Countdown – 500 Days to the Paris Olympics

The 2024 will mark the third time that Paris has hosted the Olympic Games. The first was in 1900 and the last was almost a century ago in 1924. Since then, the world has changed dramatcialy. Technology has advanced, records have been broken and new champions have been crowned.

The Paris 1924 Games took place over just under three months, between 4 May and 27 July with 17 sports and 126 medal events. Paris 2024 will run from 26 July to 11 August with nearly double the number of sports: 32 in total – and 329 medal events.

Foil, the first female fencing event on the Olympic programme, was introduced in 1924. The Games were also the first to feature demonstration sports: Basque pelota, savate (French boxing), canoe and canne de combat – a French martial art similar to fencing in which competitors use a stick (canne).

Paris 1924 was the last time tennis featured on the Olympic programme until it returned at Seoul 1988. It was also the last time we saw rugby in the 15-player variant, with the sport only returning at Rio 2016 in the seven-athlete variant (rugby sevens).

At Paris 2024 breaking will make its debut at the Games.

At Paris 2024, 10,500 competitors are expected to compete, with women and men in equal numbers. The Olympic Village for the next Games is located five minutes from the Saint-Denis stadium, seven kilometres from the center of the French capital.