What To Expect During The Paris 2024 Olympics

As you probably have heard, the Olympic Games are coming to Paris. This massive, multifaceted event commences on July 26, 2024 and ends on August 11. On its heels will be the Paris Paralympic games, taking place from August 28 to September 8, 2024. So, expect July, August and September to be busy months in Paris. If you're planning to be in the City of Light during these Olympic months, you need to book your hotel accommodations as soon as possible. Right now would be a good time!

Even With the Olympics, It's Paris as Usual

Paris will still be Paris while the Games are taking place. Mayor Anne Hidalgo has pledged to maintain the city's iconic summer events — including the city's world-class music festivals — as usual. So, whether you're coming to Paris for the Olympics or a romantic river cruise, there will be plenty of cultural events, food experiences, city tours, and art activities — the things we all visit Paris to be part of. It will be business as usual for museums, attractions, and events.

There are a few outdoor events — the marathon, rowing, open water swimming, the opening ceremony — that the general public may view along the streets and from bridges and riverbanks of Paris… even though it might just be a glimpse. ("Oh, there goes the marathon!")

The 2024 Olympics Are a Numbers Game

Over 10,000 athletes are expected to participate at the 2024 Paris Games, illustration from Ville de Paris

The Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games will be the biggest events ever organized in France. 2024 is the sixth time Olympic games have been held in the country, with the games marking the centenary of the Paris 1924 Olympics, the last time the city hosted the games. Here are some of the numbers —

• 19 days of competition
• 206 nations will be participating
• 28 sports in competition
• 4 new sports introduced the 2024 games
• 329 events held throughout Paris & France
• 10,500 athletes from around the globes

The Opening Ceremony

What you can expect at the opening ceremony, illustration from Ville de Paris

Paris being Paris, the opening ceremony will be the most dynamic, spectacular, and accessible in Olympic history. For starters, the ceremony will be free to attend, and it's expected to attract 600,000 spectators along the Seine. Boats filled with Olympians will pass by the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame Cathedral, which is slated to be (hoped to be) renovated and restored by that time, following the devastating fire of April 2019.

For the Paris Games, the opening ceremony is not confined to a stadium or a single venue. It all happens on the banks of the Seine River where boats will ferry up to 10,000 athletes from Pont d'Austerlitz to Pont d'Iêna. The six kilometre route will pass iconic landmarks like the Louvre, Notre Dame, and Place de la Concorde. As the athletes disembark at Pont d'Iêna, 30,000 fans are expected to cheer them on at the Trocadero, where a mini-stadium hosts the official part of the opening ceremony. The Trocadero will also host the closing ceremonies on August 11, 2024.

Taking the Sports Out of the Stadiums

The Grand Palais will host fencing and other events, photo by Mark Craft

The innovative idea behind Paris 2024 is to take the sports out of the stadiums and into the city, while including as many landmarks as possible. Museums and other iconic sites will host many of the popular events. Fencing will be held in the newly-renovated Grand Palais, archery and para-archery at Les Invalides, and volleyball on Champ de Mars at the Eiffel Tower.

And, although the name on the label says "Paris Olympics", a few events will take place outside the city. Sailing will take place in Marseille while the French island of Tahiti in Polynesia (15,700 km outside of Paris) will host the surfing competitions. The city of Lille is the site of the handball competitions, equestrian events will be based at the Chateau de Versailles, and six cities will host the soccer games: Marseille, Nice, Lyon, Saint-Etienne, Bordeaux, and Nantes.

The 2024 Olympic Game – The Top Venues

The Eiffel Tower Stadium, illustration from Paris2024

The 2024 Summer Olympic program will feature thirty-two sports and 300 events in and around Paris at 30 different locations or settings. There will be temporary open-air arenas, the use of iconic stadiums like Roland Garros and Stade de France, and newly-built facilities like the Centre Aquatique Olympique, a modern swimming pool centre that directly connects to the Stade de France by a passenger bridge.

1. Eiffel Tower Stadium – Beach Volleyball

Sure, we've watched beach volleyball down at the local lake. But, at the Eiffel Tower? This has got to be this Olympics' most beloved venue — a temporary, open-air, stadium seating 12,860, built on the Champs de Mars, with the Eiffel Tower as its backdrop. The pretty, tree-lined park is where Parisians gather for Bastille Day fireworks and to watch World Cup soccer matches on giant screens. During the Olympics, though, it's beach volleyball on center stage at the Champs de Mars.

2. Chateau de Versailles – Cross-Country Riding

Chateau de Versailles is the games' most royal setting, with horse dressage and jumping taking place on a temporary arena set in the geometric lawns. The grounds of Versailles will also be used for cross-country riding and the modern pentathlon.

3. Grand Palais – Fencing and Taekwondo

The Grand Palais, built for the 1900 Paris Exposition, is a mammoth, glass-roofed structure wedged between the Champs-Elysées and the Seine. Its 240-metre-long nave made with 6,000 tonnes of steel trumps the Eiffel Tower's use of the metal. Famous for annual art exhibitions and sports events like the international Saut Hermès showjumping competition, the Grand Palais has been closed for a few years for renovation to get it ready for the Olympics. The palace will reopen in time to host Olympic fencing and taekwondo.

4. Stade de France – Rugby

This is France's largest stadium and will be the venue for the final game of the 2023 Rugby World Cup. Rugby will also kick off the Olympics at the Stade de France with the Rugby Sevens men's and women's tournaments. Built in 1998 for the FIFA World Cup (where France won the title), the Stade de France has hosted many other major sporting events.

Bercy Arena, photo from Paris2024

5. Bercy Arena – Basketball and Gymnastics

This grass-covered pyramid in the 12th Arrondissement (also called the Accor Arena) was built as a multi-sports venue in 1984. Bercy has been used as a venue for everything from basketball to judo. Pop stars and bands also take to its stage, making it one of Paris' most popular entertainment venues. During the Olympics spectators will watch basketball, gymnastics, as well as wheelchair basketball during the Paralympics.

6. Roland Garros Stadium – Tennis and Boxing

In the leafy Bois de Boulogne, west of Paris, is Roland Garros. This is the famous red clay courts where the French Open has taken place since 1925. All tennis greats from Rafael Nadal and Venus Williams have competed here and it's where the Olympic tennis competitions will take place. Wheelchair tennis and the boxing finals will also be held at Roland Garros.

7. La Défense Arena - Swimming and Water Polo

Just east of central Paris, and outside of the péréphrique, La Défense is the business district with skyscrapers and the U Arena, a huge, whale of a stadium (in fact, it's shaped like one) christened by The Rolling Stones in 2017. During the Olympics, the U Arena will be transformed into the official aquatic complex for swimming, water polo, para swimming.

8. Parc des Princes – Soccer

Parc des Princes is the home of one of Europe's premier soccer teams, Paris Saint-Germain, and was once the largest stadium in France. In 2024 it will host men's and women's soccer matches, including the finals.

Paris Olympics 2024

New Sports, Distant Venues & Gender Equality

Tahiti, photo Wikimedia by Aamoritz

Four New Sports

One of the new sports is called "breaking". In case you've been living under an ancient rock, breaking is a competitive form of breakdancing. Like figure skating, breaking athletes (called b-boys and b-girls) are judged on a number of criteria including technical skill, creativity, style, speed, rhythm and agility.

Breaking was very popular at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires, and so in 2020 it was officially added to the Olympic menu at the same time as surfing, skateboarding, and sport climbing. All four new sports will be introduced at Paris 2024 in an attempt to make the Olympic Games more gender-balanced, youthful, and urban. (We were hoping to enter the knitting competition, alas.)

Olympic Surfing in Tahiti

Tahiti — the largest island in French Polynesia — will host the surfing competition for Paris 2024. 15,700 kilometres from Paris, Tahiti will set the record for the Olympic venue farthest away from the host city.

A Public Marathon

In another first for the Olympic Games, a marathon open to amateur athletes will take place on the same day as the competition event. The public marathon starts at a different time from the elite competition, but it covers the same course as the Olympic run.

Gender Equality

The Paris 2024 event is also making history by increasing mixed-gender events. For the first time in Olympic history, there will be the same number of men and women athletes. The men's 50 km race walk has been replaced with a new mixed-gender walking event.

Paris Olympics 2024

History of the Paris Olympic Games

Paris first hosted the Olympic Games in 1900, only four years after the modern games began in Athens. (The ancient games were banned by Roman Emperor Theodosius I some 1500 years earlier.) The 1900 Paris Olympics didn't have an opening or closing ceremony, but it was the first time women athletes were allowed to compete. There were some un,m usual events, like ballooning, underwater swimming, and cricket.

The II (second) Olympiad Games held in Paris were an important part of the city's 1900 Exposition Universelle which took place over a five month span, from May to October. The first Paris games hosted 997 athletes from 24 countries. British tennis player Charlotte Cooper made history by becoming the first woman to win an individual Olympic gold medal in the women's singles tournament.

The Paris Games made history in 1924 when the Olympic Village was introduced. It's since become a part of every Olympics. The 1924 Paris Olympic Village was built near the Stade Olympique, northwest of Paris. It was a village made of temporary wooden cabins where athletes were served three meals a day, and shared bathrooms, bedrooms, and showers. The village had an array of services including cafes, hairdressers, and a post office.

In 2024, Paris will become only the second city to have hosted the Olympic Summer Games three times — in 1900, 1924, and 2024. Its closest competitor is London, which staged the sporting event in 1908, 1948, and 2012. The previous Paris Olympics was held from July 5 to 27, 1924.

For France, though, 2024 will mark the sixth time Games have been held in the country, when you add in the Winter Olympics of Chamonix in 1924, Grenoble in 1968, and Albertville in 1992.