While the countdown has begun to the July 24 opening ceremony for the 2024 Games, some events are expected to begin on another date.
In the collective imagination, the Olympic Games begin with the opening ceremony and end with the closing ceremony. And the kickoff is usually a global event. This year, for the first time, the opening ceremony of the 2024 Games will not take place in a stadium, but in the heart of Paris, on the Seine. This novelty desired by the Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games represents an immense organizational and security challenge. If all the details are not yet known, such as the location of the Olympic flame or the identity of the flag bearers, the route of almost 6 kilometers on the stage, as well as the arrival at the Trocadéro, have already been announced .
A total of 329 medals will be distributed during the 16 days of competition, spread across the 45 disciplines present. While four sports had appeared on the Olympic program in Tokyo in 2021 – climbing, surfing, skateboarding and softball – only one new event was added during these Paris games: breaking, which replaces softball not preserved by the IOC. This acrobatic dance works on the principle of performances which will be held on the Place de la Concorde and which will be rated by a jury.
Next Friday July 26, it is on the river that the 10,500 athletes will parade on boats in the heart of the organizing city. However, for some of them the competition will have already started! If no event is planned on the day of the ceremony to allow all competitors to participate, disciplines begin before the ceremony. This is particularly the case for football, which will begin on Wednesday July 24, two days before the opening of the Games. This will also be the case for rugby sevens. Two other sports, archery and handball, will take the field the day before the opening ceremony. There is therefore a good chance that stars Kylian Mbappé (if he participates in the Games) and Antoine Dupont will already be on the pitch before the official start of the competition.
There are several explanations for these calendar adjustments. For football, the two weeks of competition are not enough to allow players to have two days of rest between each match. It was therefore necessary to bring forward the first matches, as is the case at each Olympics. The problem is similar for women’s handball, the final of which will be held on Saturday August 10. The situation for rugby sevens is different. The matches must in fact be held at the Stade de France, which must also host the athletics events. In order to free the stadium in time it was therefore necessary to bring forward the start of the competition. Same problem for archery at Les Invalides, which will also be the finish location of the marathon.
This is not the first time that certain events have started before the opening ceremony of the games. In Tokyo in 2021, softball and football had already started two days before, just like in Rio in 2016 for football. For their part, the Paralympic Games will begin on Wednesday August 28 with the opening ceremony on the Place de la Concorde and on the Champs-Elysées, with the first events on Thursday 29. They will end on Sunday September 8.