Radio New Zealand
Wellington, April 30, 2024
The 2024 Olympics will be held from 27 July to 12 August NZT, with the opening ceremony beginning at 5.30 am on 27 July.
This is the third time for Paris to host the Summer Olympics. The French Capital had hosted the Games in 1900 and 1924.
Across an array of sports, 10,000 top athletes will battle it out for a coveted medal and the right to be called an Olympic Champion. Most competitions will be held in Paris and its surrounds. Temporary venues are being set up throughout the City, including a stadium beside the Eiffel Tower and an open-air arena at the Place de la Concorde, the site of Marie Antoinette’s execution.
The former will host Beach Volleyball, while the latter will become the home for urban sports, including 3 x 3 Basketball, Breaking (also known as Breakdancing), Skateboarding and Freestyle BMX.
Just north of Paris, the Stade de France will host Rugby, Athletics and the closing ceremony, while Equestrian events and the modern pentathlon will be held at the glittering Palace of Versailles, about 21 km from the City.
Not all of the events will be held in or near the City of Lights. Basketball and Handball will be played at Villeneuve-d’Ascq in Northern France and Football heats will be played at stadiums throughout the country, including Bordeaux, Lyon, Nantes and Nice. Sailing races will be held in Marseilles, on the Mediterranean coast, while the surfing competition will be held in Teahupo’o, on the southwestern coast of Tahiti (part of French Polynesia).
However, some competitions with multiple heats will begin before the opening ceremony. Football and Rugby Sevens will begin on 25 July NZT and Archery and Handball on 26 July.
Tickets for Events
Tickets to watch many competitions are already sold out, but there are plenty still available for some sports, including Football and Rugby Sevens. The cheapest tickets are for the Football Heats at €24 ($43).
A ticket to a Rugby Sevens pool round costs €65 ($118), while Handball Preliminaries, Rowing Heats and Canoe Slalom Heats are €90 ($163).
Tickets cost more as the competition progresses. For example, tickets to the Men’s Swimming Semi-Final are €690 ($1250).
At the most expensive end of the scale, hospitality packages including lounge access, food, drinks and entertainment are still available for a select number of sports and cost up to €1995 ($3613).
Tickets can be bought from the official 2024 Olympics site.
People are being warned only to buy from there, as those who purchase tickets from other websites may be denied entry.
The Games people play
What sports will be played at the 2024 Olympics?
The sports being played at this year’s Olympics are Archery, Gymnastics (both Artistic and Rhythmic), Artistic Swimming, Athletics, Badminton, Basketball (both 5×5 And 3×3), Beach Volleyball, Boxing, Breaking, Canoeing (Slalom and Sprint), Cycling (BMX Freestyle, BMX Racing, Mountain Biking, Road Cycling and Track Cycling), Diving, Equestrian, Fencing, Football, Golf, Handball, Hockey, Judo, Marathon Swimming, Modern Pentathlon, Rowing, Rugby Sevens, Sailing, Shooting, Skateboarding, Sport Climbing, Surfing, Swimming, Table Tennis, Taekwondo, Tennis, Trampoline, Triathlon, Volleyball, Water Polo, Weightlifting and Wrestling.
Breaking is the only sport having its Summer Olympics debut this year. It was previously held at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires.
Sixteen B-Boys and 16 B-Girls will face off in solo battles, with a panel of judges awarding each breaker points for creativity, personality, technique, variety, style and musicality. The breaker with the highest points is declared the winner.
Surfing, Skateboarding and Sport Climbing have all been added to the Paris Olympics lineup after successful debuts at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
The Opening Ceremony
The Opening Ceremony will be held on the evening of 26 July in the centre of Paris. For those watching from New Zealand, it will run from 5.30 am to 9.15 am on 27 July.
For the first time in the history of the modern Summer Olympics, the Opening Ceremony will take place outdoors. Ten thousand athletes will wind their way down the Seine on boats, finishing at the Trocadéro Gardens where the final formalities will take place.
If you are travelling to France and hoping to catch the Opening Ceremony, you will be lucky: there is no admission fee for most spectators and you do not need a ticket to access the upper quays of the River. However, you are advised to get there well in advance to secure a spot, as about 300,000 people are expected to attend.
Those wishing to watch the Ceremony from the lower quays will need to buy tickets, which are available for €500-€2700 ($906-$4890) from the official site.
Sky has the New Zealand broadcast rights for the 2024 Olympics, including the opening ceremony. Sky will have 12 channels dedicated to the games. Some will be screened on Sky Open, which is free-to-air.
The Schedule is subject to change until the end of the games.
The opening ceremony is set to be the first to be held outside a stadium, with more than 10,000 athletes expected to sail along a 6 km stretch of the Seine on 160 barges.
However, French President Emmanuel Macron said that it could be relocated to either the Trocadero Square or the Stade de France if the security risk is deemed too high. There are concerns that wars in Ukraine and Gaza could increase the threat.
The next Winter Olympics will be hosted by the Italian cities of Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo from 6-22 February 2026 (local time).
The next Summer Olympics will be held in Los Angeles, California from 14-30 July 2028 (local time).
Tight Security
Olympics Games Chief Tony Estanguet said that the Games will be protected by an “unprecedented” security operation.
Preparations for the Olympics are “in good shape”, but organisers will “keep some humility because we know in this kind of event anything can happen in the last stretch. I am very satisfied with where we stand at this moment,” he told BBC Sport.
Amid mounting safety concerns, Estanguet said: “I would like to reassure you that it is non-negotiable. Security is the priority. It is the biggest event that France has ever organised, and we want to showcase the best of France. So definitely we are determined to be ready. We are looking forward to welcoming the world in Paris,” he said.
The above Report has been published under a special agreement with www.rnz.co.nz
