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History

The Summer Olympics are the largest international competition for summer and all-season sports, held every four years under the auspices of the International Olympic Committee. The history of the Games dates back to ancient times, with the original event taking place on the island of Peloponnese in Ancient Greece from 776 BC to 393 AD. The first modern Olympic Games were held in 1896 in Athens, Greece. Since then, the activity has only been cancelled three times: in 1916 due to the First World War, and in 1940 and 1944 due to the Second World War.

Host city

The 2024 Olympics will mark the XXXIII Summer Olympiad, taking place from 26 July to 11 August 2024 in Paris, France. Initially, during the official bidding process in 2015, the candidate cities for the 2024 Olympics included Paris (France), Rome (Italy), Budapest (Hungary), Hamburg (Germany), and Los Angeles (USA). Ultimately, four out of the six cities, except for Los Angeles and Paris, withdrew their bids due to concerns about the cost and complexity of organising the Games. Interestingly, Paris also hosted the Summer Olympics exactly 100 years ago, in 1924, when the Games featured only 22 sports.

For the first time in the history of the event, the opening ceremony will be held along the Seine, the legendary river flowing through the heart of the city, rather than in a stadium. However, due to security concerns, there is a possibility that the celebrations could be moved to the Stade de France, as announced by French President Emmanuel Macron in April.

If the plans along the river materialise, boats carrying each national delegation will sail down the Seine at 11 pm IST, and athletes will parade along a six-kilometre route ending at the Trocadéro, in front of the Eiffel Tower. Notably, approximately 220,000 spectators will be able to watch the opening ceremony for free, with access granted by invitation to view from the upper banks.

The closing ceremony of the 33rd Summer Olympics will take place on 11 August at the Stade de France at 11:30 pm IST. American actor Tom Cruise, who has experience as a participant in the Olympic torch relay before the 2004 Athens Games, will participate in the ceremony. The artistic director of the show is 42-year-old French director Thomas Jolly, who has over 20 theatre productions in France to his credit.

Paris is ready, are you? | #Paris2024 💙🤍❤️

Mascot of the Paris Olympics

The mascot for the 2024 Games is Phryge, a character designed in the shape of a Phrygian cap, that was introduced to the public in 2022. This soft, conical hat with a bent tip is one of the main symbols of the French Revolution of 1789 and an international emblem of freedom. Its image can also be found on various emblems across North and South America. 

Mascots of the Summer Olympic Games held in Paris – the Phryges

The mascot features the golden emblem of Paris 2024 and the Olympic rings on its chest. It is projected that approximately €127 million will be generated from the sale of licensed souvenir merchandise, with about 25% expected to come from the Phryge product line.

Programme of the Games

The programme for the Paris Olympics will include 28 sports returning from the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics (which were held in 2021 due to COVID-19), as well as four additional sports: sport climbing, skateboarding, surfing, and breakdancing, the latter making its debut. The International Olympic Committee accepted the organisers’ proposal to include these additional sports to ensure the programme of the event is more gender-balanced, youthful, and urban. An interesting fact: for the first time in Olympic history, there will be an equal number of male and female athletes, as well as an equal number of events for all.

At the 2024 Olympics in Paris, 329 sets of medals will be awarded across 32 sports. The sports included in the 2024 Olympic programme are:

• Archery: July 25 to August 4;
• Artistic gymnastics: July 27 to August 5;
• Artistic swimming: August 5 to 10;
• Athletics: August 1 to 11;
• Badminton: July 27 to August 5;
• Basketball: July 27 to August 11;
• Basketball 3×3: July 30 to August 5;
• Beach volleyball: July 27 to August 10;
• Boxing: July 27 to August 10;
• Breaking: August 9 to 10;
• Canoe slalom: July 27 to August 5;
• Canoe sprint: August 6 to 10;
• Cycling BMX freestyle: July 30 to 31;
• Cycling BMX racing: August 1 to 2;
• Cycling mountain bike: July 28 to 29;
• Cycling road: July 27 to August 4;
• Cycling track: August 5 to 11;
• Diving: July 27 to August 10;
• Equestrian: July 27 to August 6;
• Fencing: July 27 to August 4;
• Football (Soccer): July 24 to August 10;
• Golf: August 1 to 10;
• Handball: July 25 to August 11;
• Hockey: July 27 to August 9;
• Judo: July 27 to August 3;
• Marathon swimming: August 8 to 9;
• Modern pentathlon: August 8 to 11;
• Rhythmic gymnastics: August 8 to 10;
• Rowing: July 27 to August 3;
• Rugby sevens: July 24 to 30;
• Sailing: July 28 to August 8;
• Shooting: July 27 to August 5;
• Skateboarding: July 27 to August 7;
• Sport climbing: August 5 to 10;
• Surfing: July 27 to 31 (pending weather conditions);
• Swimming: July 27 to August 4;
• Table tennis: July 27 to August 10;
• Taekwondo: August 7 to 10;
• Tennis: July 27 to August 4;
• Trampoline: August 2;
• Triathlon: July 30 to August 5;
• Volleyball: July 27 to August 11;
• Water polo: July 27 to August 11;
• Weightlifting: August 7 to 11;
• Wrestling: August 5 to 11.

Participating countries

The 2024 Paris Games will feature 10,500 athletes from over 200 countries, including members of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Refugee Olympic Team. This team was first established for the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro to provide a symbol of hope and highlight the global refugee crisis; it was formed again for the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo. The 2024 team is still being formed, but the IOC website already lists several dozen athletes. They come from countries such as Syria, Iran, Eritrea, Cuba, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Sudan, South Sudan, and the Congo and will compete in various sports including cycling, swimming, taekwondo, athletics, and others.

It is anticipated that the United States team will bring home the most medals, marking the eighth consecutive Summer Olympics in which they have topped the leaderboard. According to a June forecast by the analytics company Gracenote, the U.S. team is expected to win 37 gold, 34 silver, and 52 bronze medals, totalling 123 medals, surpassing the 113 medals won at the Tokyo 2020 Games. China is predicted to follow with 87 medals, and Great Britain is expected to take third place with 62 medals. The host country, France, is projected to win 56 medals, nearly double their tally from Tokyo.

Projected Medal Count for the 2024 Olympics: Top 10 Countries

Athletes to watch

The Paris Olympics presents an opportunity to witness numerous global sports stars in one place at one time. Although not all disciplines consider the Olympics the pinnacle of their sport, few athletes pass up the chance to compete at the main event of the four-year cycle. With over 10,000 athletes, identifying those to watch can be challenging. Here are five of the most notable and successful athletes set to compete in Paris this summer, whose performances are not to be missed:

• Simone Biles, Artistic Gymnastics (USA), 27 years old.

American gymnast, four-time Olympic champion and 23-time world champion. She ranks first in total medals from the Olympics and world championships (37). Biles will compete in Paris after a controversial Tokyo Olympics, where she withdrew from team events due to mental health issues and finished without gold medals.

• Katie Ledecky, Swimming (USA), 27 years old.

An American swimmer specialising in freestyle over medium and long distances (200, 400, 800, and 1500 metres). A seven-time Olympic champion and one of nine women across all sports to have won seven or more gold medals, Ledecky is a 21-time world champion, with a record 16 individual titles. Experts regard her as one of the greatest swimmers in history. She holds world records in the 800 and 1500 metres freestyle in long course and previously held the 400 metres freestyle record until May 2022. Throughout her career, Ledecky has set 14 world records in freestyle over distances of 400, 800, and 1500 metres, with at least three records in each distance.

• Novak Djokovic, Tennis (Serbia), 37 years old.

A Serbian tennis player holding the record for the most weeks at the top in the professional singles rankings for both men and women (over 400). Djokovic has finished eight seasons as the world number one, a record in itself. He also holds the record for the most Grand Slam Cup singles titles in men’s and women’s tennis, tied with Margaret Court, with 24 titles. As of 17 July 2024, he leads tennis history in career prize money, with over $182.5 million. 

Multiple record-holder in tennis – Novak Djokovic

• Eliud Kipchoge, Marathon (Kenya), 39 years old.

Eliud Kipchoge is a renowned Kenyan long-distance runner and a two-time Olympic marathon champion (2016 and 2020). He is also a medallist from the 2004 and 2008 Games in the 5000 metres and the 2003 world champion in the 5000 metres. Kipchoge is the second Kenyan in history to win gold in the Olympic marathon. He is a former world record holder in the marathon (25 September 2022, Berlin) and has won a record 13 marathons in the prestigious World Marathon Majors series.

• Sky Brown, Skateboarding (Great Britain), 16 years old.

Sky Brown is a British skateboarder of Japanese descent and a bronze medallist at the 2020 Olympic Games. She also secured a bronze medal at the 2020 World Skateboarding Championships and the 2021 X Games. Brown competed in her first Vans US Open championship in 2016 at the age of eight. She was the first in history to perform a jump with a one-and-a-half spin around her axis and a 720-degree flip. In 2019, she became the first woman to execute the frontside 540 trick. In 2020, she suffered serious injuries during a training session, fracturing her skull, left wrist, and hand.

At the 2020 Olympics, Brown competed in the park skateboarding discipline. At 13 years and 24 days old, she became the youngest participant in British Summer Olympic history, surpassing swimmer Margery Hinton, who competed in the 1928 Games at 13 years and 44 days old. On 4 August 2021, she won bronze, behind 12-year-old Japanese skater Cocona Hiraki and 19-year-old Sakura Yosozumi.

Geography of the 2024 Olympics

The geography of the 2024 Olympics is extensive, reaching beyond the European continent. Most events will take place in Paris and its surroundings, with the capital hosting tournaments in aquatic sports, basketball, boxing, wrestling, judo, rhythmic gymnastics, and athletics. The tennis tournament will be held on the courts of Roland Garros, and the final stages of football will take place at the PSG Stadium, Parc des Princes.

Outside of the capital, football matches will be played in Bordeaux, Saint-Étienne, Lyon, Nantes, Nice, and Marseille, which will also host sailing competitions. In the north of France, Lille will host the handball tournament. The most remote region from Paris, at 15,000 kilometres away, is the village of Teahupo’o in French Polynesia, where surfing competitions will be held.

Sustainable Development Commitment

The organisers of the event have emphasised their commitment to sustainable development by primarily using existing facilities, such as the Stade de France, the home stadium of the French national football team, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup. This stadium will host the closing ceremony and several sporting events. Additionally, eco-friendly temporary structures, including the Athletes’ Village built on a former industrial wasteland, will be used. Only one permanent competition venue, the Aquatics Centre in Saint-Denis, was specifically constructed for the  Games. It operates on solar energy and is built from natural building materials. It is noteworthy that the organisation and hosting of the Olympics are expected to cost France €8.3 billion.

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