The first events of Paris 2024
Paris and the teams descending on it are still getting prepped for the games to get underway on Wednesday. When they do, you’ll be able to stream every minute on Peacock.
Wednesday’s events will be in men’s soccer and men’s rugby sevens. For the uninitiated, rugby sevens is like regular rugby union (one of the sports in which football has its roots). The difference is that instead of the usual 15-player teams playing 40-minute halves, sevens has seven-player teams playing seven-minute halves.
In the soccer, Argentina will no doubt be one of the teams to watch out for Wednesday. Fresh from their Copa America win, Argentina’s young squad (almost all players in Olympic soccer must be under 23) includes Manchester City’s Julián Álvarez and Inter Miami’s Federico Redondo. They open the Games against Morocco at 9:00am (ET) while Spain plays Uzbekistan.
The USA will play France at 3:00pm (ET) and the USMNT’s overage players include Nashville’s Walker Zimmerman, Cincinatti’s Miles Robinson, and Djordje Mihailovic of the Colorado Rapids.
Is the Seine clean enough for the Games? Paris’ mayor took a dip.
Under blue skies and bright sunshine, curious Parisians gathered along the right bank of the Seine to see the French capital’s mayor plunge into the water.
After months of anticipation, a smiling Anne Hidalgo fulfilled a promise to show it was clean enough to host open swimming competitions during the 2024 Olympics and the opening ceremony on the river, at the time nine days away.
Clad in a wetsuit and goggles, she plunged into the river near Paris’ imposing City Hall, her office, and the Notre Dame Cathedral.
Hidalgo’s swim is part of a broader effort to showcase the river’s improved cleanliness ahead of the Games, which are set to kick off Friday with a lavish open-air ceremony that includes an athletes’ parade on boats on the Seine.Read the full story here.
Aboard the eyes in the sky keeping the Paris Olympics safe
They have the best seats in the house for this summer’s Paris Olympics, but they won’t be enjoying the sports.
Maj. John and Col. Dry will be the eyes in the sky for one of the most challenging and stringent security operations ever deployed at the Games.
NBC News got an exclusive invite in March week to board their military police helicopter as they swooped over the sprawling Chateau de Versailles, the former royal residence now hosting equestrian events, to La Defense business district. Then along the river Seine, the scene of the opening ceremony, to the Olympic stadium, the Stade de France, and the multicolored townhouses of the suburban Olympic Village.
See how Paris has evolved from the 1924 Summer Olympics to today
In the summer of 1924, more than 600,000 spectators descended on Paris for the Olympic Games. The competitions were broadcast on the radio for the first time, allowing listeners around the world to vicariously experience the “Flying Finns” of track and field and other elite athletes. The British stars Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell triumphed on the track, inspiring the 1981 Oscar-winning film “Chariots of Fire” and a soaring electronic theme by Vangelis.
In the century since, Paris and its surrounding cities have been utterly transformed by political upheaval, technological revolution and demographic shifts. But when the City of Lights hosts the Games for a third time this month, spectators and television audiences will be reminded how much has remained the same, from the towering landmarks of metropolitan Paris to the pageantry of the opening ceremony.
