2024 Paris Olympic Games preview, team news, tickets & prediction

The Paris 2024 Olympic Games are finally here and top athletes from all over the world will compete for a chance to take home gold and write their names into the history books.

This is officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad and it is scheduled to take place from 26 July to 11 August 2024 in 35 venues across France, with Paris as the main host city and 16 other cities spread across Metropolitan France. Meanwhile, surfing events will be hosted by the South Pacific island of Tahiti.

The French capital won the hosting rights to the 2024 Games against Los Angeles after many other cities had dropped out of the bidding process. Hence, Paris 2024 will mark 100 years since Paris 1924 and it promises to be a special one. 

The 2024 Olympics action begins on Wednesday, July 24 with the first two events of the Games being men's soccer and rugby sevens that have to start earlier due to the schedule.

Typically, athletes march into a venue during the opening ceremony of the Olympics but for the first time, they will float down the Seine River on barges. The opening ceremony is scheduled to begin on 26 July 2024 at 7:30 PM local time with the boat parade taking up to 4 miles from Pont d'Austerlitz to Pont d'Iéna and featuring cultural presentations.

For the closing ceremony, there will be 13 gold medal events, including men's water polo, women's volleyball and the women's marathon final, before the Games are officially concluded at Stade de France on 11 August 2024.

Athletics is one of the most symbolic Olympic sports and it has been contested at every single episode of the Games. Being one of the oldest sports in the world with records documented from as far back as 776 BC, the sport is undoubtedly the crown jewel of the Olympic Games and it has undergone massive changes over the decades with the women's competition only featuring 17 events until 1992. 

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Indeed, the incorporation of the 3000m steeplechase in 2008 saw female athletes begin to compete in the same number of events as their male counterparts. And now, the 2024 Games will be the first to feature an identical number of male and female athletes.

Today, athletics is composed of various running, jumping, throwing, walking, and combined events which makes it the single sport that involves the most participants at the Olympic Games, due to its many categories and disciplines.

Paris 2024 will also feature the debut of breakdancing as an Olympic event while skateboarding, sport climbing, and surfing will remain having also debuted in 2020. Overall, the 2024 Summer Olympics programme will feature 329 events in 32 sports, including the four newly added sports. 

Host nation France will play their first game of the tournament against the United States in the men’s football event. France’s only Olympic football title was won on U.S. soil 40 years ago in Los Angeles 1984 and they will be desperate to do it again on home soil.

That is a realistic dream given that back-to-back reigning Olympic champions Brazil failed to qualify for these Games.

Event tickets

The 2024 Olympic Games will start two days before the opening ceremony on Wednesday, 24 July with the football matches. One must apply for Paris Olympics 2024 tickets on the official ticketing application to receive your tickets or put them back on sale.

The Paris 2024 Hospitality program also offers packages that include tickets for sporting events combined with exceptional services in the competition venues (boxes, lounges) or in the heart of the city (accommodation, transport options, gastronomy, tourist activities, etc.).

Most of the Olympic events will be held in the city of Paris and its metropolitan region, including the neighbouring cities of Saint-Denis, Le Bourget, Nanterre, Versailles, and Vaires-sur-Marne. Elsewhere, the handball tournaments will be held in Lille, the sailing games will be held in Marseille and the surfing events are expected to be held in the overseas territory of French Polynesia. 

Football will also be hosted in Lille, Bordeaux, Lyon, Nantes, Nice and Saint-Étienne. The opening match of that event between Argentina and Morocco kicks off at 3 PM UK time while the third match of the day is the most anticipated as France and the USA face off at Stade de Marseille.

To get your hands on Paris Olympics 2024 tickets early enough, we advise you to make your search on a ticket resale website.

Team news

Led by Thierry Henry, the 1998 FIFA World Cup winner will be hoping to inspire the next generation of French football stars to a sensational victory on home soil.

Men's teams in this event are restricted to under-23 players but are allowed a maximum of three overage players, while there are no age restrictions on women's teams.

Hence, all eyes will be on France’s wildcard picks from a star-studded pool of players with national team stalwarts Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann and Olivier Giroud all reported to be under consideration for an invitation. 

In basketball, Team USA is stacked with a winning mentality with a combined 11 Olympic appearances, 10 Olympic gold medals and three FIBA World Cup titles as well as 12 NBA All-Stars, four NBA MVPs and six NBA champions.

The U.S. team is brimming with quality and they are backed to go all the way in Paris. LeBron James is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer with another 273 points scored at the Olympics, Kevin Durant is the USA’s all-time Olympic statistical leader in total points (435), scoring average (19.8 ppg), field goals (146), 3-point field goals (74) and free throws (69).

Durant can make history in Paris by becoming the first player to win four gold medals in men’s basketball.

Tokyo 2020 400m freestyle swimming champion, Ahmed Hafnaoui of Tunisia, may not be fit to defend his title at Paris 2024. The 21-year-old was among the favourites to win the 400m gold medal while he was also a top contender in the 800m and 1500m events.

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In Artistic Gymnastics, the Americans have seven-time Olympic medallist, Simone Biles, who is the most decorated gymnast of all time with 37 world championships and Olympic medals. The 27-year-old looks as good as ever in the buildup to the Games and she will be joined by 2012 Olympic All-Around champion, Gabby Douglas, and Tokyo 2020 gold medallist Sunisa Lee to walk into Paris as teammates with a combined 13 Olympic medals.

Noah Lyles is the face of American track and field and has his eyes on all of the medals in Paris after becoming the first man since Usain Bolt to win gold in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay at the World Championships. The 26-year-old took bronze in the 200m in 2020 and could be on the verge of making history with four historic golds in the 100m, 200m, 4x100m and 4x400m relays. 

The Jamaican duo of Shericka Jackson and Shelly-Anne Fraser-Pryce will be hoping to finish with medals as Fraser-Pryce looks to end her career on a high after announcing she’ll retire following the Paris Olympics. The 37-year-old is one of the greatest sprinters of all time having won more individual global sprint titles than any female sprinter in history. 

Faith Kipyegon’s chances of winning her third Olympic title are sky-high after breaking the 1500m, 5000m and mile world records in 2023. She had a remarkable campaign and was duly voted Athlete of the Year 2023 and she can complete a hat-trick of Olympic gold medals in Paris. 

Kipyegon would also have the best wishes of Kenya whose reputation has been tarnished by a series of doping scandals. Although 2020 Olympics silver medallist, Laura Muir, will also be angling for a podium finish.

World record-holder Joshua Cheptegei is the favourite for the 10,000m and 5000m races and his Ugandan teammate, Jacob Kiplimo, will not be far behind. 

In the marathon, two-time Olympic champion Eliud Kipchoge will be chasing personal history at the event and Benson Kipruto might even be Kenya’s best bet to win a gold medal followed by Sisay Lemma.

Prediction

The men’s 100m is certainly the most competitive of the athletics events with the Jamaicans and Americans set to go head to head for the gold but African athletes have also emerged as serious contenders with Ferdinand Omanyala in particular. 

This may prove to be one of the most thrilling events of the entire Games but triple World Champion Noah Lyles is certainly the man to beat. 

Adam Peaty will fancy his chances at a medal in the 100m breaststroke in swimming. The Team GB man won a bronze medal at the World Championships and he will be targeting a place alongside Michael Phelps as the only man to win one race at three consecutive Games successfully.

One diver to keep an eye on is China’s three-time Olympic champion, Cao Yuan, who will be in search of a fourth consecutive gold medal. Alexis Jandard will naturally attract a massive cheer in front of his home fans and the 2023 World Championship bronze medallist is a contender as well.

Overall, the USA, Great Britain and China are expected to lead the medals table at the end of the games.