In old sports and new sports alike, athletes across the globe will compete for national glory and individual excellence in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. The full list of the 28 Olympic sports is as follows (in alphabetical order): archery, athletics (track and field), badminton, basketball, 3-on-3 basketball, boxing, canoe slalom, canoe sprint, road cycling, cycling track, mountain biking, BMX freestyle, BMX racing, equestrian, fencing, football (soccer), golf, artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, trampoline, handball, hockey, judo, modern pentathlon, rowing, rugby, sailing, shooting, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, triathlon, volleyball, beach volleyball, diving, marathon swimming, artistic swimming, swimming, water polo, weightlifting, and wrestling. The only sport set to debut in the Olympic Games is breaking (breakdancing), the sport displayed by the Floorlords at the end of this past Chapel at BH.
Some sports to look forward to include the “[sprint] running events,” due to their “exciting” nature which can lead to “it coming down to the wire,” as Jackson Hurd ’26 put it. Jackson also said that the 3v3 basketball would be interesting “because it is a more slow-paced game that requires more skill on the offensive side” than the typical 5v5 basketball seen in the NBA. Typically, people think of track and field when it comes to the Olympics; Eita Fuse ’26 mentioned “a few athletes to look out for” in the Paris Games. He brought up Norwegian record-holder distance runner (in a couple of events) Jakob Ingebrigtsen. Eita also mentioned American world champion sprinter Noah Lyles, who currently is the third fastest ever in the 200 meter dash. Finally, he acknowledged 24-year-old Mondo Duplantis, the American-born Swedish current record holder and champion of pole vault.
This will be the 33rd edition of the Olympic Games, and it will be the third time that Paris has hosted the Olympics, with the most recent being 100 years ago in 1924. France has participated in 29 Olympic games and currently holds the fourth most Olympic medals ever. The three countries ahead of France (in ascending order) are Great Britain, the former Soviet Union, and the United States of America. The 2024 Paris Olympics is also the first Olympic Games to have an official Paralympic Games, as well as the first Olympics to have the same number of men and women competing; the total number of competitors is planned to be over 10,000.
For the first time in the history of the Summer Olympic Games, the ceremony, which takes place on July 26th, will not be held in a stadium. The athletes will parade down the Seine in boats. Spectating the ceremony on the upper platform will be free of charge, allowing the largest ceremony in the history of the Games. The actual Games will begin on July 24th, where football (soccer) and rugby will begin the group stage rounds. Across the 41 Olympic venues, the 329 medal events will be competed for over the subsequent 18 days. On August 11th, thirteen gold medal events and the closing ceremony will conclude the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
