Midway Staff
This year’s Olympics will take place in Paris, with 10,500 athletes competing in 32 sports from July 26 to Aug. 11. The events will take place in several stadiums throughout France, and surfing locations in Tahiti, which is part of French Polynesia. Events will stream on the networks of NBC and on Peacock.
What not to miss:
- Wednesday, July 24: After a 16-year break, the U.S. men’s soccer team returns to the Olympics in a preliminary match against the French soccer team in Marseille.
- Friday, July 26: 100 years since the last Paris Olympics, the city hosts once again, but this time the opening ceremony will be bigger than ever. Instead of being held in a stadium, the opening ceremony will take the form of a four-mile floating parade on the Seine River, composed of 160 boats carrying athletes and performers alike.
- Saturday, July 27: The first day of medal competition arrives along with one of the most-anticipated swimming events in the entire competition. Three of the fastest performing swimmers in history will compete in the women’s 400 freestyle: Summer McIntosh from Canada, Tokyo gold medalist Ariarne Titmus from Australia, and Rio gold medalist Katie Ledecky from the United States.
- Tuesday, July 30: 9,800 miles from France, the surfing finals will take place off a Tahitian village known for generating some of the heaviest waves in the world. The U.S. team challenging these daunting waves consists of Carissa Moore, a previous winner in the sport’s Tokyo debut, and surfing world champion Caroline Marks.
- Wednesday, July 31: The women’s 1,500 freestyle event will offer Ms. Ledecky to forge her name in history as she has the chance to win her 12th Olympic medal, having more Olympic and world championship gold medals than any American woman ever.
- Wednesday, Aug. 7: Two of the new sports at the Paris Olympics, sport climbing and skateboarding, come with one strong U.S. medal contender each. Emma Hunt, 2023 world silver medal-winning sport climber, and 2023 skateboarding world champion Jagger Eaton will fight in the premiere of their sports as official Olympic events.
- Sunday Aug. 11: Along with competitions in track, women’s volleyball and women’s basketball (where the basketball team can win an eighth consecutive Olympic medal and break the team sport record), Aug. 11 marks the end of the Paris Games and thus its closing ceremony, which promises to be “marked by audacity, fraternity and emotion.”
