Official Paris 2024 Olympics emblem. All rights reserved.
Olympians assemble! Once again it is time for the biggest event in sports, the Summer Olympics.
The Olympics are a series of sporting events, pitting competitive athletes against one another. The original Olympics were held in Greece more than 2000 years ago, and also served as a religious ceremony in honor of the Greek gods. The modern Olympics were first hosted in Athens in 1896, and have been a fairly regular event every four years, pending the World Wars. More recently have been the addition of Winter Olympic games, also every four years, but hosted two years apart; upcoming Winter games are in 2026.
Hosting the Olympic games is considered a great honor, albeit a very expensive one, as there must be enough facilities, venues, and regional infrastructure to support the tens of thousands of athletes and fans who visit the hosting city. While the 2024 games are in Paris, more recent games have been hosted in Atlanta (1996), Sydney (2000), Athens (2004), Beijing (2008), London (2012), Rio de Janeiro (2016), and Tokyo (2020, postponed to 2021 due to Covid).
2024 will mark the third time Paris hosts the Olympics.
This year, there will be 51 different sports covered by the Olympic games, further split into different specific events, and usually split between genders, though in more recent times men and women have been allowed to compete against one another in certain events.
Click Here For a List of 2024 Sports, opens a new window
The four newest sports added to the ever-changing list: breaking, surfing, skateboarding, and sport climbing.
Viewers of course are usually most interested in which athletes will be playing in the Olympics. The exact rules vary from country to country, but the usual qualifiers require the athletes to either live in or be born in their respective representative country. As such, many of the most popular athletes in certain sports, such as the NBA, will often compete for another country. For instance, while Brandon Ingram of the Pelicans will play for Team USA, Watanabe Yuta of the Phoenix Suns will be playing for Japan, and Franz Wagner of the Orlando Magic will be playing for Germany.
Olympic Qualifying is another serious endeavor for the years that precede the upcoming games. Many events will be hosting their qualifiers as late as possible, to ensure they have the best athletes possible for their teams. For instance, the US Men's Olympic Swim Team will be determined by trials held June 15 - 23 in Indianapolis.
Click Here for a List of Qualifying US Athletes, opens a new window
The opening of the games, by tradition, will begin in the host city after the Olympic Torch has been run throughout the host country. The torch is historically first lit in Olympia, Greece, before being transported to the host country. The torch arrived in Marseilles, France on May 8th, and began a relay across the country, culminating in the Opening Ceremony on July 26th.
Interested in watching the Olympics? In the United States, the Olympics has been officially available on NBC and affiliate channels, including Golf!, USA Network, and others. You can also stream the Olympics via Peacock, NBC's streaming platform. Furthermore, the Peacock and NBC apps are also available for download on most streaming, though you can probably count on being able to see some highlights via Youtube.
In the meantime, if you want to learn more about the Olympics, feel free to check out some of our offerings below:
Chronicle of the Olympics, 1896-1996
Looking for something else? As always, the St. Tammany Parish Library is happy to offer free usage of our online catalog, opens a new window for more information on this and other topics.
Happy reading!
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