Here are some things you may want to know about this year's Summer Olympics in Paris.
Summer Olympic Games Paris 2024
- When: July 26 to August 11, 2024
- Host Country: France
The Summer Olympic Games Paris 2024 take place exactly 100 years since Paris hosted the Olympics back in 1924.
Venues
Most of the sporting events are set in and around Paris.
For the first time ever in Olympic history, the Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony was not held in a stadium.
Instead, the event took place along the Seine, the river that crosses the center of Paris. Around 94 boats with athletes aboard have paraded down the river that flows through the city of lights.
There will be a total of 35 Olympic venues at Paris 2024, with 14 sites hosting 24 Olympic sports located within 10 km of the Olympic Village.
Some Olympic events are set in iconic Paris locations including: beach volleyball at the Champ de Mars (under the Eiffel Tower), urban sports at La Concorde, fencing and taekwondo at the Grand Palais, and the start of the Marathon at the Hotel de Ville.
For the first time ever, surfing will take place in Tahiti, an island in French Polynesia nearly 15,000 km from Paris. The surfing venue will break the record for the furthest medal competition staged outside a host Olympic city.
About 95% of the venues already exist or are temporary, with the aquatics center being the only new venue specially built for the Games.
The Stade de France will host the athletics and the Closing Ceremony.
Budget
The 2024 Olympic Games are expected to cost €8.8 billion (US$9.57 billion).
The total cost will only be known until after the Games. According to France's national audit office, a total of £3 billion of public money could be spent on the Olympics. This is an investment that is difficult to compare with that of any other event.
The Paris 2024 Olympics is the 33rd Summer Olympics. The first Summer Olympics was held in Chamonix, France, in 1924.
Visitors
The event is estimated to attract 15 million visitors between the Olympic and Paralympic Games (from August 28 to September 8), according to the Paris Tourist Office. Around 12% , or almost two million, will come from abroad, including 1.5 million for the Olympics, many of them American and British.
It is estimated that more than 500,000 spectators will attend the opening ceremony, 100,000 of whom will pay to sit on stands along the banks of the Seine to watch the ceremony.
Because of the sheer number of visitors, security is the main concern and focus of the authorities at the moment. Around 30,000 police officers and gendarmes, reinforced by 15,000 military personnel, as well as 17,000 up to 22,000 private security guards will be present at the Olympic venues and in the fan zones. This means an average of 40,000 are working to ensure the safety of visitors.
Another interesting figure that stands out - because hosting on this grand scale requires everyone's cooperation, an estimate of 30,000 volunteers will support the organization. They will welcome and seat spectators, provide information, assist athletes and help out with the 6,000 anti-doping tests planned.
As for food, it is estimated that 13 million meals and snacks will be served during the Games. If 80% of these are produced in France, the organizers shall consider it a success. It is predicted that there will be 3 million bananas on the menus!
Ticket prices for all Olympic sports at Paris 2024 will start at €24, and the lowest prices for all Paralympic sports will be €15.
Finally, metro tickets will cost €4, almost double the usual €2.10.
Media Coverage
TV coverage of the sports shall ensure that almost a billion people worldwide can watch the competitions live. That is the number of people expected to watch the Opening Ceremony, when the athletes sailed down the Seine in boats.
Paris is 6 hours ahead of the United States' Eastern Time Zone, which means most major events will happen in the morning and afternoon for American viewers.
For USA viewers, NBC shall broadcast the games online and on TV. Olympic events will air on NBC, USA Network, CNBC and E!, and stream on Peacock and NBC Olympics platforms.
In the UK, fans can watch the Games on BBC TV, and the BBC Sport website and app, and there will also be extensive coverage on BBC Radio 5 Live.
Athletes
Around 10,500 athletes from 206 nations will compete in the 2024 Summer Olympics.
The 2024 Olympics will be the first in history to have an equal number of men and women competing: 5,250 men and 5,250 women, participating in the same number of sports and events.
Sports Events
There are 329 events across 32 Olympic sports. Check here for the complete list of games.
Four new events have been added: breaking (breakdancing), skateboarding, sport climbing, and surfing (in faraway Tahiti). These four disciplines are fairly new: breakdancing shall be making its Olympic debut as an optional sport, while skateboarding, sport climbing, and surfing will return from 2020.
Medals
With 329 events, at least 329 gold medals will be handed out. This does not include multiple gold medals on team events or ties for first place.
Gold medals are plated with six grams of gold.
Gold and silver medals are 92.5% pure silver.
Bronze medals contain copper alloy, tin and zinc from the Monnaie de Paris, where French coins are minted.
Winning athletes will not only be taking home a piece of the Olympics with them, but also a piece of Paris. This year's Olympic medals are infused with the most iconic element of Paris -iron from the original Eiffel Tower. The pieces of iron were actually cut from parts of the tower which were saved from renovations through the years.
The sport with the most medals being awarded at Paris 2024 will be aquatics with 49 events across the disciplines of swimming, marathon swimming, diving, water polo, and artistic swimming. Athletics follows closely with 48.
Source:
https://olympics.com/en/news/24-things-we-already-know-about-the-olympic-games-paris-2024
Image:
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/07/26/sport/takeaways-opening-ceremony-2024-paris-olympics/index.html
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