Back in April, the initial Paris 2024 competition schedule was released, and fans got understandably excited by the middle weekend, which will see medal rounds of track & field, swimming and gymnastics on both Saturday and Sunday form the first time. Now the complete, event-by-event schedule is out, having been released the other day as part of Paris' two-years-to-go celebration. And the detailed schedule gives fans even more reason to get excited.
One of the reasons the swimming program was expanded from eight days to nine was to make it easier on the swimmers who do multiple events. Last year in Tokyo, for example, the finals for the women's 200 freestyle and 1500 freestyle were both in the same session. Katie Ledecky swam both events, winning gold in the 1500, but dropped the 200 from her program at this year's World Championships because of a similarly-tight schedule.
In Paris, Ledecky will be able to swim both events if she chooses. In fact, she'll be able to enter each of her four individual events (200, 400, 800, 1500 freestyle) and the 4x200 freestyle relay without having to swim more than once in any single session. And she'll only have to swim twice in a day twice (on the first two days). Instead, she'll have a race every day except for the final day.
Assuming she swims the 200 free in Paris, Ledecky's schedule would look like this:
- Day 1: 400 Free Semi (AM), 400 Free Final (PM)
- Day 2: 200 Free Prelim (AM), 200 Free Semi (PM)
- Day 3: 200 Free Final (PM)
- Day 4: 1500 Free Prelim (AM)
- Day 5: 1500 Free Final (PM)
- Day 6: 4x200 Free Relay Final (PM)
- Day 7: 800 Free Prelim (AM)
- Day 8: 800 Free Final (PM)
There's more than just Ledecky and McLaughlin's chances to double that I noticed on the Paris schedule, though. One of them involves track & field. The men's marathon, which is traditionally held on the final day of the Olympics, won't be the last track & field event. Instead, for the first time since 1984, it'll be the women's marathon. The men's marathon is on Saturday. (Both start at 8 am local time, which is 2 am ET)!
Speaking of 2 am Eastern, since the Games will finally be leaving Asia, there won't be a crazy amount of overnight events. They also won't have to schedule finals in the morning for U.S. TV. There will obviously be some daytime finals, but the marquee sports of track & field, swimming and gymnastics will go back to their normal schedule of prelims in the morning/afternoon, finals at night.
Of course, the one "problem" with an Olympics in Europe is that NBC won't be able to show any live event coverage in prime time. But, with Paris only 6 hours ahead of New York, as opposed to the 12 hours in Beijing and 13 hours in Tokyo, the morning and daytime coverage can be all live. And the events they do show in prime time will only be a few hours old instead of a half-day later.
The Paris Games will be the first Olympics that are completely gender-balanced, with an equal number of men's and women's events. And they made it a point to feature the women just as prominently as the men. The men's soccer final traditionally takes place on the final Saturday. In Paris, it'll be on Friday night. The women's final is Saturday. Likewise, the men's basketball gold medal game won't be the last event of the Games. The women's basketball gold medal game will be.
They did save a couple men's team finals for the final day, as well, but those were planned strategically, too. Men's handball, where France is the defending champion, is one of them. Meanwhile, they haven't announced whether the men's or women's volleyball final will be first. But...France won the gold in men's volleyball in Tokyo. So, if I had to guess, I'd say the men will likely be on the final day.
While I've been talking about the end of the Paris Olympics, let's take a look at the beginning. In Tokyo, the first event to get started was softball, which won't be on the program in Paris. In Paris, it'll be rugby. The men's tournament begins two days before the Opening Ceremony and will hand out the medals on Day 1. There will also be finals in swimming, synchronized diving and skateboarding on Day 1, with the first medals of the Olympics being awarded in shooting.
Because of the Olympics, the 2024 Tour de France won't end on the Champs Elysees. They're talking about having the final stage be in Nice. I bring this up because the men's and women's road races won't be held on the opening weekend as usual. There'll still be road cycling. They've just reversed the order and will have the time trials first. I wonder if this is to give the riders a bit of a break after the three-week race by having the longer event second.
As for the new event, breaking, we won't see its Olympic debut until the end of the Games. The women's ("B-girls") final is on Day 14 and the men's ("B-boys") final is on Day 15. And surfing, which will ridiculously be held in Tahiti, will take place over the first four days so that the athletes can get to Paris for the Closing Ceremony.
Details about the Closing Ceremony are still hush-hush. Will it be inside the Stade de France (track & field competition will have ended by then)? Or will it be outside in the city center like the innovative Opening Ceremony that will be out in the open and end in front of the Eiffel Tower? That plan appears to be a full-go. It promises to be a spectacular opening for an Olympics that will take place at so many spectacular sites in one of the most beautiful cities on the planet!
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