Let the Games Begin!
Day 1: Bonjour from the City of Lights
After years of preparation and months (or maybe also years) of NBC ads, the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad (Jeux de la XXXIIIe Olympiade to the locals) begin to today on Paris.
Paris now joins London as the only city to host three Summer Olympics, after previously doing so in 1900 and 1924. For the next two weeks nearly 11,000 athletes will compete in 329 medal events across 32 sports (including Olympic debutante breaking (aka break dancing).
If you’ve heard anything about these Olympics it’s the groundbreaking Opening Ceremony, which will take place not in a stadium, but as a boat parade down the River Seine through the heart of the city.
Like Beijing 2022, this newsletter will hit your inbox daily with a news, viewing guides (including Team USA and medal events), links to our favorite Olympics stories, and the best pictures from Paris.
Paris is 6 hours ahead of the East Coast of the US, which means most days events will take place from 3am to 5pm Eastern Time. Starting tomorrow, we’ll aim to bring you this newsletter every day of the Games at 5am Eastern so you can prepare for a full day off viewing.
What To Watch Today
(All times Eastern)
The Opening Ceremony will air live at 1:30pm (7:30pm Paris) on NBC and Peacock. The network will also re-air the Ceremony tonight at 7:30pm. The first hour of the broadcast will be presented commercial free.
Throughout the Games every minute of every event will be streamed live on Peacock, as well as select live events on NBC, USA Network, E!, The Golf Channel, and CNBC. NBC will air a slickly produced package of events every night in prime time at 8pm.
Our daily viewing guide will focus on live events, with a special emphasis on events featuring Team USA and medal events.
In Other Olympic News…
The 2024 Paris Olympics officially begin with today’s opening ceremonies, but several team sports tournaments are already underway.
Both the Men’s and Women’s Olympic Football tournaments are already mired in controversy.
The semi-finals of Men’s Rugby 7’s (a scaled down version of the usual 15-a-side sport) are already set, with Fiji looking to three-peat as gold medalists. The medal matches are tomorrow.
Elsewhere in France, coordinated arson attacks have disrupted the national rail service and left millions of people unable to travel.
And if NBC’s thousands of hours of coverage aren’t enough, you can dive into the wide world of Olympian Tik Tok for a peak behind the scenes.
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