07/26/2024 – 4:35
For three weeks, Paris will be under the sign of the world’s biggest sporting event. What are the new modalities? Are there still tickets? How much do they cost? What is the security like? Can athletes have sex? The world’s biggest sporting event starts this Friday (26/07) in Paris, 100 years after the last edition held in the French capital.
Around 10,500 athletes from 206 nations will compete at the 2024 Summer Olympics, competing over 19 days until August 11 in 32 disciplines. In total, 329 gold medals are up for grabs.
Among the big stars expected is American gymnast Simone Biles: a four-time Olympic champion, she faced mental health issues in 2020, in Tokyo. In track and field, Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge wants to be the first runner to win gold three times in a row. The United States basketball team is also attracting attention, as LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant make up the elite of the sport.
Due to the war in Ukraine, Russian and Belarusian athletes can only participate individually, under a neutral flag: teams of these nationalities are excluded, their national anthems will not be played and they are not allowed to display national symbols. Participants are also required to have no connection with the Russian army or security agencies.
How many spectators will there be? Are there still tickets?
Organizers expect 15 million spectators to attend the 2024 Games. There are still tickets available for some events in the official market. Tickets for football matches are the cheapest, at 15 euros; those for water polo or canoe slalom, for example, cost 24 euros.
For particularly popular sports such as swimming or gymnastics, tickets are only available in the higher price categories, and you will have to pay well over 100 euros. The opening ceremony is the most expensive: on July 12, the cheapest ticket cost 1,600 euros.
Where are the competitions?
There are 35 competition venues in total, not all of them in Paris. Modern pentathlon and equestrian events are held at the Palace of Versailles; football matches are held in stadiums throughout France; handball is held in Lille. Surfers even compete outside the country’s borders, in Tahiti, the largest island in French Polynesia.
However, most of the events will be held in the French capital – beach volleyball players will even have a view of the Eiffel Tower. The opening ceremony will not take place in a stadium, as is customary, but on 160 boats on the River Seine.
It is not yet clear whether the open water swimming and triathlon events will be held in the Seine as planned, as the water has long been contaminated with pathogens. However, two weeks before the opening of the Games, the Parisian municipality has issued a promising signal: “on 11 or 10” of the last 12 days the river has been clean enough to allow competitions.
What sports are making their debut in Paris?
New disciplines are added to each edition of the Olympic Games. In Tokyo 2020, skateboarding, sport climbing and 3×3 basketball made their debut. In Paris, breaking (breakdancing) will be the first dance to be included in the international tournament: athletes of both sexes face off in one-on-one battles and improvise a choreography to a new beat, and a jury decides who wins.
There will be small changes in several disciplines. While canoe cross country will make its debut, baseball, softball and karate have been eliminated, as has the men’s 50-kilometer walk, which has been replaced by mixed teams over 35 kilometers.
How is security in Paris 2024?
France is one of the countries that has been the target of terrorist attacks on several occasions, such as the one against the Charlie Hebdo offices and the Bataclan theater, and the Olympic Games are always targeted by terrorism.
Tens of thousands of police and military personnel will be on standby every day, as well as private security forces. To ensure there are enough personnel, the government has shortened training to three weeks, introduced bonuses and redeployed personnel from other sectors.
Visitors and residents will need QR codes to pass through police checkpoints. Traffic will be restricted and some metro stations will be completely blocked. AI-controlled camera systems will be used to detect weapons and unusual crowd movements, but cannot be used for facial recognition.
The government has already reduced the number of spectators for the opening ceremony, which is particularly vulnerable to threats. For a long time, it was considered moving it to another location, but at the moment everything indicates that the stage will indeed be the River Seine.
How many condoms are there for athletes?
After the ban on intimate contact in Tokyo due to the COVID-19 pandemic, athletes will be able to have sex again in Paris. In the Olympic Village, where 9,000 participants will be accommodated, 300,000 condoms will be distributed. Alcohol is taboo, but the buffet is 350 meters long.
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