Paris 2024 will see 10,500 athletes battle for 329 gold medals across 32 different sports.
With the programme including the traditional Olympic sports such as athletics, swimming and cycling to the more recent recruits like surfing, breaking and sport climbing, Paris 2024 will showcase an intriguing mix of disciplines.
Here are some of the events that are not to be missed between now and the Closing Ceremony on the 11th of August.
SUNDAY 4th AUGUST – 8:50pm: Men’s 100m final
The men’s 100m final has long been the blue riband event of the Olympic Games and at Paris 2024, it will be no different.
Since the retirement of Usain Bolt in 2017, men’s sprinting has been bereft of a global superstar but in Noah Lyles, it seems there is someone with the charisma, personality and talent to finally fill that void.
American Lyles may still be some way short of Bolt’s best times but as a six-time world champion, Lyles is starting to rack up the medals.
As reigning 100m and 200m world champion, Lyles goes into Paris 2024 as hot favourite to win his maiden Olympic title he will be up against defending champion, Marcell Jacobs from Italy, the fastest man in the world this year, Kishane Thompson, and British breakthrough star, Louie Hinchliffe meaning Olympic gold will be no foregone conclusion for Lyles.
As always, there’s unlikely to be no more exciting 10 seconds than watching the fastest individuals on the planet fight for glory.
SUNDAY 3rd AUGUST – from 11am: Men’s tennis doubles final
The men’s doubles pairing of Rafa Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz is the dream partnership, with the duo fancied to win gold for Spain despite both being singles specialists.
Nadal, already a two-time Olympic champion having won singles gold in 2008 and doubles gold in 2016, and Alcaraz, the 2023 and 2024 Wimbledon singles champion, are the perfect mix of youth and experience and would be hugely popular Olympic champions.
Perhaps the only pairing who would be crowd favourites over the Nadal-Alcaraz partnership at the event, which will be held on Roland Garros’ clay courts, would be Britain's Dan Evans and Andy Murray, with the Scot playing his final-ever competitive tournament in Paris.
SATURDAY 27TH JULY – from 7:30pm: Women’s 400m freestyle final
Paris 2024 will be Katie Ledecky’s fourth Olympics and the American is bidding to become her sport’s most-successful female Olympic swimmer of all-time.
Currently, Ledecky has seven Olympic gold medals and if she can reclaim her 400m freestyle title that she won in 2016 on day one of Paris 2024, she will equal her American compatriot Jenny Thompson’s record of eight gold medals, which were won between 1992 and 2000.
The 400m freestyle final is shaping up to be a blockbuster of a race, with current world record holder and defending champion, Ariarne Titmus of Australia, as well as former world record holder, Canada’s Summer McIntosh both hoping to spoil Ledecky’s party.
If the American fails in her quest for gold on day one, however, she will have several more attempts over the next week, including in the 800m freestyle in which she has won gold in 2012, 2016 and 2020.
SATURDAY 10TH AUGUST – 8pm: Men’s basketball final
The basketball tournament at Paris 2024 will showcase some of sport’s truly global superstars.
The USA’s roster boasts NBA legends LeBron James and Steph Curry while host nation, France, has Victor Wembanyama in its line-up after a hugely impressive rookie season in the NBA.
The dream for all observers would be a repeat of the Tokyo 2020 final where USA defeated France for gold, with the Parisian crowd likely to ensure an electric atmosphere if that match-up materialises.
However, Serbia, Germany and Canada will not go down without a fight.
TUESDAY 6TH AUGUST – 7:50pm: Men’s 1500m final
The only thing better than a sporting rivalry is a petty, bitchy sporting rivalry.
That’s exactly what Josh Ker and Jakob Ingebrigtsen have developed over the past year.
Reigning Olympic 1500m champion, Ingebrigtsen, was beaten to world gold by Edinburgh native, Kerr, last summer and the lack of respect shown by the Norwegian to the Scot has fuelled a bitter rivalry between the pair.
Kerr is convincingly confident that he can become Scotland’s first Olympic gold medallist on the track since Allan Wells won 100m gold in 1980 but with Ingebrigtsen having run a European record earlier this month, it’s clear it will not be an easy path to Olympic gold for Kerr.
Whatever the outcome, the 1500m final promises to be one of the most intriguing events of the Games.
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