By The Numbers: Looking ahead to the Paris 2024 Olympics
The Summer Olympics will begin on July 26, 2024.
The Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games are rapidly approaching, and as of today (Wednesday, July 26), there is exactly one year to go until the opening ceremonies.
Some athletes have qualified already for the Games, while many others will do so in the coming weeks and months, at various world championships, qualification events, and regional multi-sport games like the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games.
The race is on before the world descends on the French capital, and to mark the occasion, here are some interesting facts and figures about Paris 2024.
100 years since the last time Paris hosted
Next summer, Paris will become just the second city to host the Summer Olympic Games three times — joining London, England. 2024 marks 100 years since the last time the Games were in Paris, with the city also hosting in 1900 and 1924.
France has hosted the Winter Games three times as well — in Chamonix in 1924, in Grenoble in 1968, and Albertville in 1992.
600,000 spectators expected to attend the opening ceremony
The organizing committee for Paris 2024 have come up with a genius idea for the opening ceremonies that will make them unlike any other.
For the first time ever the ceremonies won’t take place in a stadium, and will instead consist of a parade of boats down a 6km stretch of the Seine river. The route will include some of the city’s most famous landmarks, like the Louvre, Notre-Dame de Paris, and Place de la Concorde. There will also be a 30,000 seat temporary stadium at the Jardins du Trocadéro, a large area of land across the river from the Eiffel Tower.
The event will be free to attend for spectators, and the expectation is that around 600,000 people could fill the streets of Paris to get a glimpse of the parade of nations down the river.
Stade de France will host the closing ceremonies on August 11.
329 events across 32 sports
Paris 2024 will feature 32 sports. Among the usual classics like swimming, athletics and gymnastics, four newer sports have been added to the Olympic program, with one set to make its debut in Paris.
Skateboarding, sport climbing, and surfing will all be back after first appearing at Tokyo 2020, while breakdancing (known as breaking) will be competed on the world’s biggest stage for the first time. Karate, baseball, and softball have been dropped after Tokyo, however.
In total, there will be 329 events across the two-week event.
15,800 km from Paris to Teahupo'o
It’s not uncommon at Olympics and Paralympics for some events to be held in surrounding cities, perhaps even other parts of the country, but in Paris they will be taking that to a whole other level.
Paris isn’t exactly known for being a surfing hub, so the surfing competitions at Paris 2024 will happen in French Polynesia, in the village of Teahupo'o — about 15,800 km away from Paris. This breaks the previous record for the longest distance between a host city and a competition venue, which was previously 15,600 km when the equestrian events for the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia were held in Stockholm, Sweden.
50% male and female athlete participation
The Paris 2024 Summer Olympics will have exactly the same number of men and women competing as the International Olympic Committee and its national teams continue to push for gender equality. About 10,500 athletes in total are expected to compete in Paris, and there will be an increase in mixed gender events, from 18 events to 22.
In total, 28 out of 32 sports on the Paris 2024 schedule will be gender balanced — the highest total ever.
4 Canadian medals at Paris 1924
Ninety-nine years ago, Canada sent 65 athletes to the Summer Olympics in Paris, and came away with four medals — three of them silver, and one bronze.
Their first medal came in shooting, in the men's team clay pigeons event, as Canada finished three points back of the United States to take the silver medal. Ten days later, Canada won silver medals in a pair of rowing events — the men’s coxless four and men’s eight — before Douglas Lewis won a bronze medal in boxing a few days after that.
The first time the Olympics were in Paris, in 1900, Canada only sent two athletes — George Orton and Ronald MacDonald, both in athletics. MacDonald competed in the marathon, while Orton took part in the 1500m, 110m hurdles, 400m hurdles, 2,500m steeplechase and 4,000m steeplechase. Orton won a gold medal in the 2,500m steeplechase and a bronze in the 400m hurdles.
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