It’s a big summer for France as the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad begins this week in Paris, metropolitan France, and even Tahiti. These summer games were awarded to France nearly 7 years ago beating out Los Angeles. Fear not Americans, the 2028 Summer Olympics are coming to L.A. very soon. This will be the 3rd time Paris has hosted the Olympics (1900 & 1924 previously) joining London (1908, 1948, and 2012) as the only other city to have that triple honor.

Dates

Wednesday, July 24th through Sunday, August 11th

While the opening ceremony won’t be held until Friday, the Paris Olympics will see competitions in archery, soccer, handball, and rugby sevens unofficially kick things off a couple days earlier.

Opening Ceremony

Friday, July 26th

This will be the first summer Olympics where the opening ceremony is not held inside a stadium. Instead, the fancy French will be hosting an outdoor event that will see athletes and national delegations float along on boats down the Seine River until they reach the Trocadéro gardens on the patch of land opposite the Eiffel Tower.

The opening ceremony route.

Fans and spectators are allowed to line the Seine but following security concerns the Olympic Committee will be limiting this free ticketing area to 300,000 people after previously shooting for a million or more.

There will be 160 boats and barges used during the ceremony with numerous television and media cameras onboard to film the event.

Coverage

NBC won’t give up the Olympics any time soon. The network is currently in the midst of a $7.65 billion deal with the IOC to broadcast the Olympics through 2032–that’s 5 more to go including this summer if my math is correct.

They will ‘break the Olympic record’ for broadcast hours aired on NBC this summer, and remember central Europe is 6 hours ahead so prepare yourself for live events during the afternoon for premier medal events in the United States time zones.

NBC will also be utilizing coverage capabilites on USA Network, E!, CNBC, Golf Channel, and Universo.

Additionally, Peacock will air all 329 medal events in addition to full-event replays and all of the original NBC broadcasts. NBC will also be broadcasting a “Gold Zone” on Peacock that will run every day from 7 AM ET to 5 PM ET that will mimic the popular NFL “Red Zone” channel with live look-ins at the exciting moments of each day’s action.

Medals

What’s one way to make Olympic medals just a little more extra? How about adding chunks of the freaking Eiffel Tower onto them? I thought this was a gag at first but it is 100% real. The Monnaie de Paris (France’s government office that makes their coins) will be minting the 5,084 gold, silver, and bronze medals for these Olympics and Paralympic Games.

Coolest medals to date?

The bits from the Eiffel Tower come from sections that were removed during 20th Century renovation projects. According to toureiffel.paris “It is called puddle iron, an almost pure form of iron with excess carbon removed through a process known as puddling, and was produced by the Pompey forges and blast furnaces in Lorraine. A 0.6 oz piece of puddle iron is set in the center of each medal, in its natural color and reshaped into a hexagon, a geometric form which represents France.”

Mascot

What Olympic games would be complete without a kid-friendly mascot? The recent Winter Olympics in Beijing featured a fluffy panda bear named “Bing” and last Summer Games featured an anime cartoon named “Miraitowa” from Tokyo.

This is a thing of things.

These reading pillow looking things are the official mascot of the Paris Olympics. They are supposed to be anthropomorphic versions of a French Phrygian cap. Sure, whatever! Notice how they are using the lighter blue of the French flag (yes, France has 2 shades of blue they have used in their flag, President Macron recently reverted back to the darker blue in 2020).

Notre Dame Links

Several Notre Dame athletes will be in Paris competing for medals. Lee Kiefer (foil), Magda Skarbonkiewicz (sabre), Nick Itkin (foil), and Gerek Meinhardt (foil) will all participate for the United States fencing squads on the men’s and women’s side. You may recall, Keifer and Meinhardt are married.

Notre Dame assistant fencing coach Marghertia Guzzi Vincenti (epee) is also headed to the Olympics.

Both Jewell Lloyd and Jackie Young will be in Paris on the women’s American hoops team.

USA has won 9 out of the last 10 and 7 straight gold medals in women’s basketball.

All-WNBA all-star Arike Ogunbowale did not make the United States women’s team but says she removed from name from consideration ‘months ago’ alluding to politics in the decision making process. She’s probably still smiling after dropping all 34 of her points in the 2nd half on Saturday night as the WNBA All-Stars beat Team USA.

Former Irish hoopers Natalie Achonwa and Cassandre Prosper will be in Paris representing their homeland of Canada.

Korbin Albert played 2 seasons for Notre Dame, has been playing midfield for PSG since January 2023, and was named the to the USWNT Olympic squad in late June.

Chris Guiliano is a rising senior at Notre Dame and has exploded onto the American national swimming scene becoming the first male since 1988 to qualify for the 50, 100, and 200 meter freestyle events after the U.S. Team Trials.

Molly Bruggeman will be on the women’s American coxless four rowing team making her first appearance in the Olympics.

Yared Nuguse finished 2nd in the 1500m final during the US Team Trials to secure his spot in France. The former All-American at Notre Dame is still just 25 years old and could be one of the more promising track and field stars for the United States.

Top Events to Watch

Climbing

The following was submitted by ND-Atl who is deep in the sport of climbing with his family:

Sport climbing returns to the Olympics after a wildly successful introduction in Tokyo. The event will be expanded in Paris to have two medal events: combined bouldering and lead climbing, and also in speed climbing. The combined event tests the athletes with a variety of boulder problems (a shorter wall with no rope protection) and a lead route (high overhanging wall with the climber protected by a rope). Whoever successfully completes the most climbing wins.

Slovenia’s Janja Garnbret is a heavy favorite in women’s combined bouldering and lead. Janja, the winningest competition climber in history and defending gold medalist, may be the heaviest favorite in the entire Olympics. Watching her climb is indeed a treat. Even to the unfamiliar it’s easy to see why she is the best. USA’s Brooke Rabatou and Natalie Grossman are among the favorites to make it on the podium in the non-Janja division.

The men’s side is more wide open, with Japan’s Soratu Anraku and Austria’s Jakob Schubert among the favorites. USA’s Colin Duffy and Jesse Gruper are legitimate medal hopefuls. Speed climbing gets its own event in Paris. Climbers are organized into a bracket after a seeding round and race head-to-head on a preset 15 meter course. Winner advances. One mistake drops you out of the competition. Speed and consistency are the key.

On the women’s side, Atlantan Emma Hunt and Poland’s Miroslawa and Kalucka enter as strong favorites, but the unforgiving nature of this discipline makes it a truly wide-open event. On the men’s side, USA’s Sam Watson has emerged as the favorite after recently recording times thought unreachable. The 5-second barrier held firm for years until Indonesia’s Veddriq Leonardo recorded a time of 4.98 in 2023. Watson shattered the world record twice in the same day with time of 4.85 and 4.79 seconds.

Climbing begins on August 5th.

Men’s Road Cycling

Normally, the Olympic road race for cyclists doesn’t attract a ton of attention but a French race brings with it more prestige and it’s coming just 2 weeks after the Tour de France finishes. The race will be just under 170 miles long with a little over 9,100 feet of climbing while staying in the boundaries of metropolitan Paris.

Due to the small field and the Ecuadorian cycling federation not choosing him for their only spot, Richard Carapaz will controversially not be present to defend his gold medal from Tokyo despite wrapping up an impressive Tour de France with a stage win.

The betting favorites right now are Netherlands’ Mathieu van der Poel, Slovenia’s Tadej Pogacar (coming off grand tour wins in Italy and France in what could be the best cycling season ever), Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel, and Denmark’s Mads Pedersen. American Matteo Jorgenson has experienced a breakthrough season after an off-season transfer in his pro career and has an outside shot at a medal, too. A key feature to the Olympics road race is that the riders do not use radios and they are mixing up strategies and alliances in their national teams, combined with teammates from their professional teams, which can lead to chaos.

The men’s road race takes place on August 3rd.

Men’s Rugby

It’s a big back-to-back competitive 2024 as men’s rugby finished up the Six Nations back in March and turns right around for a larger international fight in France for the Olympics. However, this is only the 3rd Olympic Games for rugby (how?!?) and it’s only 7-on-7 instead of the 15-man teams you see elsewhere. Fiji won the first two gold medals in 2016 and 2020 and will be looking for the 3-peat in Paris. All games will be played inside the Stade de France in the heart of Paris.

Rugby begins on July 25th.

Women’s Beach Volleyball 

I don’t think normally beach volleyball would make this list. However, the United States has dominated the competition on the women’s side (4 out of the last 5 gold medals), it’s an intense sport to watch, and the athletes are getting the luxury of playing their matches underneath the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. How cool is that?

Beach got the elite location for the Olympics.

Alix Klineman and April Ross won gold in Tokyo but briefly retired and have only recently returned to the game after spending time being mothers after their success at the last Olympics. They will not be here defending their gold. The American duo of Sarah Hughes and Kelly Cheng are the reigning world champions after clinching the title in Mexico this past October and we’ll also see Kristen Nuss and Taryn Kloth fight it out after they secured bronze and a trip to France this month, as well.

Women’s beach volleyball begins on July 27th.

Women’s Sprinting

From an American point of view, the Paris Olympics are shaping up to have a distinctively female dominant presence encapsulated by the return of sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson. Still just 24 years old, Richardson dominated in one season at LSU then infamously missed out on the Tokyo Olympics, despite winning the US Team Trials in 100 meter dash, following a positive urine test for THC.

She didn’t really come back to form until 2023, taking the US Track & Field gold in the 100 in July and the World Championship later on in Budapest. Recently, Richardson ran a scorching fast 10.71 at the US Team Trials in the 100 to qualify for the Olympics as one of the world’s favorites for overall gold.

Track and field events begin on August 1st.

Men’s Basketball

It doesn’t seem that long ago, but this will be the 5th Olympics since the United States shamefully took bronze in the Athens Games. Head coach Steve Kerr takes over the reigns after being an assistant in 2020 and will have veterans Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis, LeBron James, Devin Booker, Jrue Holiday, and Jayson Tatum coming back for another gold.

Some big names making their USA debut in the Olympics include Kawhi Leonard*, Joel Embiid, and Anthony Edwards. The men open up the tournament on July 28th against Nikola Jokic-led Serbia and start out in a group also including South Sudan and Puerto Rico. In terms of the other favorites, watch out for Canada (+900) followed by aforementioned Serbia (+1000) and France (+1000) as the main medal contenders.

*Leonard dropped out from the team on July 10th. He’s replaced by Derrick White.

Women’s Gymnastics

This could be the crowning achievement Olympics for Simone Biles. The 27-year old had one of the most dominant performances of any American athlete ever at the 2016 Rio Olympics but had an up and down next 4 years culminating in some mental issues and only an individual bronze and team silver medal in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Biles is back and in form looking to add one more medal to become the most decorated American female gymnast in history. She won the women’s all-around title during the US Team Trials rather handily and will be looking for gold in Paris.

Gymnastics begins on July 27th.

Women’s Swimming

Just how much more winning can American superstar Katie Ledecky do in her 4th Olympics? Her memoir Just Add Water was just published last month and surely she’ll be one of the poster women for these American efforts in France. To date, she’s won 7 gold medals and will be looking to avenge her silver medal loss to Australian swimmer Ariarne Titmus from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Swimming events begin on July 27th.

Women’s Soccer

This will be a fascinating tournament for the USWNT who are going through a transitional period in the team’s history and at one of their lowest periods in recent memories in terms of results, dominance, and overall vibes. Oh, the United States also hasn’t won gold in the last 2 Olympics, as well. Manager Emma Hayes also left veteran striker Alex Morgan off the squad for France, too.

The United States were drawn into Group B alongside Germany, Australia, and Zambia. They’ll open up the tournament on July 25th against their African opponent inside the Stade de Nice.

American Gear

Skateboarding 

This will be the 2nd Olympics for the sport of skateboarding with the United States unable to bring home anything better than a bronze medal back in 2020. Let’s hope the Americans can shred a little better in the park and street competitions in Paris.

This spring, Nike released the SB Problem Solver 8 (PS8) for the Olympics in a really sharp looking colorway. If you’ve never tried them out, give any skateboarding sneaker a shot for something different to wear casually. They can sometimes be a bit heavy but the soles are generally durable as hell and can be worn in a lot of situations.

Long Distance Running

The 3 American women who qualified for the marathon will be wearing Puma (2x) and New Balance, respectively. On the men’s side, Conner Mantz took the US Team Trials 1st place with Nike and 3rd place finisher Leonard Korir did, too. In 2nd place for the American men, Clayton Young was wearing Asics.

Nike’s latest high tech long distance sneaker the Alphafly 3 came out earlier this year and should be worn by a ton of athletes, not just within the American squad.

Sprinting

Track & field is traditionally a part of the Olympics where you’ll see high profile American athletes not wearing the same sponsor as their team uniform on their feet. While Sha’Carri Richardson is one of the more famous Nike athletes right now, her counterpart on the men’s side, Noah Lyles, is one of the top athletes for Adidas.

For the Olympics, he will be wearing the Adidas Adizero Prime SP2 (I have not seen in which colorway(s) yet though). The shoe looks more like a middle distance design, although it does feature a carbon plate and weighs just 6.5 ounces.

Break Dance

The scene from Zoolander where models are break dance fighting is only comedy no longer. This is real life. I don’t know anything about this sport, I’m choosing not to learn about it, I’m going to stay naive and unaware, while bringing you a fashion update nonetheless.

These Dad Shoe looking offerings are called the Nike Jam debuting for these Olympics. They do not look comfortable or proper for athletic pursuits but again I must emphasis I know nothing about break dancing.

Soccer

The United States unveiled new soccer kits for 2024 in the run up to the Copa America and Olympics back in late March. The road kit is a mediocre Rocket Pop tie-dye looking affair that stands out visually but probably won’t be among the most memorable uniforms in program history. The home kit has a lot more to like.

The men and women are wearing blue shorts and white sock with this simple white jersey scheme. Of course, if they win it’ll be thought of a lot more favorably! The sleeve trim is on the blue shorts and it all stands out really well on the pitch, too.

Basketball

I say this with zero exaggeration. These are the worst uniforms any USA basketball team has ever worn in history. There’s some red trim in the USA crest and numbers on the blue uniforms, plus some splotchy red spots on the bottom of the flanks. These look like something you’d find at your local flea market.

The red uniforms are a marginal improvement if only because blue takes up most of the flanks for more red/white/blue color contrast. One of my Team USA uniform rules is that each of red, white, and blue should be used prominently. I really despise these blue basketball uniforms. They didn’t release white uniforms in the promo shots before exhibitions began, but both teams have worn them in games already. The men have white with mostly blue trim while the women wear white with mostly red trim.

Track & Field

Nike designed some stunning visual outfits for the Paris games and will outfit the Americans in some tight fitting and somewhat futuristic looking attire for the track and field events. However, there’s plenty of controversy about the women’s design.

The singlet (seen above) and another set of shorts are cut extremely high on the hips and ridiculously narrow through the groin which has elicited plenty of criticism. The women will have other options to wear–there’s a royal blue pair of female shorts similar to the mannequin above, just slightly shorther–so it’ll be interesting to see what the athletes opt to wear throughout the 2 weeks.

Women’s Gymnastics 

While most of the American Olympians are outfitted by Nike, like the Good Lord intended, the gymnastic teams for both the men and women are currently under contract with a Pennsylvania company called GK Elite. They have released 6 outfits for the women’s events prior to the games in Paris.

My daughters have started gymnastics this summer and my younger child in particular looks like she has some natural gifts in the sport. It’ll be a big summer of watching our country’s best talents in France. With the caveat that these uniforms always look better on the athletes, to me they look a bit too much like what a 7-year old would be wearing in 1993.

Opening Ceremony

Ralph Lauren is back to dress the athletes for the opening ceremony in his very polo-esque way. If my math is correct this is the 9th straight Olympic games being outfitted by Lauren with the United States.

I like these options. Ralph Lauren has always mixed formal and casual wear really well together and not crossed the line too often with goofy looking athletic outfits. Although, the all-white option seems quite heavy and might not offer enough cooling during the Paris summer.

Podium

Once again, we have an American outfit that isn’t blending the nation’s colors very well. In a vacuum these are fine, even if they look like they are from the 2013 European soccer track suit catalog from Nike. It’s a bit boring and dated looking.

Where’s all the red and white!??

Casual Wear

Ralph Lauren and Nike have gone for a lot of 1920’s vibes with a special eye harkening back to the 1924 Olympics that were held in Paris. One hundred years later and they are going for some throwback designs. One of them that caught my eye included this sweatshirt:

This feels like a big Olympics for heavily white designs and simple yet striking logos. This 1920’s era American crest looks pretty cool on this plain sweatshirt.