For over 100 years the Olympic Games have defined sports and the world. From the first modern Summer Olympic Games in Athens back in 1986, to the wildly altered 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, the Olympics have brought the world together through times of sorrow and peace. This year the games are headed to Paris, France. This will be the sixth Olympic Games hosted by France and the third to be hosted by Paris. Paris previously hosted the Summer Olympics in 1900 and 1924. Paris was awarded the 2024 Olympics at the 131st IOC session in Lima, Peru on September 13th, 2017.

This summer’s Olympics will be the first “normal” Olympic games in six years. The 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics and 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics were severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This summer, over 10000 athletes from around the globe will compete in nearly 329 different events across 32 different sports. 

The July 26th opening ceremony will be one of the most memorable and historic Olympic opening ceremonies ever. The opening ceremony will be the first not held in an Olympic Stadium. Instead, the majority of the ceremony will be held outside in the Jardins du Trocadéro. The Parade of Nations will be held on the River Seine, with boats carrying each nation’s delegation of athletes down the river. The Parade of Nations will involve nearly 160 boats and barges to carry each delegation. Additionally, it is estimated that a whopping 25,000 security agents and 35,000 police officers will be deployed for the ceremony. All main airports in Paris will be closed and locked down on the 26th as a security precaution for the ceremony.

This summer’s Olympics will feature the debut of breakdancing, which is now an Olympic sport. The surfing events will be held thousands of miles away in French Polynesia. Russia and Belarus are banned from participating in the Olympics due to the ongoing war in Ukraine. Athletes from Russia and Belarus will compete individually as “Individual Neutral Athletes” and will be barred from carrying flags from the countries they represent. North Korea will be making a return to the Olympics after having chosen to skip the 2020 games in response to the pandemic, and after being banned from participating in the 2022 games. The closing ceremony will be held at Stade De France, the Olympic Stadium for the 2024 Olympics.

As usual, NBC will carry television coverage of the games in the United States, through NBC, NBC Sports, Peacock, and other Comcast platforms.

 So if you want to watch the world come together again, tune in this Summer on NBC to watch the 2024 Summer Olympic Games. The games will run from July 26th to August 11th.