Incredible Weekend Set for Paris

Last week, on the same day they conducted the World Cup draw, the competition schedule for the 2024 Olympics was unveiled.  They didn't announce the specific event-by-event schedule, although they indicated that may come this summer as part of the 2-years-to-go celebrations.  But what they did release, the days of competition in each sport, gave us enough of an idea about what's in store for us in Paris.

They, of course, made news when they announced that the Opening Ceremony won't be held in a stadium.  Instead, it'll be a Parade of Nations down the Seine ending at the Eiffel Tower, which sounds like it'll be amazing!  That means the Stade de France will be free, which is the first significant thing I realized about the event schedule.

In addition to track & field, the Stade de France will be the venue for rugby.  And, since track & field always begins on the Friday a week after the Opening Ceremony, that means the rugby competition has to be done before then.  So, rugby will be one of the sports that starts early.  Two days before the Opening Ceremony in fact.  And soccer will have its traditional early start.  But the sport that will start first?  Handball!  (France, by the way, is the defending gold medalist in both men's and women's handball.)

There will even be a session of handball on the morning of the Opening Ceremony, which is still scheduled early enough for the athletes to get to Paris for the ceremony.  That's something that was specifically mentioned when announcing the schedule.  They want the athletes to have the opportunity to go to at least one of the ceremonies if they want (unlike in Tokyo, where some athletes weren't allowed to go to either because of the COVID restrictions).

With that in mind, it's not a surprise that surfing is scheduled for the first four days of the Olympics.  Now, I've made it clear how ridiculous I think it is that surfing is being held in French Polynesia...which is in the South Pacific...which is nowhere near France!  Anyway, that obviously makes it impossible for the surfers to attend the Opening Ceremony, but gives them plenty of time to get to Paris, enjoy the actual Olympic experience and participate in the Closing Ceremony if they so choose.

"Breaking" won't make its Olympic debut until the final weekend, and, taking a page from Tokyo's book, both marathons will also be at the end.  I wouldn't be surprised if that's something that will become permanent moving forward.  (It actually does make a lot of sense since there isn't a morning session of track & field on that last Saturday.)

Another schedule change regarding track & field is particularly intriguing, though.  Track & field and swimming are the two marquee sports of the Summer Olympics, and they always overlap on the middle weekend when swimming is ending and track & field is starting.  In Paris, gymnastics will also be included on both the middle Saturday & Sunday, creating a crazy weekend of the three biggest-ticket Olympic sports in action at the same time!

It's that middle Sunday where we see the real change.  Swimming usually ends on Saturday night, but they added a ninth day to the schedule, presumably to spread out the distance events a little better (in Tokyo, Katie Ledecky had to swim finals of both the 200 freestyle and 1500 freestyle in the same session).  It also gives them a chance to make some of the sessions shorter.  They won't have to cram seven events into the first day just so they can have four finals per night!

The biggest change is in gymnastics, though.  In the past, the gymnastics schedule has been pretty standard.  Two nights of qualifying, followed by the team finals and individual all-arounds, then two days off (for the trampoline competitions) before starting the event finals on Sunday.  In Paris, though, they're having both trampoline competitions on the same day and starting the event finals one day earlier, which means there'll be gymnastics competition on both Saturday and Sunday.

Presumably one of the reasons for that is because they're also using the gymnastics venue for the medal round of basketball, and the basketball quarterfinals start the day after gymnastics ends.  But I'm sure there was also some talk with the worldwide TV partners about this schedule, and there were likely very few complaints.  (This is actually a case where the time difference to Europe and the fact that all of NBC's primetime coverage will be recorded works in their favor...that'll be a jam-packed show, and they'll be able to time it out ahead of time.)

Whether the reasons were logistical or for TV purposes (or, most likely, both), that has the makings of an epic Olympic weekend!  It'll be the first time since 1988 that all three sports are contested on both days of the middle weekend, and, as far as researchers were able to tell, there's never before been finals in all three sports on both days.  So, that alone makes it historic, even before you consider that there will likely be swimmers and gymnasts going for multiple gold medals at that point.

Another notable change is in diving.  There's a day in between each of the synchro events, which isn't usual, then two full days off before the start of the individual competition, which is.  (I've also been saying they really need to add the diving team event, which could squeeze perfectly in that gap.)  I'm curious to see what the schedule for the individual events will look like, though.  Because the four events will take place over a shorter six-day period...and there will be finals on three consecutive nights.

On the last day of the Games, meanwhile, are all of the usual events...the men's marathon; finals in basketball, volleyball and water polo; wrestling; track cycling.  But boxing, which usually has its last few finals on the final day, will already be done.  There will, however, be weightlifting (which is typically held much earlier in the Olympics) and one of the modern pentathlons, which is definitely an interesting change.

Of course, the craziest thing about all this is that the Paris Olympics are already close enough to have the schedule out.  We just had two Olympics in six months, and here we are talking about another one.  But those two years are gonna go by quick.  And, before we know it, that ridiculously incredible weekend planned for August 3-4, 2024 will be here!