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Competitions, Ceremonies Begin in Paris Olympics
July 25, 2024 The 2024 Olympics run July 26–August 11. The host city is Paris. Most events will take place in an around the French capital city, but some competitors will travel far (and, in some cases, very far) in order to compete. 
A total of 329 events in 32 sports will be on offer. One new sport is breakdancing, officially listed as breaking. The other sports are these:
Some cycling, equestrian, gold, and modern pentathlon events will take place in and around Versailles. Shooting events will take place in Châteauroux, 144 miles southeast of Paris. Some basketball and handball events will take place in Lille, which is 140 miles north of Paris. Some football and sailing events will be in Marseille, down on the Mediterranean coast; other football events will be in Bordeaux, Lyon, Nantes, Nice, and Saint-Étienne. And surfing events will take place in faraway Tahiti, in French Polynesia, a distant 9,765 miles away from Paris. It is the third time that Paris has played host to the Olympics. The first two were in 1900 and 1924. Also in that latter year was the debut of the Winter Olympics, in Chamonix, France. The country has also been host for two other Winter Olympics, 1968 in Grenoble and 1992 in Albertville. 
Mascots for the Games this year are the Phryges, a pair of characters who are a personification of the Phyrgian cap, a red hat that dates to ancient times and became a symbol of freedom during the French Revolution. The mascots are for both the Olympics and the Paralympics, and one of the Phryges noticeably sports an artificial leg. The name Phryge comes from the ancient land of Phrygia, a Greek kingdom that lay in what is now Turkey. Phrygia is home to two well-known stories from history and myth, that of Midas, the king who turned to gold everything he touch, and of Gordias, the king whose Gordain Knot proved an unsolvable puzzle for all but Alexander the Great. 
Organizers lit the Olympic torch in Olympia on April 16. The Torch traveled across Greece, ending up in Athens 10 days later. Then, organizers transported to the Torch to France, for the cross-country Relay, which included a brief bit in nearby Monaco and stops overseas, in French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Papeete, and Saint-Denis. Opening Ceremonies are on the evening of July 26 and will be the first to take place outside an arena. Closing ceremonies are on August 11, at the same venue. Competition began in a handful of sports before the official opening of the games, as competitors in archery, football, handball, and rugby sevens faced off on July 24 and 25. In all 206, national committees have sent delegations of athletes to the Paris Olympics. That includes and the Individual Neutral Athletes, who come from Belarus and Russia (both countries' delegations being banned by the International Olympic Committee after their invasion of Ukraine), and the Refugee Olympic Team, made up of three dozen displaced athletes from around the world. |
Social Studies for Kids |
Social Studies for Kids
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David White