Things you might not know about the Paris 2024 Olympics
28 June 2024
Kate Thompson, Physical Education and Sport Subject Advisor
The 2024 Olympic Games will soon be with us. Not only will it be a chance to see the best sportsmen and women from around the world, but also a chance to showcase new sports and hopefully inspire young people to take up sporting activity. In this blog I’ll look at some of the more unusual facts about this year’s games, including the venues, the medals, and the newer sports to look out for.
Olympic venues
The city of Paris itself will play host to 21 of the Olympic sports and 14 of the Paralympic sports. The plan is to turn many of the iconic tourist highlights into host grounds. Any one for beach volleyball or blind football under the Eiffel Tower?
There are 35 venues set around the country, playing host to multiple sports and events. Some of these are temporary venues, and once the games are over they will be dismantled and the venue returned to its original purpose. One of these is at the Château de Versailles, home to Louis XIV and French Royalty.
The majority of venues being used for the games are already established as hosts for major events. However there are two new facilities being built in Seine Saint Denis: the aquatics centre, and Le Bourget climbing wall, providing this area with much needed facilities.
The athletes’ village is set to leave its very own legacy. It will span parts of three towns and cities and once the games have finished these areas will be returned to the locals providing them with an additional 2500 new homes, a hotel and hectares of green space. This will help fulfil the exemplary environmental standards set for Paris 2024.
Community involvement
Community is very much at the centre of this year’s Olympic and Paralympic games. The opening ceremony will be along the Seine allowing thousands of fans to line the river for a glimpse of the athletes. Fans will be able to socialise and celebrate with the days medal-winning athletes at Champions Park, which will also host a parade of the previous day’s medal winners. Club France will host fan social events with French medal winners and it will also be a space where visitors can explore new sports.
The Park of Nations in La Villette will showcase the relationship between the architecture schools and sport, and some fans being able to access these facilities.
Fan zones are being set up around France and the UK which will allow anyone to watch the events on large screens and socialise with other enthusiasts.
The Olympic medals
This year’s podium finishers will receive an extra special piece of history. Each medal will feature a small piece of metal from the Eiffel Tower itself. During a recent renovation parts of the structure were replaced, and now these small fragments of puddle iron, the purest form of iron, will be used in the centre of each medal.
In addition, on the reverse of the medals is a graphical depiction of the view of the tower from the ground, and the medal ribbon will feature the lattice design from the tower’s structure.
Did you know that the tradition of awarding medals to the top three athletes started at the 1904 Olympics in St Louis?
New sports for 2024
Among the new sports being featured in the Olympics is ‘breaking’, or breakdancing, a style of urban dance that originated in the USA in the 1970s. Breaking was featured in the summer youth games in 2018 and following on from its success has now made to the Olympics. You will get to see individuals performing solo against the other teams and trying to win judges’ votes by performing power moves and adapting to the DJ’s music.
Also featuring in this year’s games will be skateboarding, surfing and sport climbing, all of which made their debut at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. They have now be made ‘Olympic’ sports.
Skateboarding will feature the two disciplines of park and street. Performances are marked in three criteria: difficulty, speed and range of moves.
Sport climbing will feature three disciplines, bouldering, speed and lead. All are against the clock.
Surfers will be marked by five judges on the variety, type and difficulty of the tricks they perform as well as the speed, power and flow they demonstrate whilst completing their set.
Who to watch out for
- Sky Brown, skateboarding. She became Britain’s youngest Olympic medallist in 2021.
- Kimberley Woods, canoe slalom. She won the overall World Cup title in 2023.
- Josh Kerr, 1500m athletics. Will Josh become the first athlete to walk away with the money?
- Tom Dean, swimming. Can he win the five medals on offer?
- Max Whitlock, gymnastics. This Olympics will be Max’s last – will this give him the edge to take gold?
More from OCR
Inspiring though it is, we can’t all be Olympic-standard athletes! But here at OCR we have a range of sports and PE qualifications will help support all students to progress and develop a successful career in the sport sector, whether it’s as a competitor, coach, physiotherapist, sport development officer or leisure centre manager.
Take a closer look at our range of sports and physical education qualifications and do contact us if you have any questions.
Enjoy the games!
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About the author
Kate Thompson joined OCR in November 2021 having taught for 18 years at primary and secondary school level. Within that time she held various positions including Head of Department and School Sports Coordinator. Kate took 3 years out of teaching to work in South Africa at a University in their sports department and to manage the set-up of a Non-Government sports development project, working in the local township schools.