The Paris 2024 Olympic Games gets underway with what organisers claim will be the biggest ever Opening Ceremony on Friday.
Around 10,500 athletes from 206 nations will head to France to compete for gold medals and eternal glory, and many of those will come in events which even the most ardent sports fans do not yet know.
Let’s take a look at the new sports which will be appearing at the Olympics for the first time this summer, shall we?
The moon decided to play ball!
Four more nights until the #Paris2024 opening ceremony! pic.twitter.com/bIwllGc6Ag
— The Olympic Games (@Olympics) July 22, 2024
📰 Table Of Contents
Breaking
You might know it better as breakdancing, but this dance style will be included at the Olympics for the first time in Paris – the only completely new sport at the Games.
Breakdancing is said to have originated in the Bronx area of New York City in the 1970s and has evolved over the years to become a sport in its own right with a judging system and events held around the world.
Breaking was first introduced at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires and was chosen for Paris 2024 as a new sport, though it will not feature in Los Angeles in 2028.
16 men and 16 women – known as ‘B-Boys’ and ‘B-Girls’ – will face off in a round robin contest which will be followed by quarter-finals, semi-finals and finally medal clashes.
Each battle features a best-of-three one-on-one contest lasting around one minute. When one breaker finishes their routine their opponent takes over straight away in a battle format.
A panel of nine judges score the competitors on six criteria: creativity, personality, technique, variety, performativity and musicality.
The marks are weighted so performativity and creativity are the most significant while the other four categories account for the remaining 40%.
Dancers to not know which music they will have in advance meaning they must improvise their moves.
Americans Victor Montalvo and Jeffrey Louis are favourite for gold in the men’s event while their compatriots Sunny Choi and Logan Edra face competition from 17-year-old world champion Dominika Banevic of Lithuania in the women’s competition.
Next stop? PARIS!! 🇫🇷
With Paris in their sights, our breakers are ready to break boundaries and leave it all on the stage! 🤩
Qualified and ready to show the world what they’ve got, you won’t want to miss the debut of breaking at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
🔗Watch ‘Breaking… pic.twitter.com/4AmHR6UmiY
— The Olympic Games (@Olympics) July 12, 2024
Kayak Cross
This is part of the canoe slalom family and will be seen for the first time in Paris.
Four athletes race down a course featuring six downstream gates and two upstream gates – the first time competitors have been in direct competition with one another and not just the clock.
Back for a second go
Surfing – It’s more than 100 miles to the nearest beach from Paris, and that’s on the English Channel, so it was always likely to be tricky to incorporate surfing into the schedule for the second straight Games.
The solution is to hold the competition more than 9,000 miles away in Teahupo’o, on the island of Tahiti in French Polynesia.
Brazil’s Italo Ferreira took gold in Tokyo while American Carissa Moore claimed the women’s top-prize.
Whether you’re catching your first wave or perfecting your barrel ride, our guides will get you ready for surfing at the Olympics. 🌊🏄♂️ Test your knowledge here 👉 https://t.co/Rf74VlLT5B#Surfing #GetReadyForTheBest #Paris2024 #Olympics #ReadyParisGo #Allianz pic.twitter.com/1UrSckoO4R
— The Olympic Games (@Olympics) July 19, 2024
Sport Climbing – This is the second appearance of Sport Climbing at a Games, with a slight expansion from Tokyo 2020.
Alberto Gines Lopez of Spain and Slovenia’s Janja Garnbret took gold three summers ago, but this time there are four golds up for grabs and the number of participants has grown from 40 to 68.
Don’t worry, you still get the 15m sprint up a wall to try to win the Speed Climbing medal, but in addition you now get a combined event which is decided by points rather than time, and places additional emphasis on technique and strategy.
In Boulder climbers are presented with four walls and must reach the top of as many of them as possible within a time window, with points deducted for failure. In Lead athletes have six minutes to reach the highest point possible on a wall in only one attempt.
“I mean, you just can’t overstate the level of difficulty.”
Famed adventurer @AlexHonnold 🧗🏻 explains just how much #sportclimbing has leveled up in recent years as it approaches its second Games at @Paris2024.
🔗 Latest podcast out now: https://t.co/Hxg9ram7EV@ifsclimbing pic.twitter.com/CBijp05sBw
— The Olympic Games (@Olympics) July 18, 2024
3×3 Basketball – The quirky twist on the five-a-side format which has been a staple of the Games for 88 years is back for a second go.
Latvia won the men’s competition last time while the US took gold in the women’s competition. US college and NBA star Jimmer Fredette is set to star for the US as they try to complete the golden double.
Skateboarding – Another sport which gets another run-out having debuted in Tokyo.
The hosts made the most of home advantage by taking three of the four gold medals available, with Australia’s Keegan Palmer claiming the other.
There will once again be men’s and women’s street skating events, in addition to men’s and women’s park, with all events taking place at the iconic Place de la Concorde square in the heart of Paris.
Raise your ✋ if you’re excited to watch artistic swimming at #Paris2024!
Need more convincing? Team Spain’s Iris Tió shares her top 5 reasons not to miss the artistic swimming showcase at the Summer Olympic Games.@COE_es | @WorldAquatics | @Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/ogWzzKKdeO
— The Olympic Games (@Olympics) July 9, 2024
Other things to look out for
Artistic swimming – Men can now compete, for the first time in Olympic history. The event also now includes a team acrobatic routine.
Athletics – The 50km race walk is no more, instead there is a marathon race walk mixed relay. Repechage rounds have been added for all track races between 200m and 1500m ensuring all athletes get to compete at least twice. If they fail to progress from preliminary rounds they will have another chance in the repechage – known as the ‘lucky losers’ format.
Boxing – The 13 weight classes have been changed from 8-5 male to female to 7-6.
Sailing – Two kite events have been added to the regatta.
Shooting – The mixed skeet team event has replaced the mixed trap team event, with two clay pigeons launched towards one another as opposed to one moving away.
Volleyball – Instead of teams playing five pool matches in two groups, they will now play three matches in three groups of four.
Weighlifting – The number of weight classes has dropped from 14 to 10.
