140 days till the start of the 2024 Olympic Games taking place in Paris, exactly 100 years since they last hosted the games.
SWIMMING
852 athletes will compete in swimming at Paris 2024 from the 27th of July to the 4th of August. Swimming will take place over 9 days for the first time, as opposed to the regular 8-day format, with a two-day marathon swimming event on the 8th and 9th of August. The Paralympics will be taking place between the 29th of August and the 7th of September. The morning sesssions start off at 11.00am local time (9.00UTC) and the evening events take place at 20.30 local time (18.30 UTC).
OLYMPIC SWIMMING VENUE
The Swimming, Para Swimming, and Water Polo events will take place at the multi-purpose indoor arena, the largest in Europe - La Defense Arena located in Nanterre. For the first time, thanks to its modular, multi-purpose structure, the arena will be transformed into an Olympic Swimming pool. It is a truly exceptional facility in terms of its scale: 600 giant aluminium and glass scales make up the exterior facade of the building, 13km of stands, a 5,500-ton framework, and 28,632 sq.m of courts and pitches. It also houses the world’s largest interactive giant screen (1400 sqm).
Open water swimming will be staged at Pont Alexandre III through the Seine River.
THE OPENING CEREMONY
The opening ceremony will not be held in a stadium for the first time ever. Instead, it will be done on the Seine, the river that crosses the centre of Paris. 222,000 spectators will watch for free from the upper banks, and 104,000 will be paying ticket holders with spots along the lower riverbanks. Free access will be invitation-only.
IN WITH NEW SPORTS AND OUT WITH OLD
A new sport, breaking (breakdancing), is making its debut in the Paris 2024 Olympics. It was introduced at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires but will feature on the main Olympic stage this year. Surfing, skateboarding, and sport climbing, which were all new sports at the Tokyo Games, will return to Paris 2024. Karate has been dropped as an Olympic Sport. Baseball and softball are also out for now.