The Paris Olympics starts this week with New Zealand sending a team of 195 athletes as they try to improve on the 20 medals won in 2021.
Here are 14 key facts about the Olympics.
The Paris Olympics will run from Saturday, July 27, to Monday, August 12 NZT, but the first action begins on July 25 with archery, football, handball and rugby sevens all starting early.
The opening ceremony starts from 5.30am, July 27, NZT.
The first modern Olympics was held in Athens, Greece, in 1896.
The Olympic torch is a modern invention inspired by practices from ancient Greece. The torch was first used at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. It starts from being lit in Athens and travels around the world before arriving at the opening ceremony. According to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), it heralds the start of the Olympic Games and transmits a message of peace and friendship along its route.
The Olympics symbol consists of five interlaced rings of equal dimensions that are, from left to right, blue, yellow, black, green and red. According to the IOC they “express the activity of the Olympic Movement and represents the union of the five continents and the meeting of athletes from throughout the world at the Olympic Games”.
A common misconception is that each of the colours corresponds to a continent. Pierre de Coubertin created the rings in 1913, and used the five colours with the white background to represent the colours of the flags of all nations at that time.
Paris will feature 329 events in 33 sports, including the 28 “core” Olympic sports contested in 2016 and 2020. There will also be four optional sports that were proposed by the Paris Organising Committee: breaking will make its Olympic debut as an optional sport, while skateboarding, sport climbing, and surfing will return from 2020.
The sports in alphabetical order: Aquatics (artistic swimming, diving, marathon swimming, swimming, water polo), archery, athletics, badminton, basketball, 3×3 basketball, boxing, breaking, canoeing (slalom and sprint), cycling (BMX freestyle, BMX racing, mountain biking, road, track), equestrian (dressage, eventing, jumping), fencing, field hockey, football, golf, gymnastics (artistic, rhythmic, trampoline), handball, judo, modern pentathlon, rowing, rugby sevens, sailing, shooting, skateboarding, sport climbing, surfing, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, triathlon, volleyball, beach volleyball, weightlifting, wrestling (freestyle, Greco-Roman)
New Zealand Olympic Committee has finalised its full team and has named athletes in the following sports:
Artistic swimming, athletics, canoeing, cycling, diving, equestrian, field hockey, football, golf, gymnastics, judo, rowing, rugby sevens, sailing, shooting, sport climbing, surfing, swimming, tennis, triathlon, weightlifting and wrestling
The Herald has a full schedule of Kiwis in action in Paris.
No flag, anthem, colours or any other identifications whatsoever of Russia or Belarus will be displayed at the Paris Olympics, according to the IOC. Individual Neutral Athletes (AINs), athletes with a Russian or Belarusian passport, can compete under strict conditions.
Teams of athletes with a Russian or Belarusian passport will not be considered, and athletes who actively support the war will not be eligible.
Look out Minions! The Paris Olympics mascots are the Phryges — red characters based on the famous Phrygian cap, a symbol of freedom.
The logo for Paris 2024 combines three symbols — the gold medal, the flame and Marianne, the personification of the French Republic.
“Marianne is the personification of the bold spirit of creativity that inspires our Games,” the official site says. “Marianne, symbol of the French Republic, represents the same values we find in sport, the Olympics and the Paralympics — humanism, fraternity, generosity and sharing. Marianne is a familiar face in French culture that is omnipresent in day-to-day life, appearing on stamps and outside every town hall for example. She reflects our desire to organise the Games for the people, in close collaboration with the people.”
Breaking (breakdancing) is the only sport appearing at the Olympics for the first time. There will be two events, one each for men and women. There will be 16 “b-boys” and “b-girls” competing.
An Olympic medal inlaid with a piece of the Eiffel Tower. How’s that for a monumental prize? Games organisers revealed their revolutionary design in February.
A hexagonal, polished chunk of iron taken from the iconic landmark is being embedded in each gold, silver and bronze medal that will be hung around athletes’ necks at the Paris Games and Paralympics that follow.
The Paris Mint is manufacturing 5084 medals — about 2600 for the Olympics and 2400 for the Paralympics. That is probably more than will be required. Some will be stored in case medals need to be reassigned after the Games — this can happen when medal winners are subsequently stripped of the prizes for doping. Some go to museums. Any other spares could be destroyed.
The gold medals weigh 529g and are not pure gold. They are made of silver and plated with 6g of gold.
The silvers weigh 525g.
The bronzes weigh 455g and are a copper, tin and zinc alloy.
The medals are 85mm across and 9.2mm thick.
They’ll come in a dark-blue box from Chaumet and a certificate from the Eiffel Tower Operating Co that the iron pieces came from the monument. Paris organisers didn’t give a monetary value for the medals.
The 2028 Olympics will be hosted by Los Angeles. Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and SoFi Stadium will be the main stadiums as LA plays host for the second time following the 1984 Games.
Cycling is the biggest winner while some teams sports have taken a hit.