An insider guide to the 2024 Olympic Games
The Olympics doesn’t come around every year (it’s usually every four), so you’ll want to witness the first-class sporting spectacles that are anticipated for the 2024 Games in Paris. But, if you’re one of the many not travelling to the French capital this Olympics – which officially commences with the Opening Ceremony on Friday 26 July and concludes on Sunday 11 August – it could either pass you by or overwhelm you entirely if you don’t do some pre-Games planning.
In the UK, BBC Sport and BBC iPlayer will broadcast all Olympic events online and on TV, from the surfing and canoe slalom to the wrestling and rowing. We are, as such, promised a dense jungle of elite-level sport over the 16-day competition period, so to help you stay on track we’ve stripped things back and picked out the (mainly running) events you really shouldn’t miss – and why.
Friday 26 July
6:30pm: Opening Ceremony
Since the inaugural summer Games in Athens in 1896, every Olympics has commenced with a carnivalesque Opening Ceremony in the Olympic Stadium – but don’t expect more of the same this year.
For the first time in Olympic history, the Opening Ceremony will be staged beyond the official Olympic Stadium – in this case, the Stade de France – and in the heart of the host city instead. Boats for each national delegation will transport around 10,500 athletes and the Olympic torch along the Seine for a stunning 6km crossing, with live artistic performances illuminating the waterborne parade. Expect a vibrant first look at Team GB’s hopefuls and several Olympic venues – and an early sign that Paris ready to rewrite some Olympic rules.
Saturday 27 July – Wednesday 31 July
The first five days of competition are athletics-free, with the Stade de France – the huge hub for the track and field events – hosting the rugby sevens matches during this time. This initial block gives you the chance to spectate various other Olympic sports before the running events get underway, including these highlights:
Saturday 27 July, 10:00am: Men’s artistic gymnastics (qualification)
Watch British artistic gymnast Max Whitlock take to the floor in a bid to retain his Olympic titles in the floor and pommel horse competitions. On the verge of retirement, Whitlock is the most successful British gymnast of all time, with three Olympic and three World Championships gold medals on his CV.
Sunday 28 July, 11:00am: Women’s street skateboarding
See Team GB’s Sky Brown gun for gold in street skateboarding. Aged only 13 at the time, bold Brown become the youngest ever British Olympic medallist when she took bronze in the park skateboarding event at the 2020 Tokyo Games.
Tuesday 30 July, 7:00am: Men’s individual triathlon
Enjoy your first slice of running with the men’s individual triathlon, where Britain’s Alex Yee will race a 1.5km swim, 40km cycle and 10K run set. Yee, 26, is already furnished with a silver in this event and a gold in the triathlon mixed relay from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Wednesday 31 July, 7:00am: Women’s individual triathlon
Watch multiple world champion Beth Potter swim-bike-run for Team GB. A formidable triathlete, Potter also represented Team GB in the 10,000m at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, so she’ll likely deliver a particularly strong final leg.
Thursday 1 August
6:30am: Men’s 20km race walk
8:30am: Women’s 20km race walk
It’s the first day of the athletics competitions – but we’re not running in the Olympic Stadium just yet. Instead, you can watch the 20km race walks, starting bright and early with the men’s competition followed by the women’s two hours later. Why are we highlighting race walks? Because these athletes can move quicker than most of us can run. For context, former Olympian Tom Bosworth holds the British 20km race walk record of 1:19:38 (a pace of just under 6:25 per mile or 4:00 per kilometre) – so expect anything but ambling.
Friday 2 August
It’s time to take your virtual seat in the Stade de France and feast upon some fast-paced athletics for the next 10 days.
10:05am: Men’s 1500m (round one)
The men’s 1500m will stage plenty of pulse-quickening drama between two ambitious rivals: Team GB’s Josh Kerr and Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway. Kerr, 26, is the 1500m world champion, having stormed to gold in Budapest last year and forcing Ingebrigtsen to settle for silver. It was a bitter case of déjà vu for Ingebrigtsen, as it was the second consecutive time that he had placed second to a Brit in a 1500m World Championships final, having lost to Jake Wightman in 2022.
Unlike Kerr and Wightman, Ingebrigtsen has not yet felt a 1500m World Championships gold medal around his neck – although he is the reigning 1500m Olympic Champion and Olympic and European record holder. Running a sublime time of 3:28.32, the 23-year-old Norwegian – who, at the age of 16, became the youngest man in history to run a mile in under four minutes – ruled the metric mile at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, while Kerr ran 3:29.05 to bag bronze. Although Kerr’s performance was an outdoor 1500m PB and the only one to secure Team GB a men’s medal on the track in Tokyo, it wasn’t enough to beat Ingebrigtsen, who holds a blistering outdoor 1500m PB of 3:27.14. Paris presents a mouthwatering new clash between Kerr, Ingebrigtsen and their talented contenders, including Britain’s Neil Gourley and George Mills.
10:50am: Women’s 100m (round one)
Dina Asher-Smith and Daryll Neita are Team GB’s big hopes for this event, having already clinched two Olympic bronze medals in the 4 x 100m relay at both the Rio and Tokyo Games.
A six-time European champion, Asher-Smith also has plenty of World Championships medals to her name, including a gold in the 200m and two silvers in the 100m and 4 x 100m relay from the 2019 competition in Doha – making her the first Brit to win three medals at a single World Championships. While a hamstring injury and mid-race cramping have affected her in the past, Asher-Smith is the fastest British woman in history and out to prove a point in Paris.
Neita, too, is only noticing improvements on the track. Having most recently struck gold with a 100m win at the 2024 UK Athletics Championships, she also scored two medals at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, a bronze at the 2023 World Championships and a gold and silver at the 2024 European Championships.
5:10pm: Women’s 5000m (round one)
Although there will be no Team GB athletes on the start line for this 12.5-lap event, the unmissable star of this show will be reigning Olympic champion Sifan Hassan, who is more than just a 5000m specialist. Indeed, to accompany her 5000m gold at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, she also won gold in the 10,000m and bronze in the 1500m, making her the first athlete to win medals in a middle-distance and both long-distance events at a single Games. She then went on to win the 2023 London Marathon – her debut over 26.2 miles – and, six months later, set a new women’s course record of 2:13:44 at the 2023 Chicago Marathon, which doubled as the second-fastest marathon ever run by a woman.
An astonishingly versatile athlete, Dutch Hassan is covering significantly more ground than any other runner in Paris. Why? Because in these Games, she won't be taking on three events, she'll be taking on four within the space of nine days of competition: the 1500m, 5000m, 10,000m and marathon. This quadruplet is unprecedented in Olympic history. Can she claim gold in every event?
6:45pm: Women’s 800m (round one)
This is the call for Keely Hodgkinson to command the track. The 22-year-old British 800m specialist shot to prominence at the age of 19 when she won silver in this discipline at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, with this performance also breaking the British record set by Kelly Holmes in 1995. Hodgkinson then won more 800m silver at the 2022 and 2023 World Championships and 2022 Commonwealth Games, so it’s safe to say she’ll now want a new metal to add to her major championships collection: gold.
Watch out for Britain’s Jemma Reekie, too, who peaked at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics when she placed fourth overall in a personal best time of 1:56.9, just off Hodgkinson’s current best of 1:55.19. Still only 17 years old, teenage phenomenon Phoebe Gill will also be competing here, having this year alone become the European U18 record holder for the 800m and picked up 800m gold at the UK Athletics Championships.
8:20pm: Men’s 10,000m (final)
There are no heats for the 10,000m – here, athletes dive straight into the final for their shot at gold. The longest Olympic distance on the track, the 10,000m will see men (and, on Friday, women) run 25 hard laps in the centre of the Stade de France, with 80,000 people cheering them on.
This is the perfect chance to see Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei kick around the track in pursuit of the Olympic 10,000m victory that eluded him at the 2020 Games, where he was pushed to silver by winner Selemon Barega of Ethiopia. An affirmed long distance track specialist, Cheptegei, 27, holds the current world records in both the 5000m and 10,000m, with his mark for the latter sitting at 26:11. He’s a true star and you’ll be dazzled by the speed on show tonight.
Patrick Dever, whose 10,000m PB of 27:08.81 puts him second on the all-time UK rankings list for the discipline, will fly the flag for Team GB here.
Saturday 3 August
10:45am: Men’s 100m (round one)
Four years of relentless training and steadfast determination lead to each Olympic moment – and for 100m sprinters, their Olympic moments are only a few seconds long. So, they really do need to make each second count.
Get excited for Team GB’s Zharnel Hughes – a four-time European and two-time Commonwealth Games champion – as he looks to atone for the disqualification disappointment he experienced in the 4 x 100m relay at the 2020 Tokyo Games. Also competing in this iconic distance is British breakthrough Louie Hinchliffe, who booked his ticket to Paris when he rocketed to victory in the 100m at the UK Athletics Championships. Equipped with a distinctive mullet haircut and head-turning 100m PB of 9.95 seconds, 21-year-old Hinchliffe, it seems, is in the early days of a remarkable athletics career.
Those charging alongside Hughes and Hinchliffe include Italy’s Marcell Jacobs, the reigning 100m Olympic champion; the USA’s Noah Lyles, the current world champion in the 100m, 200m and 4 x 100m relay; and Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson, an electric new talent on the track. Still only in his second season as a professional athlete, 22-year-old Thompson won the 100m at the Jamaican Olympic trials in a scorching 9.77 seconds, a result that established him as the fourth-fastest Jamaican man in history behind Yohan Blake, Asafa Powell and, of course, world record-holding goliath Usain Bolt. So keep your eyes on the green, yellow and black kit of Jamaica in the Stade de France.
6:50pm: Women’s 100m (semi-final)
This semi-final will whet your appetite for the main course final 90 minutes later.
7:55pm: 4 x 400m mixed relay (final)
The perfect filling to your women’s 100m sandwich, this is only the second time that the 4 x 400m mixed relay has appeared on the Olympic agenda and will see teams of two women and two men lap the track in a quest for gold. Comprised of athletes from the women’s and men’s 4 x 400m relay squads, Team GB’s quartet will have a tough run against the USA, the current world champion in this discipline, and Poland, the reigning Olympic champions. Watch out, too, for 400m hurdler and sprinter Femke Bol, who is poised to deliver an outstanding leg for the Netherlands.
8:20pm: Women’s 100m (final)
There’s nothing like the heart-pumping atmosphere of a 100m final. Silence – then explosion. Will either Asher-Smith or Neita set British hearts alight and score their first Olympic gold medal in this distance? Or will a rival like Jamaica’s legendary Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, a three-time Olympic gold medallist in 100m disciplines, or the USA’s Sha-Carri Richardson, the current 100m world champion, seize victory on the straight? In short, this will be a ten-something-second race worth watching.
Sunday 4 August
9:55am: Women’s 200m (round one)
Asher-Smith and Neita will be back on the starting blocks and exchanging the straight for the bend as they move from the 100m to the 200m. With Elaine Thompson-Herah, the 200m gold medallist at both the 2016 and 2020 Olympics, out of these Games due to injury, the door is now wide open for a new champion. Can either Asher-Smith or Neita seize the win? Or will Jamaica’s seemingly indomitable Shericka Jackson, the fastest woman alive over 200m, take the Olympic crown and keep the gold in her country?
6:05pm: Men’s 400m (round one)
An ever-present at the summer Olympics since 1896, the 400m is always a brilliant watch. Too short to rely on endurance and too long to be a flat-out sprint, the 400m equates to one decisive lap of the track and is a thrilling spectacle for spectators. Look out for Team GB’s Matthew Hudson-Smith, the silver medallist in the 400m at the 2023 World Championships whose PB of 44.26 makes him the European record holder. He’ll be joined by compatriot Charlie Dobson, who has already picked up a 400m silver at the 2024 European Championships and a 400m gold at the 2024 UK Athletics Championships. Together, they’ll be challenged by the Bahamas’ Steven Gardiner, the 400m gold medallist at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
7:00pm: Men’s 100m (semi-final)
Another 100m semi-final to raise your heart rate ahead of the final later this evening.
8:15pm: Men’s 1500m (semi-final)
The next page-turning chapter in the men’s 1500m story. Tonight, Kerr and Ingebrigtsen will sharpen their focus and speed to book their places in Tuesday’s final.
8:55pm: Men’s 100m (final)
The big showdown between the fastest men on earth. While Lyles will want to resume the winning streak that he started at the 2023 World Championships, sprint prodigy Thompson will be inspired to defeat the reigning Olympic champion, Italy’s Jacobs, and reclaim gold for Jamaica. And will Hughes and Hinchliffe make the cut for Team GB? No matter how things fare, you simply can't afford to miss this blue riband event.
Monday 5 August
10:55am: Women’s 400m (round one)
Amber Anning and Laviai Nielsen are two of Britain’s fine representatives in this race, having achieved a decisive one-two respectively in the 400m at the 2024 UK Athletics Championships. Victoria Ohuruogu, meanwhile, will try to emulate the success of older sister Christine as she also takes on the 400m for Team GB. Now retired, British athlete Christine Ohuruogu scored Olympic gold then silver in the 400m at the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games.
As for the international field, Shaunae Miller-Uibo of the Bahamas will be determined to win her third consecutive Olympic 400m gold, with Femke Bol of the Netherlands also a star contender to focus on. Although she is more accomplished over the 400m hurdles, Bol does still holds the short track world record over the (flat) 400m distance.
6:00pm: Men’s pole vault (final)
Moving from track to field for a moment, it’s worth catching Armand Duplantis spring into action for the pole vault final. The reigning Olympic champion and world record holder jumped his personal best of 6.24m in April this year – and he’ll be out to clear an even higher bar in Paris.
6:55pm: Men’s 200m (round one)
Expect to see Team GB’s Hughes lace up his spikes once again for this rapid race over half a lap of the track.
8:10pm: Women’s 5000m (final)
This will be only the eighth women’s 5000m Olympic final in history, with women competing in the 3000m until the distance was extended to match the men’s event from 1996. Predicted to toe the start line are the reigning Olympic champion Hassan; the Olympic record holder, Vivian Cheruiyot of Kenya; and the world record holder, Gudaf Tsegay of Ethiopia, who has run 5000m in a painfully fast time of 14:00.20.
8:45pm: Women’s 800m (final)
Enhanced by the stadium lights and spectator atmosphere, the 800m women’s final is where Hodgkinson, it is hoped, will try to upgrade her Tokyo silver to a Paris gold.
Tuesday 6 August
9:05am: Women’s 1500m (round one)
Britain’s decorated Laura Muir will take to the track this morning for the women’s metric mile opener. The national 1500m record holder boasts a PB of 3:53.79, a silver medal in the 1500m from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and a sweep of other 1500m and 3000m medals from other major championships.
Fellow Brits Georgia Bell and Revee Walcott-Nolan will join Muir on the 1500m start line, so look out for a trio of Team GB vests here. Bell, in fact, beat Muir to the 1500m title at this year's UK Athletics Championships, a feat made all the more extraordinary when you consider that she still holds down a full-time job in cyber security.
In Paris, Muir, Bell and Walcott-Nolan will be up against some serious speedsters including Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon, the 1500m gold medallist at the previous two Olympics and, thanks to her all-time best of 3:49.04, the current world record holder over the distance.
7:50pm: Men’s 1500m (final)
This is the final battle (for now) between Kerr and Ingebrigtsen – so get it in the diary. Can either of them, or another competitor, come close to Hicham El Guerrouj’s incredible outdoor 1500m world record of 3:26.00? The Moroccan’s world-leading time has stood for over a quarter of a century...
8:40pm: Women’s 200m (final)
The final athletics event of the day, the women’s 200m final should see Britain’s Asher-Smith and Neita battle it out against some tough contenders from the Americas, particularly Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson and the USA’s Gabby Thomas, who bagged bronze in the 200m at the Tokyo Olympics.
Wednesday 7 August
10:10am: Men’s 5000m (round one)
Sir Mo Farah famously accomplished the double-double for Team GB at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, winning the 5000m and 10,000m at both Games in phenomenal fashion. Today, Sam Atkin, Patrick Denver and George Mills will step up to the challenge and take the 5000m mantle for Britain.
As for the international field, Jakob Ingebrigtsen will charge out for a win to complement his 5000m victory at the 2023 World Championships, while Ugandan great Joshua Cheptegei will want to achieve his second straight 5000m gold at a Games. In 2020, prior to his Olympic win in Tokyo, Cheptegei also clocked the current – and extraordinary – 5000m world record of 12:35.36.
10:55am: Men’s 800m (round one)
Jake Wightman, the 2022 world champion in the 1500m, will drop almost half of the distance and compete in the 800m for Team GB at these Games, having battled with an injury since his world-topping heroics in Budapest. Brit Ben Pattison, the bronze medallist in the 800m at the 2023 World Championships, will also be looking for more 800m metalware in Paris, while British hope Max Burgin – who booked his place at the Olympics after winning silver in the 800m at the 2024 UK Athletics Championships – will also be craving a strong result.
Beyond the Brits, reigning Olympic champion Emmanuel Korir of Kenya is the one to watch, with his countryman Ferguson Rotich – the silver medallist at the 2020 Tokyo Games – also expected to run extremely well. Canada’s Marco Arop, the 2023 world champion over 800m, will also put in the graft to go for the win.
8:20pm: Men’s 400m (final)
Tune in tonight for this thrilling midweek final, where it is hoped that Team GB’s Hudson-Smith and Dobson will be among the medals.
Thursday 8 August
7:30pm: Men’s 200m (final)
Can Zharnel Hughes blast into the top three in this 200m final? It’s anticipated that the Brit will face fierce opposition from the USA’s Noah Lyles, the 200m world champion who is hungry to improve upon his 200m bronze from the Tokyo Games, and the reigning Olympic champion, Canada’s Andre De Grasse.
7:55pm: Women’s heptathlon – 200m
The 200m is the fourth of seven disciplines in the women’s heptathlon, spread over only a two-day window. (Today, the heptathletes will also compete in the 100m hurdles at 9:05am, the high jump at 10:05am and the shot put at 6:35pm.) British two-time world champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson will be on a quest to achieve her first Olympic medal in Paris – so don’t miss her movements around the track and field. Jade O’Dowda, 24, will also be representing Team GB in this event.
Friday 9 August
6:30pm: Women’s 4 x 100m relay (final)
While the USA and Jamaica hold the most Olympic wins in this discipline, Team GB’s women’s team performed exceptionally well at both the 2020 and 2016 Games to bag 4 x 100m relay bronze medals. That said, the British quartet from Dina Asher-Smith, Desiree Henry, Amy Hunt, Imani-Lara Lansiquot, Daryll Neita and Bianca Williams will want to do even better this time round, where smooth transitions of the baton are as important as the act of running.
6:45pm: Men’s 4 x 100m relay (final)
You’ve just watched the women, so stay where you are to watch the men. As with the women’s equivalent relay, this men’s event has historically been dominated by the USA and Jamaica, with the current Olympic record of 36.84, from the 2012 London Games, belonging to Jamaica’s formidable foursome of Nesta Carter, Michael Frater, Yohan Blake and Usain Bolt. But let’s not dismiss the British team involving four from Jeremiah Azu, Louie Hinchliffe, Zharnel Hughes, Richard Kilty and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake – a podium finish could well be on the cards.
7:00pm: Women’s 400m (final)
The third consecutive single-lap event tonight is the women’s 400m final. Have Amber Anning, Laviai Nielsen or Victoria Ohuruogu made the cut for Team GB? And will they make the podium?
7:15pm: Women’s heptathlon – 800m
Two laps of the track will close the women’s heptathlon, with the heptathlon long jump (9:05am) and javelin rounds (10:20am and 11:30am) preceding the 800m today. This could be the moment that Katarina Johnson-Thompson bags her first Olympic medal – hopefully of the golden hue.
7:55pm: Women’s 10,000m (final)
As with the men, the women will only have one shot at 2024 Olympic glory in the 10,000m. Keep your eyes peeled for Team GB’s Megan Keith, who tucked within the Olympic qualifying standard of 30:40.00 with a 30:36.84 performance at The TEN race in California in March, and who won the elite women’s race at this year’s Night of the 10,000m PBs to wild applause. Also giving her all will be Britain’s Eilish McColgan – the national record holder for the 5000m, 10,000m, 5K and half marathon and European record holder for the 10K – who is building back to top fitness after a long period of injury. Paris will mark her fourth Olympic Games.
Joining Keith and McColgan in the pack of long-distance track runners will be multi-talented Sifan Hassan, the reigning 10,000m Olympic champion.
Saturday 10 August
Our advice? Stock up on the snacks and block out the entire day for the Olympics.
7:00am: Men’s marathon
While the men’s Olympic marathon has traditionally been held on the final day of the Games, the day after the women’s race, Paris has reversed the order to shine a brighter light on female athletes. But that doesn’t make the men’s competition any less extraordinary.
Britain’s Phil Sesemann, Emile Cairess and Mahamed Mahamed will all make their Olympic debuts on a lumpy, looped route that pays homage to the history of the French capital. At the age of 39 the icon that is Eliud Kipchoge will be vying to win an unprecedented third Olympic gold in the marathon, which would make him the first athlete to achieve this three-peat and likely be a fitting final bow on the Olympic stage. Meanwhile, 41-year-old Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele – Kipchoge’s long-standing rival and fellow former marathon world record holder – will want to turn this into a battle for the ages. It was 20 years ago that the pair came head-to-head in the 5000m final at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, where Bekele claimed silver and Kipchoge, bronze.
6:25pm: Men’s 800m (final)
The past four Olympic champions in the men’s 800m have hailed from Kenya – but will this trend continue tonight?
7:00pm: Men’s 5000m (final)
Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele still holds the lightning-fast Olympic 5000m record of 12:57.82, which he clocked at the 2008 Beijing Games. Can any athlete surpass this tonight? All eyes will be on Uganda’s seemingly unstoppable Joshua Cheptegei, who has already run around 22 seconds quicker than Bekele’s mark at a non-Olympic 5000m event. With that in mind, you could well witness a new Olympic record tonight.
7:25pm: Women’s 1500m (final)
Britain’s Laura Muir, Georgia Bell and Revee Walcott-Nolan – should they qualify – will be gunning for gold in this unmissable final, which will offer a fine dose of Saturday evening entertainment. Their greatest challenger will be Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon, the sublime 1500m world record holder and reigning Olympic champion, while Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands is also billed to put up a very strong fight.
8:12pm: Men’s 4 x 400m relay (final)
8:22pm: Women’s 4 x 400m relay (final)
We have another delicious double bill of relays tonight.
Expect a quartet from Charlie Carvell, Lewis Davey, Charlie Dobson, Ben Jefferies, Toby Harries, Alex Haydock-Wilson and Matthew Hudson-Smith to compete for Team GB in the men’s race, before four from Britain’s Amber Anning, Yemi Mary John, Hannah Kelly, Laviai Nielsen, Victoria Ohuruogu, Jodie Williams and Nicole Yeargin shoot off in the women’s race 10 minutes later. Both the men’s and women’s teams from the USA won 4 x 400m relay gold at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, making this the nation to beat. In fact, the USA’s women’s team has finished first in this event at the past seven consecutive Games.
Sunday 11 August
7:00am: Women’s marathon
The final event of the 2024 Olympic Games, the women’s marathon will be one to set the alarm for. Again, Team GB is fielding three exceptional Olympic debutants for this race: Charlotte Purdue and Calli Hauger-Thackery, who share a PB of 2:22:17, and Rose Harvey, who was the first British woman home at the 2023 Chicago Marathon in 2:23:21.
Among those joining the British trio will be Ethiopian Tgist Assefa, the marathon world record holder who ripped up the history books with her immense 2:11:53 at the 2023 Berlin Marathon. Kenya’s Peres Jepchirchir, who won this year’s London Marathon in a women’s-only world record time, will also be running hot on the roads of Paris to defend her Olympic marathon title.
9:00pm: Closing Ceremony
Conclude the Olympics correctly with the Closing Ceremony in the Stade de France. An upbeat reflection on the 2024 Games, parading athletes will celebrate the history made and medals won while the Olympic flame is extinguished. And then? We rekindle the hype for LA 2028…
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