Around 10,500 athletes from 206 nations will compete in the Olympic Games. For 19 days, from July 26 to August 11, they will compete for a podium position in 32 other sports. In total, 329 gold medals will be at stake.
One of the big stars of those Summer Games promises to be the American gymnast Simone Biles, a four-time Olympic champion who suffered intellectual aptitude disorders at the Tokyo Games three years ago. In athletics, Kenyan marathon star Eliud Kipchoge is aiming for the first time to win Olympic gold in 3 consecutive Games.
The eyes of world sport will also be on the U. S. basketball team. With LeBron James, Steph Curry and Kevin Durant, 3 of the world’s basketball elite will compete in Paris. Footballer Kylian Mbappé, meanwhile, will be there. The French superstar got permission from his new club, Real Madrid.
Due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes will be limited. Only individual athletes who chose not to have a connection to the Russian military or security forces were allowed to compete under an impartial flag. Both countries were excluded from the festival in team sports.
The organizers expect 15 million visitors. However, tickets priced for individual occasions can still be purchased at the official box office.
Football tickets are the cheapest, starting at €15 (about €16). If you need to attend events such as swimming or gymnastics, you will probably have to shell out more than €100, as there are only tickets left for the highest value categories.
The opening rite is the most expensive, with the cheapest ticket price being 1,600 euros (on 12 July).
There are 35 theaters, not all of them in Paris. The trendy pentathlon and equestrian competitions will take place in front of the Palace of Versailles. The football tournament will be played in the country’s stadiums, while handball will take centre stage in Lille. The surfers will compete off the coast of Tahiti, in the Pacific. Ocean.
However, most of the disciplines will take place in the center of the French capital. Beach volleyball players will compete within the view of the Eiffel Tower.
The opening rite will not take place in a stadium, as is the case; instead, it will feature athletes sailing the Seine in 160 boats.
He is not yet entirely sure if the open water competitions and swimming triathlon will be held on the Seine, as planned. The reason: water has long been infected with pathogens.
Two weeks before the start of the Games, the city of Paris cautiously gave the green light. A city spokesperson said we had decided the water was empty enough to safely host “11 or 10” swimming meets over the past 12 days.
Sports are added to or excluded from the Olympics every four years. Skateboarding, climbing and three-on-three basketball made their debut at the last Tokyo Summer Games.
Breaking, also known as breakdancing, will be offered for the first time in Paris. Dancers will be judged on their ability to improvise a dance to a hitherto unknown rhythm.
Another novelty at the Paris Games will be kayak cross. However, baseball, softball, karate, and the 50-kilometer walk were abandoned.
Tens of thousands of police and military workers will be on duty every day, in addition to the corps of personal security workers. In an effort to hire enough staff, the government reduced education from five to three weeks, introduced bonuses, and retrained staff in other sectors.
Visitors and citizens want QR codes to pass through police barriers. Traffic is limited and some metro stations will be completely closed.
AI-controlled camera systems will also be used. They are designed to detect crowd and weapon movements. The software is not worth using for facial recognition.
Important occasions such as the Olympic Games are potential targets for terrorist attacks. The French Government knows this very well and the country has been the scene of acts of terrorism in recent years, such as the deadly attacks against the Charlie Hebdo magazine or against the Bataclan in 2015.
The government has already reduced the contingent of spectators for the exposed opening rite. The concept of relocation was considered for a long time. But now it seems that the rite will nevertheless be installed on the Seine.
After the COVID-19 ban on intimacy in Tokyo, athletes will once again be free to have sex in Paris. Some 300,000 condoms will be delivered to the Olympic Village, which is home to 9,000 athletes. But some will also enjoy the 350-meter-long gourmet buffet.
This article was originally published in German.
Correction of July 27, 2024: An earlier edition of this article misspelled the name of American gymnast Simone Biles. DW apologizes for the error.