Olympics Edition – Paris is for sports lovers

Beach volleyball in front of the Eiffel Tower, equestrian events at the Château de Versailles, and a first-of-its-kind opening ceremony on the famous Seine river — how can you not be romantic about Paris 2024?

• The City of Light boasts over 2M people and iconic sites — from the Louvre to the Arc de Triomphe — plus exquisite fashion and cuisine. The millions of sports fans descending on Paris are in for a magnifique (and expensive) treat.

The Paris Games, by the numbers: Over 10K athletes, representing 206 nations, will compete in 329 events across 32 sports. Competitions will be hosted in 35 venues — 14 of which are within 10km of the Olympic Village.

• Most athletes will compete in mainland France, but Olympic surfers will be dropping into waves in the French territory of Tahiti, nearly 10K miles away from Paris. Riding the South Pacific island’s legendary Teahupo’o waves will certainly be worth the trip.

History buffs, rejoice: This year’s Paris edition is taking place exactly 100 years after the City of Light hosted its last summer Olympics in 1924, and this week it will join London as the only cities to host the Summer Games three times.

• Even better? Every Olympic medal includes a part of Parisian history, embedded with original iron from the 1889-built Eiffel Tower. All that glitters isn’t only gold.

The competition hasn’t even started yet, but this year’s Games are already historic — Paris is the closest Olympics to gender parity in the event’s history. And while this year’s Games will fall just short of its goal of complete equality, with an Olympic-record 49% of competing athletes identifying as women, there’s still plenty to celebrate.

• Making history isn’t new for Parisians: Back in 1900, Paris became the first Games to allow women to participate. How do you say leveling the playing field en français?

The relay toward gender parity: Only 22 women took part in that 1900 Olympics — less than 3% of the 997 total participants. Before this year’s edition, the closest the Games had ever come to gender parity was Tokyo 2020, where 47.8% of competing athletes were women.

• The increase is partially due to the debut of new events, like the women’s Canoe sprint, and sports, including surfing and skateboarding, which changed the equal participation game by providing more opportunities for women athletes.

Passing the torch to Paris: Tokyo 2020 paved the way for Paris 2024, where there are 152 medal events for women, 157 medal events for men, and 20 mixed-gender events — meaning women can compete for over half the medals at a second straight Summer Olympics.

• What’s more, purposeful scheduling will help women’s and men’s events receive balanced media coverage, making women’s sports more accessible to fans worldwide.

• Case in point? For the first time in Olympic history, the women’s marathon — not the men’s — will take center stage on August 11th, the final day of competition. Absolutely love to see it.

In just three days, the Olympic Summer Games will begin. That’s why we partnered with our pals at Canadian Tire to host five lucky Canadians and their guests for a VIP trip to cheer on Team Canada at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

• Our winners and their guests have event tickets to skateboarding, swimming, tennis, equestrian, rugby, rowing, and artistic gymnastics, and even a dinner at the Eiffel Tower.

Hosted by Ellen Hyslop, co-founder at The GIST and co-host of The GIST of It podcast, the winning group of 10 passionate GISTers are going to score the VIP treatment and witness a historic leveling of the playing field in person.

• Follow along for yourself on The GIST’s Instagram and TikTok. Game on!

🇺🇸 Simone Biles, women’s gymnastics: After pulling out of the Tokyo Olympics with a case of “the twisties,” Biles is back and better than ever. The GOAT — the most decorated gymnast in history — will be competing in her third career Games and looks poised to add to a résumé that already includes seven Olympic medals. Flippin’ fantastic.

🇨🇦 Summer McIntosh, women’s swimming: Not many swimmers can match the teenage phenom’s versatility heading into her second Games: McIntosh holds the 400m individual medley world record, beat the aforementioned Ledecky in an 800m freestyle final earlier this year, and is a two-time world champ in the 200m butterfly. What, like it’s hard?

🇪🇸 Rafael Nadal, men’s tennis: The “King of Clay” will be in familiar territory on the Roland-Garros court, where he’s won a staggering 14 Grand Slam titles. Yes, the 38-year-old’s dominant career is nearing its end, but there’d be no better way to cap it off than with Olympic gold — perhaps alongside doubles partner and fellow clay standout, Carlos Alcaraz.

🇰🇪 Eliud Kipchoge, men’s marathon: Despite a disappointing 10th-place finish at the Tokyo Marathon in March, the Kenyan is racing for a record-breaking third consecutive Olympic gold medal. If he’s at his best, he certainly has the pace — Kipchoge was the first person ever to complete the 26.2-mile race in under two hours, a feat he accomplished in 2019.

🇬🇧 Sky Brown, women’s skateboarding: A 13-year-old Brown won bronze in park skateboarding at the Tokyo Games, making her Britain’s youngest-ever Olympic medalist. Now aged 16, the skateboarding prodigy is back for more despite tearing her MCL in April. Never back down, never what?

🇺🇸 Sha’Carri Richardson, women’s track & field: Making her much-anticipated Olympic debut, Richardson is ready to run for gold after posting the season’s fastest 100m time in June: a blistering 10.71 seconds. But she’ll have to contend with Jamaica’s sprinting queens, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson, to reach the top of the podium.

🇱🇹 Dominika Banevič, women’s breaking: Better known as B-Girl Nicka, Banevič won the 2023 World Breaking Championship at just 16 years old. Now she’s bringing her best moves to Paris for the sport’s Olympic debut, and she’s more than ready to throw down.

🇫🇷 Vahiné Fierro, women’s surfing: Fierro, aka the queen of Teahupo’o, has been surfing since she was 2-years-old. But the 2017 WSL world junior champ’s biggest Olympic advantage is her hometown edge — the 24-year-old’s been dropping into Tahiti’s waves her entire life and just won a WSL Championship Tour event there in May.

🇨🇦 Paige Crozon, women’s 3x3 basketball: Crozon’s integral to Canada’s first-ever Olympic 3x3 team, but the two-time Women’s Series champ is so much more than that: She’s a single mom to the team’s honorary bench boss, a college coach, and the manager of Living Skies Indigenous Basketball League. Add in Olympian, and talk about a stacked résumé.

🇫🇷 Victor Wembanyama, men’s basketball: The 2023 No. 1 overall NBA draft pick headlines a star-studded cast of hoopers making their Olympic debuts, including Golden State Warrior Steph Curry for Team USA and the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for Team Canada.

• But the 7-foot-4 Wembanyama will have the home crowd on his side as the French contingent look to level up from their silver medal in Tokyo. Swish, swish.