New Year marks countdown towards Paris Olympics

In just under seven months, the 2024 Olympic Games will be getting under way in Paris. Preparations are in full flow for the French capital to host athletes, media and visitors.

‌The Paris Olympics and Paralympics will start on July 24 and run till September 8. More than 90 per cent of the venues are already in place and only a handful of arenas, like the new Aquatics Centre for water polo, artistic swimming and diving, are being newly-built for the Games.

‌New sports will be featured this time around, with breakdancing making its Olympic debut. Disciplines like skateboarding and sport climbing that featured for the first time at the last summer Games in Tokyo will be back.

But not every event can take place in Paris: the surfing will be held on the French Pacific island of Tahiti. There was controversy last year over damage to a coral reef during tests to install the judges' tower.

‌One of the centerpiece elements of Paris 2024 will be the unique opening ceremony on the River Seine in the French capital. It is set to be the first Olympics opening event not to be held in a stadium - but having it on a river in the middle of a city presents many different challenges.

‌There are expected to be half a million spectators on the banks of the river and hundreds of athletes taking part in the parade on dozens of boats travelling down the Seine. Securing the central riverside area has the potential to be a major headache for the authorities - and Parisians.

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‌President Emmanuel Macron said last month that the opening ceremony could take place elsewhere if a possible terror attack is detected two weeks in advance. "If there were a plan B, it would obviously be because we absolutely have to," says Jean-Michel Fauvergue, a former commander in France's special 'Raid' police unit.

"We'll have to look beyond the imminent threat. And, of course, this plan B will inevitably be on a smaller scale than the ceremony initially planned."

‌Paris will be hosting the summer Games for the third time. The 2024 edition will be held exactly 100 years after the 1924 Games.

‌French sports fans will likely not have to wait another century before the next Olympics in the country because France's Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur-Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes bid is the sole remaining entrant for the Winter Games in 2030.

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