As the XXXIII edition of the Summer Olympic Games, popularly known as Paris 2024 approaches, this attempt is to keep the sports enthusiasts abreast of some of the salient data involving the history of the Games along with a glimpse of the five editions in the 21st century.
The Paris 2024 will be held from July 26 to August 11, 2024. However, the competitions for football and rugby will begin on July 24, and the handball on July 25. In a little over three weeks, 329 events in 32 sports will take place, with a total of 206 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) competing in addition to the Refugee Olympic Team.
Paris for hundreds of years has welcomed people from all over the world including the founding fathers of the Olympic Movement, to collaborate and inspire each other to shape ideas and forge the future. The sporting celebration will flow along the Seine, from the new Olympic Village, just 15 minutes from Paris city center, to such landmarks as the Eiffel Tower and the Grand Palais.
Paris 2024 will see a new vision of Olympism in action, delivered in a unique spirit of international celebration. Paris, as one of the world’s most inspirational cities will create a memorable stage for the athletes. The Games will partner with the entire Olympic family to create a truly global platform to promote the incredible stories and demonstrate that, more than ever after an extremely challenging period, sport has a unique power to help create a better world.
Athens 2004 Olympic Games
In 2004, the Olympic Games returned to their birthplace in Athens, Greece. It was the XXVIII edition. At least $7.2 billion was spent on Athens 2004 Games, including $1.5 billion on security. Michael Phelps won his first Olympic medals, tallying six gold and two bronze medals. Pyrros Dimas, winning a bronze medal, became the most decorated weightlifter of all time with four Olympic medals, three gold and one bronze.
Although unfounded reports of potential terrorism drove crowds away from the preliminary competitions at the first weekend of the Olympics (August 14 – 15), attendance picked up as the Games progressed. A third of the tickets failed to sell, but ticket sales still topped figures from the Seoul 1988 and Barcelona 1992 Olympics. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge characterized Greece’s organization as outstanding and its security precautions as flawless. The Athens Games comprised 201 NOCs and 10,625 participants.
Beijing 2008 Olympic Games
The 2008 Summer Olympics was held in Beijing, People’s Republic of China in August 8 – 24. Several new events were held, including the new discipline of BMX for both men and women. Women competed in the steeplechase for the first time. The fencing programme was expanded to include all six events for both men and women; previously, women had not been able to compete in team foil or sabre events, although women’s team epee and men’s team foil were dropped for these Games.
Marathon swimming events were added, over the distance of 10 km. Also, the doubles events in table tennis were replaced by team events. American swimmer Michael Phelps set a record for gold medals at one Olympics with eight, and tied the record of most gold medals by a single competitor previously held by both Eric Heiden and Vitaly Scherbo.
Another notable star of the Beijing Games was Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, who became the first male athlete ever to set world records in the finals of both the 100m and 200m in the same Summer Olympic Games. Equestrian events were held in Hong Kong. The total participation was 10,942.
London 2012 Olympic Games
London held the 2012 Summer Olympics, the XXX edition, becoming the first city to host the Olympic Games three times. In his closing address, Jacques Rogge described the Games as “Happy and glorious.” The host nation won 29 gold medals, the best haul for Great Britain since the 1908 Games in London. The USA returned to the top of the medal table after China dominated in 2008.
The IOC had removed baseball and softball from the 2012 programme. The London Games were successful on a commercial level because they were the first in history to completely sell out every ticket, with as many as one million applications for 40,000 tickets for both the Opening Ceremony and the 100m Men’s Final.
Such was the demand for tickets to all levels of each event that there was controversy over seats being set aside for sponsors and National Delegations. A system of reallocation was put in place so the empty seats were filled throughout the Games. The Games opened on July 27 and closed on August 12. The total participation was 10,768.
Rio 2016 Olympic Games
Rio de Janeiro in Brazil hosted the 2016 Summer Olympics, becoming the first South American city to host the Olympics, the second Olympic host city in Latin America, after Mexico City in 1968, as well as the third city in the Southern Hemisphere to host the Olympics after Melbourne, Australia, in 1956 and Sydney, Australia, in 2000.
The preparation for these Games was overshadowed by controversies, including political instability and an economic crisis in the host country, health and safety concerns surrounding the Zika virus, and significant pollution in the Guanabara Bay. However, these concerns were superseded by a state-sponsored doping scandal involving Russian athletes at the Winter Olympics held two years earlier, which affected the participation of its athletes in these Games.
Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games
The 2020 Summer Olympics were originally scheduled to take place from July 24 to August 9, 2020 in Tokyo, Japan. The city was the fifth in history to host the Games twice and the first Asian city to have this title. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the then-Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the IOC and the Tokyo Organizing Committee announced that the 2020 Games were to be delayed until 2021, marking the first time that the Olympic Games have been postponed.
However, the event was still referred to as the 2020 Summer Olympics (marking the XXXII Olympiad) to preserve the four-year Olympiad cycle. These Games took place without spectators due to concerns over COVID-19 and a state of emergency imposed in the host city. Nevertheless, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games featured many memorable moments and feats of technical excellence.
One star of the games, the US gymnast Simone Biles, gracefully bowed out to focus on her mental health, but later returned to claim an individual bronze medal. Norway’s Karsten Warholm smashed his own world record in the 400m hurdles.
Popularity of Olympic sports
The IOC divides Summer Olympic sports into five categories (A – E) based on popularity, gauged by six criteria: television viewing figures (40%), internet popularity (20%), public surveys (15%), ticket requests (10%), press coverage (10%), and number of National Federations (5%). The category of a sport determines the share of Olympic revenue received by that sport’s International Federation.
Category A: Athletics, aquatics (artistic swimming, diving, swimming, and water polo) and gymnastics.
Category B: Basketball, cycling, football, tennis and volleyball.
Category C: Archery, badminton, boxing, judo, rowing, shooting, table tennis and weightlifting.
Category D: Canoe/kayaking, equestrian, fencing, handball, field hockey, sailing, taekwondo, triathlon and wrestling.
Category E: Modern pentathlon, golf and rugby.
Category F: Baseball/softball, karate, skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing.
Highest Summer Medals
Earlier, the IOC database for the 1900 Summer Olympics listed 85 medal events. The Olympic historian and author, Bill Mallon, whose studies have shed light on the topic, suggested the number 95 events satisfying all four retrospective selection criteria and now should be considered as Olympic events.
In July 2021, the IOC upgraded its complete online database of all Olympic results explicitly to incorporate the data of the Olympic historians’ website, Olympedia.org, thus accepting Mallon’s recommendation for events of the 1900 Olympic Games. Accordingly, the IOC webpage for the 1900 Summer Olympics now shows 95 medal events, 26 participating countries and 1226 athletes.
Accordingly, out of the total 29 editions of the Summer Olympics held, the United States of America (USA) have participated in 28, as per the official data provided by the IOC. The USA accounts for a very rich haul of 2629 medals– 1061 Gold Medals, 830 Silver Medals and 738 Bronze medals.
The Soviet Union comes second with 1010 medals from just 9 Games – 395 Gold, 319 Silver and 296 Bronze medals. In the third place is the Great Britain with 918 medals from 29 Games – 285 Gold, 319 Silver and 314 Bronze medals. The British are followed by China with 634 medals from 11 Games, France with 751 from 29 Games, Italy with 618 from 28 Games, Germany with 655 from 17 Games, Hungary with 511 from 27 Games, Japan with 497 from 23 Games and Australia with 547 medals from 27 Games.
Medal Leader Countries
Besides, the USA has dominated the Summer Olympic scene becoming the medal leader among all participating countries on 18 occasions out of their 28 Summer Olympic Games. The Soviet Union from just 9 appearances have led the medal tables on 6 occasions. Then, France, the Great Britain, Germany, China and the Unified Team have emerged medal leaders one time each in the total of 29 Games staged.
Although the Games of 1916, 1940, and 1944 were cancelled, the Roman numerals for those Games were still applied because the official titles of the Summer Games count the Olympiads, not the Games themselves, per the Olympic Charter. However, it should be noted that this contrasts with the Winter Olympics, which ignore the cancelled Winter Games of 1940 and 1944 in their numeric count.
Olympic Sports at Paris 2024
There has been a total of 42 sports, spanning 55 disciplines, included in the Olympic programme at one point or another in the history of the Games. The Paris 2024 edition will include 28 Olympic sports and 4 additional sports.
The Olympic sports are archery, athletics, badminton, basketball, basketball 3×3, boxing, canoe slalom, canoe sprint, road cycling, cycling track, mountain biking, BMX freestyle, BMX racing, equestrian, fencing, football, golf, artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, trampoline, handball, hockey, judo, modern pentathlon, rowing, rugby, sailing, shooting, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, triathlon, volleyball, beach volleyball, diving, marathon swimming, artistic swimming, swimming, water polo, weightlifting and wrestling.
Qualification Rules
Qualification rules for each of the Olympic sports are set by the International Federation (IF) that governs that sport’s international competition. For individual sports, competitors typically qualify by attaining a certain place in a major international event or on the IF’s ranking list.
There is a general rule that a maximum of three individual athletes may represent each nation per competition. The NOCs may enter a limited number of qualified competitors in each event, and the NOC decides which qualified competitors to select as representatives in each event if more have attained the benchmark than can be entered.
Nations most often qualify teams for team sports through continental qualifying tournaments, in which each continental association is given a certain number of spots in the Olympic tournament. Each nation may be represented by no more than one team per competition; a team consists of just two people in some sports.
4 New Sports at Paris 2024
Longtime fans of the Summer Olympic Games will be rewarded with four brand-new events in Paris this year, rounding out the Olympic Games with even more opportunities for world-class athletes to compete at the highest level on an international stage. The International Olympic Committee specifically chose these sports as a nod to youth culture and because they reward creativity through athletic performance. And luckily for viewers, they also happen to be four sports that are absolutely breathtaking to watch.
Breaking: Breaking is officially part of the 2024 Olympics. You may recognize the sport by its more common name, break-dancing. Heavily influenced by hip-hop culture, this form of dance promises to shine a spotlight on some of the most talented performers around the world. In 2024, men and women will compete at the highest level.
Slated to take place on August 9-10, the event will take place in the famed Place de la Concorde, an urban park also home to other high-intensity urban-inspired events. Originally debuting at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires in 2018, breaking is ready for a worldwide audience.
Sport Climbing: The readers know it as indoor rock climbing. The best athletes in the sport climbing world will compete in this wholly unique event in 2024. The Olympic sport climbing is broken down into three distinct formats: Boulder, speed, and lead, with each format requiring a different mastery of climbing and increasingly challenging mental prowess. It is strongly felt that after the 2024 Olympics, countless people will be so impressed by this sport that they’ll wonder what took the IOC so long to make it an official Olympic sport.
Medals will be up for grabs from August 7-10 for male and female athletes, with the competition set to occur in the Le Bourget Climbing Venue, a state-of-the-art facility that can hold nearly 6,000 attendees. Surely, a whole new generation of Olympic athletes are looking forward to putting their respective sport on the map in 2024.
Skateboarding: After debuting in the pandemic-delayed 2020 Olympic Games, skateboarding makes a proper debut in the 2024 Games in what promises to be a showcase for some of the best athletes in the world. There will be two distinct events – a park competition and a street competition, which will see skateboarders compete in a traditional skate bowl environment and an X-Games-style street course, respectively.
We could safely expect the unexpected when it comes to Olympic skateboarding. Like the other new sports, men and women will compete in the Olympic skateboarding event, scheduled in the aforementioned Place de la Concorde urban park, across two sessions in July and August 2024.
Surfing: Like skateboarding, surfing made an appearance at the 2020 Olympics and is now making its rightful debut in 2024. Shortboards will be the board of choice as athletes will compete off the coast of Tahiti while being judged on tricks, speed, and overall flow. If you ask us, there’s no sport we’re more excited about this year – and we’re sure we’re not alone in that sentiment.
Surfing fans have much to look forward to July 27-30, because the best in the world will be competing on the shores of Teahupo’o – waves revered as the greatest in Tahiti, an island in French Polynesia. There are no man-made waves that are worthy of the world’s best surfers, so it’s appropriate that the male and female competitors will be competing in hallowed waters.
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