All You Need To Know About Paris Olympics

The Paris 2024 Olympic Games will showcase 3,800 hours of live sports and award 329 gold medals in 32 sports over 18 days of competition across the capital, and other parts of France.

Here is all you need to know about the 34th summer Olympics.

The opening ceremony to signal the official start of the Paris 2024 Olympics will be held on Friday, 26 July but the sporting action actually began on Wednesday, 24 July with pool matches in football, rugby sevens, handball and archery.

The ambitious opening ceremony will take place along the River Seine instead of in a stadium.

The first medals will be awarded a day later and competition will conclude on 11 August, with the closing ceremony later that evening.

The women’s 100m final will be held on Saturday, August 3, and a little over 24 hours later, on 4 August, it will be the men’s 100m final. Both will take place at the Stade de France, where all the track and field events are being held.

There are 329 gold medal events at Paris 2024 with a whopping 39 medals to be won penultimate day of the competition, Saturday, 10 August.

The first medal of the Games will be in shooting – mixed team air rifle – and that is expected to be won on Saturday, 27 July.

The final medal will be awarded in women’s basketball on Sunday, 11 August.

The only new sport for the 2024 Olympics is “Breaking.” It is a style of dance that originated in the Bronx in New York during the 1970s but has evolved to become a competitive sport.

In Paris, Breaking will not be seen until the latter part of the Games, with the women’s event taking place on 9 August and the men’s on 10 August.

A total of 32 entrants, 16 men and 16 women will compete for the medals.

Baseball/softball and karate both featured in Tokyo three years ago but have been dropped for these Olympics.

Other tweaks to sports include a change in format for sport climbing. In Tokyo, there was only one medal on offer for both the men and women but in Paris, there will be a combined medal for lead and bouldering and a separate medal event for speed climbing.

Kayak cross will also make its debut. It is a form of canoe slalom but four athletes in each heat will race against each other, not just the clock.

In sailing, two kite events have been added to the programme, windsurfer – iQFoil and kiteboarding.

And in artistic swimming, men are included for the first time in Olympic history and there will also be a team acrobatic routine round making its debut.

World Athletics has announced it will become the first international federation to award prize money at the Olympic Games.

The global governing body said a total prize pot of $2.4m (£1.9m) has been made available for this summer’s Olympics in Paris, with gold medalists receiving $50,000 (£39,400).

Russian and Belarusian athletes will be allowed to compete as neutral athletes, known as AIN (Individual Neutral Athletes).

They will not take part in the opening ceremony at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, says the International Olympic Committee.

We present the dates for the events below:

Opening ceremony: 26 July, River Seine

Archery: 25 July to 4 August, Invalides

Artistic gymnastics: 25 July to 4 August, Bercy Arena

Artistic swimming: 5-10 August, Bercy Arena

Athletics: 1-11 August, Stade de France (track & field), Trocadero (race walks), Invalides (marathons)

Badminton: 27 July to 5 August, La Chapelle Arena

3×3 Basketball: 30 July to 5 August, La Concorde

Basketball: 27 July to 11 August, Pierre Mauroy Stadium (group phase) & Bercy Arena (finals)

Beach volleyball: 27 July to 10 August, Eiffel Tower Stadium

Boxing: 27 July to 10 August, North Paris Arena & Roland-Garros Stadium

Breaking: 9-10 August, La Concorde

Canoe slalom: 27 July to 5 August, Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium – White water

Canoe sprint: 6-10 August, Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium – Flat water

Cycling BMX: 30 July to 2 August, La Concorde (freestyle), BMX Stadium (racing)

Cycling mountain bike: 28-29 July, Elancourt Hill

Cycling road: 27 July to 4 August, Pont Alexandre III (time trials), Trocadero (road races)

Cycling track: 5-11 August, National Velodrome

Diving: 27 July to 10 August, Aquatics Centre

Equestrian: 27 July to 6 August, Chateau de Versailles

Fencing: 27 July to 4 August, Grand Palais

Football: 24 July to 10 August, Bordeaux Stadium, Geoffroy-Guichard Stadium, La Beaujoire Stadium, Lyon Stadium, Marseille Stadium, Nice Stadium & Parc de Princes (finals)

Golf: 1-10 August, Le Golf National

Handball: 25 July to 11 August, South Paris Arena (group stage), Pierre Mauroy Stadium (knockout phase)

Hockey: 27 July to 9 August, Yves-du-Manoir Stadium

Judo: 27 July to 3 August, Champ-de-Mars Arena

Marathon swimming: 8-9 August, Pont Alexandre III

Modern pentathlon: 8-11 August, North Paris Arena (ranking round), Chateau de Versailles

Rhythmic gymnastics: 8-10 August, La Chapelle Arena

Rowing: 27 July to 3 August, Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium – Flat water

Rugby sevens: 24-30 July, Stade de France

Sailing: 28 July to 8 August, Marseille Marina

Shooting: 27 July to 5 August, Chateauroux Shooting Centre

Skateboarding: 27 July to 7 August, La Concorde

Sport climbing: 5-10 August, Le Bourget Climbing Venue

Surfing: 27 July to 4 August, Teahupo’o, Tahiti

Swimming: 27 July to 4 August, Paris La Defense Arena

Table tennis: 27 July to 10 August, South Paris Arena

Taekwondo: 7-10 August, Grand Palais

Tennis: 27 July to 4 August, Roland Garros

Trampoline gymnastics: 2 August, Bercy Arena

Triathlon: 30 July to 5 August, Pont Alexandre III

Volleyball: 27 July to 11 August, South Paris Arena

Water polo: 27 July to 11 August, Aquatics Centre, Paris La Defense Arena

Weightlifting: 7-11 August, South Paris Arena

Wrestling: 5-11 August, Champ-de-Mars Arena

Closing ceremony: 11 August, Stade de France