Paris 2024 Olympics: The Summer Games

The Summer Games of the 2024 Paris Olympics officially start on July 26 and end on August 11. These will be the third Olympic Games held by Paris, after those of 1900, which were the first to include women competitors, and 1924. They will be much different from the classic 1960 Rome Olympics, where I competed as a member of the American swimming team. In Rome, 83 countries competed with 5,347 athletes; the Paris Games will have 206 countries represented by about 10,500 athletes.

Some athletes come from areas with National Olympic Committees that are recognized by the International Olympic Committee, but not all have universally accepted “country” status, like Palestine, Kosovo, and Puerto Rico, among others.

Because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Court of Arbitration for Sport banned Russia and its supporting neighbor, Belarus, from the Olympics. Nonetheless, almost 60 Russians and Belarusians will participate as “Individual Neutral Athletes,” i.e., not representing their countries. Their official designation is “AIN,” for the French Athlete Individuel Neutre. Their uniforms/sweatsuits must not show their country’s name and must be unicolor or white. Any medals they win will not be officially counted.

Russia appealed the banishment at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, but it was upheld. The Court wasn’t taking a stance on the war, but it ruled against Russia because the Russian Olympic Committee has illegally annexed Ukrainian Olympic committees in areas Russia has occupied. Expect to see AIN uniforms and an AIN flag: white with the AIN emblem.

The 1960 Rome Games had 150 events in 17 different sports. Twice as many appear in the Paris Games: 329 events in 32 different sports. The new Olympic sports of breaking (also known as breakdancing) and kayak cross, similar to canoe slalom, will make an appearance. And this will be only the second Olympics for surfing, skateboarding, and sport climbing.

Baseball and softball were dropped by the Paris organizers because the two sports are played mainly in the United States, and also because Major League Baseball would not alter its calendar to accommodate the Olympics. (Baseball may return be a demonstration sport in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.) Karate is excluded because it is believed to lack entertainment value.

Some of the 2024 events will take place outside of Paris —in Lyon, Nice, Bordeaux, and other French towns. Sailing events will be in the Mediterranean Sea near Marseille. Surfing, introduced as an Olympic sport by Tokyo in 2020, will take place about 10,000 miles away, near a small Tahitian village in French Polynesia. Olympic villages (where athletes, their support staff, and officials stay) are in Paris, Marseille, Lille, Chateauroux, and Tahiti.

Event ticket prices vary widely, depending on the sport and whether it is an early competition, semifinal, or final. Many sporting event tickets are under $50, but tickets to some can cost several hundred dollars or more. Opening ceremony seats can cost as much as $3,800, which includes admission to special post-ceremony events. All original tickets were sold, however, and only resales exist, which could change prices.

This Friday, the opening ceremonies feature the traditional parade of athletes, but aboard boats for the first time in Olympic history. The 6-kilometer parade on the River Seine starts under the Austerlitz Bridge beside the Jardin des Plantes and ends at the Place du Trocadéro. The formal swearing-in ceremony takes place at the Trocadéro, across from the Eiffel Tower, home to beautiful gardens, ornamental ponds, and fountains, as well as the cultural richness of the Palais de Chaillot, the Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine, and the Musée de la Marine. This marks a unique deviation from previous opening ceremonies, which have traditionally taken place in stadiums.

The Place du Trocadéro will be a central hub for Olympic activity, hosting the triathlon, paratriathlon, road cycling, marathon racewalk, and swimming at the new Aquatics Center. Though the gardens of the Trocadéro closed on July 1, the Paris Aquarium remains open.

There will be 17 swimming events in Paris, including, for the first time, a relay event that has two men and two women on each team.

The most complete U.S. television coverage of the Paris Olympics will be by NBC’s Peacock streaming service for all events, starting with the opening ceremonies on July 26 at 10:30 a.m. PST. But soccer and rugby sevens begin early —on July 24 — and archery and handball on July 25.