- are Belize, Lesotho, Malawi, Malta, Montserrat and Nauru.
There is also going to be a Refugee Team, the largest ever at the Olympics, with 35 athletes, mostly coming from Syria, Iran and Afghanistan.
Russia and Belarus are banned because of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but their athletes are not – and will compete with the Individual Neutral team.
Predictions: US and China likely to dominate medal table again
According to the Gracenote-Nielsen forecast, the US is expected to win the most medals at Paris 2024 (123), improving their result from Tokyo 2020 (113).
If team US fulfils the expectations, it would be the eighth consecutive time it placed at the top of the Summer Games table.
China is predicted to finish second again, with 87 medals, two less than it did at Tokyo 2020. Team GB is expected to finish third, followed by France, although the hosts are expected to snatch more gold medals.
The US is the all-time top medal winner at the Summer Games (2981) followed by the USSR (1204), Great Britain (948), Germany (892) and France (835).
Individual records: Durant and Karabatic seek fourth gold glory. Werth and Ledecky eyes record 10th medal in women’s sports
On August 10, Team US and NBA star Kevin Durant might have the chance to become the first male athlete to win four gold medals in any team sport, if the Americans scoop a fifth consecutive gold medal.
The record however could be levelled the following day in case France triumphs in men’s handball, as Nikola Karabatic would win his fourth Olympic gold following Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Tokyo 2020. The player is set to retire after the Summer Games.
On the women’s front German equestrian Isabell Werth and American swimmer Kate Ledecky have an opportunity to make history by winning the most Olympic gold medals in any sport. The current women’s record is under the name of Soviet-Ukrainian gymnast Larisa Latynina, who was awarded nine gold medals during her career.
Georgian shooter Niko Salukvadze could extend her record for competing in the most Olympics. Paris 2024 will be her 10th participation. The first one dates back to Seoul 88.
The current all-time record – for both men and women – belongs to Canadian equestrian show jumper Ian Millar, who competed in 10 Olympic Games from 1972 to 2012. He missed only the 1980 Moscow Olympics due to the Canadian boycott.
Team records: Eyes on US women’s basketball team
Team US could break other records with its 3×3 and 5×5 female basketball squads.
If they win a gold medal at Bercy Arena on 11 August, it would be the eighth consecutive one since Atlanta 86, thus breaking the record for the most consecutive Olympic gold medals in any team sport.
The current record is tied with their male US counterparts, who won seven golds from Berlin 36 to Rome 68.
Opening day schedule: Games kick off with football and rugby
Paris 2024 begins on Wednesday 24 July, two days before the opening ceremony. Football and rugby sevens open the competitions. Here is the schedule for the first day.
Football, group stage
- Argentina-Morocco (15.00, Saint-Étienne)
- Uzbekistan-Spain (15.00, Paris)
- Guinea-New Zealand (17.00, Nice)
- Egypt-Dominican Republic (17.00, Nantes)
- Iraq-Ukraine (19.00, Lyon)
- Japan-Paraguay (19.00, Bordeaux)
- France-US (21.00, Marseille)
- Mali-Israel (21.00, Paris)
Rugby sevens, men’s pool
- Australia-Samoa (15.30, Paris)
- Argentina-Kenya (16.00, Paris)
- France-US (16.30, Paris)
- Fiji-Uruguay (17.00, Paris)
- Ireland-South Africa (17.30, Paris)
- New Zealand-Japan (18.00, Paris)
- Australia-Kenya (19.00, Paris)
- Argentina-Samoa (19.30, Paris)
- France-Uruguay (20.00, Paris)
- Fiji-US (20.30, Paris)
The newest disciplines: Breakdance, skateboarding and surfing
The latest editions of the Olympic Games saw the introduction of new sports with the aim to involve more communities and younger generations.
Breakdancing will be the latest sport to debut, in Paris, while other disciplines like skateboarding, sport climbing, BMX freestyle and surfing got introduced at Tokyo 2020.
Surfing is the only discipline hosted outside mainland France, in the overseas territory of Tahiti. Competitions will occur at Teahupo’o, renowned for its large and powerful waves.
In total, 32 sports will feature at Paris 2024, encompassing 48 disciplines.