Paris Olympics 2024: Your ultimate guide

When the Paris Olympics 2024 start and end, torch relay information, sports, ticket news and details of the Olympic medals

The 2024 Olympics got under way in Paris, France on Wednesday. It is the third time the French capital has hosted the summer Games, the first being in 1900 and the second in 1924, exactly 100 years ago.
For the first time, this year’s Paris Olympics will have an equal number of male and female athletes, and the same number of events for all. 
You can take a look at the full day-by-day schedule here. Telegraph Sport has also published a guide to the British athletes competing at this summer’s Games, plus Team GB’s kit for Paris.
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Do you plan to attend the Olympics in Paris this summer? Let us know what you are most excited about in the comments section below.
The 33rd Summer Olympic Games will run from Wednesday July 24, until Sunday, August 11 in Paris. 
The Paris Olympics will end on August 11, with the traditional closing ceremony. There will also be 13 gold medals up for grabs on the final day.
As per tradition, the Paris Olympics opening ceremony will take place on Friday, July 26. Several events actually start before the opening ceremony: archery, football, rugby sevens and handball.
There are several ways of watching the Olympics. Eurosport is the main European rights holder for broadcasting the Olympics this year although the BBC will still be covering the big moments across its channels. You can stream the Olympics online on the Eurosport player, BBC iPlayer app and on the BBC website. Alternatively Telegraph Sport will be running live blogs on all the key sporting events.
Team GB have announced a 327-strong travelling party of athletes for Paris 2024, the ninth-largest team for the Games. For the second successive Olympics, women (174) will outnumber men (153) on the British team. 
The full list of those Team GB selected athletes can be found here.
The United States are expected to top the Olympics medal table again, with Great Britain targeting a record number of podiums
Read more details on Team GB’s predicted medal performance in Paris.
Russian (and Belarusian) athlete cannot compete under their national flag or for their national Olympic committee. Instead any athletes from the two countries must compete as an individual neutral athlete, and only provided they meet eligibility criteria imposed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Team GB have played it safe with their Adidas kits for Paris. After a backlash over the alternative ‘Union Jack’ merchandise, British athletes will strike a much more conservative tone at the Games, sticking with the traditional colours of red, white and blue. Read more here.
The torch for the Paris 2024 Olympics was lit in ancient Olympia, in a traditional ceremony to mark the final stretch of the countdown to the summer Games.
🔥 The Olympic flame is lit!✨ Every visit to Olympia, Greece, is special and this is how the #Paris2024 Flame-Lighting ceremony unfolded.#Paris2024 @Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/VIZqUjTNmH
The flame was officially handed over to Paris Games organisers in Athens’s Panathenaic stadium, site of the first modern Games in 1896, on April 26 after an 11-day relay across Greece. It departed the next day for France on board a three-masted ship, the ‘Belem’.
The French torch relay lasts 68 days and will end in Paris with the lighting of the Olympic flame on July 26, signifying the start of the Olympics.
There will be 32 different sports contested at the Paris Olympics. This includes 28 mandatory ‘core’ sports plus a maximum of six optional sports, decided by the hosts. 
Paris opted for breakdancing (breaking), which will be making its Olympic debut, along with skateboarding, sporting climbing and surfing. The latter three made their debuts at Tokyo 2020.
More than 10,000 athletes from 206 nations are expected to take part in 329 events, across 45 sports disciplines. 
Bercy Arena – Artistic gymnastics and trampoline, basketballChamp de Mars – Judo, wrestlingEiffel Tower Stadium – Beach volleyballGrand Palais  – Fencing, taekwondoHotel de Ville – Athletics (marathon)Invalides – Archery, athletics, cycling roadLa Concorde – 3×3 basketball, breaking, BMX freestyle, skateboardingParc des Princes – FootballPont Alexandre III – Road cycling, marathon swimming, triathlonPorte de la Chapelle Arena – Badminton, rhythmic gymnasticsStade Roland Garros – Boxing, tennisSouth Paris Arena – Handball, table tennis, volleyball, weightliftingTrocadero – Athletics, road cycling
Aquatics Centre – Artistic swimming, diving, water poloChateau de Versailles  – Equestrian, modern pentathlonElancourt Hill – Mountain bike cyclingLe Bourget Sport Climbing Venue – Shooting, sport climbingGolf National – GolfNorth Paris Arena – Boxing, modern pentathlonParis La Defense Arena – Swimming, water poloSaint-Quentin-en-Yvelines BMX Stadium – BMX racingSaint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome – Track cyclingStade de France – Opening and closing ceremonies, rugby and athleticsVaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium – Athletics, rugby sevensYves-du-Manoir – Hockey
Bordeaux Stadium – FootballChateauroux Shooting Centre – ShootingGeoffroy-Guichard Stadium, Saint-Etienne – FootballLa Beaujoire Stadium – FootballLyon Stadium – Football Marseille Marina – Sailing Marseille Stadium – FootballNice Stadium – FootballPierre Mauroy Stadium – Basketball, handballTeahupo’o, Tahiti – Surfing
There were a total of 10 million tickets made available for the Games, with British supporters likely to be the largest fanbase outside the home nation.
“Team GB is obviously coming in force with great expectation,” said Etienne Thobois, the chief executive of the Paris 2024 organisers. “We are more than happy to see the Brits coming to cheer for the athletes of the world. We are looking forward to welcoming you guys in Paris. It’s very close – less than three hours away [by Eurostar] and London 2012 is still in the memories of everyone. It was an inspiring Games for us too. Britain is the first market by far outside of France.”
Up to 600,000 tickets remain unsold five days from Paris’s opening ceremony, including for the 100m finals and Josh Kerr’s attempt to win 1,500m gold.
There are also still 4,000 available for Friday’s curtain-raiser, although the only seats remaining are in the most expensive categories between £758 and £2,300.
Organisers confirmed at a Paris press conference that more than 20 sports still have seats spare, partly due to late releases of tickets and contingency planning.
Tickets for the most popular Olympic events, including swimming and gymnastics, are sold out with only availability through special ‘hospitality packages’. 
For ticket information visit the official website.
This summer’s Olympics will mark 100 years since the last Games were hosted in Paris. To celebrate the return of the Games to France, each Olympic medal is embellished with an original iron piece of the Eiffel Tower. They were cut from girders and other bits that were swapped out of the Eiffel Tower during renovations, and then prepared for the medals by being stripped of paint, polished and then varnished. 
The iron pieces’ hexagonal form represents the country, with the French sometimes referring to their country as ‘L’Hexagone’ due to its geographical shape.
The Eiffel Tower has also inspired the unique design of the ribbons for the medals, which each adorned with the lattice work of the famous landmark.
Paris jewellery house Chaumet designed the medals. Around the iron pieces of the Eiffel Tower are disks of gold, silver or bronze. The shine of the medals comes from the crinkled effect on the disks. Games organisers say the metal is recycled, not newly minted.
Meanwhile, those who are lucky enough to win a gold medal in athletics will also receive $50,000 (£39,380) from World Athletics, the first sport to offer prize money for an Olympic title.