Unveiling New Sports: Paris 2024 Olympics

With every iteration, the Olympics continue to evolve, introducing new sports to engage a global audience and represent the shifting interests of athletes worldwide. In the forthcoming Paris 2024 Olympics, fans can look forward to an exhilarating blend of conventional and novel sports, including breaking, sport climbing, skateboarding, and surfing.

Inclusion of New Sports in the Olympic Games

Adding a sport to the Olympic roster involves a rigorous process. Each sport must first be represented by an international federation. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board then proposes an initial sports program seven years ahead of the games. Subsequently, the host city puts forward a list of additional sports for review and potential inclusion, typically four to six years before the games.

A Closer Look at the New Sports

Breaking

Breaking, a lively competitive form of breakdancing, will make its maiden appearance in the Paris 2024 Olympics. Previously showcased at the 2018 Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires, breaking involves dancers, known as b-boys and b-girls, competing one-on-one, performing intricate footwork, spins, and freezes. In Paris, this high-energy sport will feature two gold medals up for contention.

Sport Climbing

First introduced in Tokyo 2020, sport climbing continues to be a part of the Olympic journey. This sport combines speed, strength, and agility, challenging athletes to ascend artificial rock walls. In Paris 2024, competitors will strive for the fastest time and the highest point reached.

Skateboarding

Another sports discipline returning from Tokyo 2020 is skateboarding, which encapsulates the thrilling blend of creativity, athleticism, and audacity. It features two disciplines: street and park. Street skateboarding involves navigating through a course with stairs, handrails, and benches, while park skateboarding takes place on a hollowed-out course featuring a series of complex curves.

Surfing

Surfing, where athletes ride ocean waves, will also return after its Tokyo 2020 debut. Competitors are judged on their abilities to perform maneuvers, their speed, power, and flow.

However, it’s worth noting that the Paris 2024 Olympic program will no longer feature karate and baseball/softball.

Comprehensive List of Sports at Paris 2024

The full roster of sports for Paris 2024 is quite diverse:

• Aquatics: From synchronised moves in artistic swimming to the endurance test of marathon swimming, aquatics features a wide range of disciplines, including diving, swimming, and water polo.
• Archery: A test of precision, archery pits competitors against each other as they aim for the bullseye.
• Athletics: This discipline includes a variety of track and field events, road running, race walking, and combined events.
• Badminton: A swift racket sport where players score by landing the shuttlecock in the opponent’s court.
• Basketball: Both traditional basketball and its quick-paced variant, 3×3 basketball, will be featured.
• Breaking: The rhythmic and physical art of competitive breakdancing.
• Boxing: An intense one-on-one combat sport that demands strength, speed, reflexes, and endurance.
• Canoe: Featuring both slalom and sprint variants, competitors paddle their way to victory in this water sport.
• Cycling: Including BMX freestyle, BMX racing, mountain biking, road, and track events.
• Equestrian: Involves dressage, eventing, and jumping, where both horse and rider are tested for their agility, speed, and precision.
• Fencing: A duel sport where fencers use bladed weapons to score points against their opponents.
• Football: The universally loved team sport.
• Golf: Competitors aim to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in the fewest number of strokes.
• Gymnastics: This discipline showcases artistic, rhythmic, and trampolining variants.
• Handball: A fast-paced team sport where the goal is to throw the ball into the opposing team’s goal.
• Hockey: Teams compete to hit a ball into the opponent’s goal using hockey sticks.
• Judo: A martial art that involves throwing or taking down an opponent.
• Modern Pentathlon: Combines fencing, freestyle swimming, equestrian show jumping, and a final combined event of pistol shooting and cross-country running.
• Rowing: A test of endurance, teams or individuals propel boats on water using oars.
• Rugby 7s: A variant of rugby played with seven players on each side.
• Sailing: Competitors navigate their boats in varying wind conditions to complete a course in the quickest time.
• Shooting: Athletes aim to hit targets with accuracy and precision.
• Skateboarding: A combination of athleticism, audacity, and creativity.
• Sport Climbing: Athletes aim to ascend artificial rock walls in the fastest time or to the highest point.
• Surfing: Athletes ride ocean waves with prowess and grace.
• Table Tennis: A fast-paced racket sport where the aim is to score points by making the ball land on the opponent’s side of the table.
• Taekwondo: A Korean martial art that focuses on head-height kicks, jumping and spinning kicks, and fast kicking techniques.
• Tennis: A racket sport where players hit a ball over a net, aiming to land it within the opponent’s court.
• Triathlon: Combines swimming, cycling, and running in one event.
• Volleyball: Both beach and indoor variants of this popular team sport will be featured.
• Weightlifting: Athletes compete to lift heavy weights loaded on a steel barbell.
• Wrestling: Includes both Greco-Roman and freestyle variants, where the goal is to pin the opponent to the mat.

The Paris 2024 Olympics will make history by including new sports “breaking”, or competitive breakdancing, as an official sport for the first time ever.

Anticipate a thrilling, unforgettable experience at the Paris 2024 Olympics, where the excitement of traditional sports is paired with the fresh, dynamic energy of new sports inclusions. From athletics to breaking, the world’s most talented athletes will converge in the heart of France to compete for the ultimate honor.