The 2024 Summer Olympics are only a few months away, and Team United States of America is already gearing up for a competitive summer. This year’s games will be held in Paris, France, starting on July 26th and going all the way to August 11th.
Paris is preparing for a whopping 32 sports to be played, and bringing in over ten thousand athletes. 700 of these trainees will be representing team USA. The Olympic Trials are to see who will get a chance to be a part of this highly medaled team.
Shooting and Sailing are among the few of whose trials have officially taken place in early January. Starting up in just a few days, the top three men and women marathon runners will compete in Florida to see who will get their chance for the Olympics. Surfing, which was added to the Olympic programme in 2020, will hold their trials in late February. Next up in March, will be trials for table tennis, followed by rowing in April. June is absolutely packed full with trials for sports including beach volleyball, swim and dive, track and field, and gymnastics. Track and Field trials will take place in Eugene, Oregon, while Indianapolis gets the honor of hosting the swimming trials, and lastly, Minneapolis will get to host the grand event of the gymnastics Olympic trials.
Katie Ledecky will be a familiar face this year, as well as someone to look out for in the swimming trials. Ledecky has competed in three olympics in the past, as well as numerous world championships. With her seven gold medals, and numerous world medals, she has surpassed Michael Phelps, the well known and former Olympic medalist. Ledecky will not compete in the upcoming world championships in Doha in a few weeks, as she continues to prepare for Paris.
Track and field is a top watched game at the Olympics, as every year times are constantly being beaten and out worked. The top three in each track and field event trials, will also compete. Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, is another to look out for during the 400 meter hurdles as well as the 400 meter race, which will be a new event for Sydney. Gymnastics has a possibility of three returning Olympic All Around Gold Medalists, which has never been thought of as a possibility before. Suni Lee, Simone Biles, and Gabby Douglas, will all be seen at the trials this year, and will be extremely tough to beat for a spot on the five rostered team. One other gymnast to look out for is Shilese Jones, who has won the silver and bronze medals in the all around at the two most recent world championships, so the gymnastics team is looking ever so hard to make.
Much planning has gone into this year’s summer Olympics, as we have seen from our host country. France hasn’t hosted since the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, also looking backwards to 1924 which was the last time that Paris hosted the summer Olympics. They have put an immense amount of effort into making this a year to remember for the estimated fifteen million fans and visitors.
“France knows how to organize these big events… I’m putting an enormous amount of resources and energy into ensuring we have the safest Olympic Games ever,” French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said, according to the AFP YouTube News Agency.
The Opening Ceremony for the Olympics has been one of the most watched events in history, this year for the first time ever it will take place on the Seine River, instead of at a stadium. Cleaning out the previously polluted river has been a major undertaking for Paris. Along with this, they have built three major facilities including media, aquatics, and athletes village buildings. Between preparing and hiring chefs, nutritionists, security, and many more for the events, have cost the city of France nearly eight billion dollars.
As for the venues of all the competitions, a near total completion in early February is a sign of a massive success for the organizing committee, as it shows that they are truly on pace for the games. Be on the lookout for some incredible sites to host such as: Archery being held at Les Invalides, Equestrian being held at the Chateau Des Versailles, and many more.
Exciting times are approaching as the world looks forward to the 2024 Summer Olympics. As France prepares its cities for a memorable summer. Others do the same by trialing and taking care of these super athletes for them to bring home the gold for their home country.
Lastly, France is not the only country feeling the Olympic fever, perhaps that might go to the United States as it was recently announced by the IOC (International Olympic Committee) that the United States would be awarded a gold medal from Beijing 2022. Those games, which were marked by the doping case of star Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva, who was found to have been using a heart medication which allows you to breathe easier, and train longer and harder skills. After a near two year waiting period where the skaters from the United States and Japan were yet to receive their medals, the IOC announced on Tuesday that Valieva’s scores would be disqualified from the team event, which meant that the United States was elevated to gold, Japan to silver, and the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) would be pushed down to bronze.
This move has not fully pleased everyone as Skate Canada has filed an appeal to get the ROC fully disqualified, so Canada would then be awarded the bronze. It was a truly bizarre decision to still allow the ROC to medal, but they are appealing the decision, as well as they believe it was unfair that their gold was taken away. Despite their pleas, they will not get the gold back, and Valieva will be banned through December of 2025, yet her coaches who one would presume provided her the substance, have yet to receive any form of punishment. Valieva was 15 at the time, so still a minor.
Through all this mess, it will be undecided when the United States will get their gold, as well as Japan, and they had even hoped to do the medal ceremony, which was not held in Beijing, the upcoming world championships in Montreal, or even at the Paris Olympics. However, with the recent appeals from Team Canada and the ROC, it is unlikely that they will be able to sort it all out in order to get the medals by Paris. The more likely option will be at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan. A huge congrats to the following U.S. skaters: Madison Hubbell, Zachary Donohue, Karen Chen, Madison Chock, Evan Bates, Vincent Zhou, Brandon Frazier, Alexa Knireim, and Nathan Chen, who will add this gold to the gold he won in the men’s event, also at the games.
All in all, the United States will look to Paris this summer for another successful games, but for the hosts France, this Olympics means everything. After years of preparation and hard work, the Paris 2024 Olympics will no doubt be one for the record books. With just mere months to go, be on the lookout for the upcoming Olympic Trials to see who will represent the red, white, and blue!
