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How Many Olympic Sports Are There? See a Complete List for the 2024 Summer Games
The City of Light will play host to 32 sports at this year's Summer Games, including four new additions.
As the Summer Games in Paris, France swiftly approach, it’s time to get to know which sports are in and which sports are out because, in an effort to consistently stay relative and mirror trends in competitive athletics, the Olympic powers that be are shaking things up!
If that ruffles your feathers, fear not because elevating and demoting specific concentrations as needed to meet the demands of modern-day sports fans is really nothing new when it comes to following standard Olympic protocol. Did you know that tug of war had a run in five different Olympic Games between 1900 and 1920? And believe it or not, but long before Clint Eastwood made pistol duels famous in his legendary westerns, they were featured (to some degree) during the 1906 Intercalated Games in Athens, Greece. Not to forget the elite chorus singers and other artists who earned their right to claim medals atop an Olympic podium during the 1912 Games in Stockholm, Sweden. Not only that, but a version of croquet called roque, long distance plunging, and live pigeon shooting — literally, real birds — even had their blissful moments in the Olympic sun.
But alas, to stay fresh, hit refresh — and that’s exactly what the Olympic governing body has done in crafting the sport lineup for the 2024 Summer Games in Paris, France.
For more on the Olympics:
Everything to Know About the U.S. Gymnastics Olympic Trials: "Got to See It to Believe It"
How Much Do Olympians Get Paid to Compete? It’s Complicated — Here’s What We Know
Kelly Clarkson, Peyton Manning, and Mike Tirico Will Host the 2024 Olympics Opening Ceremony
What Olympic sports have been added to the 2024 Paris Games?
Whether fans are watching the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France live in the City of Light, at home on NBC’s exclusive coverage of the tournament or on the go through Peacock, which is offering a first-ever multi-view as well as a “whip-around,” live studio show called GoldZone, with so much content to choose from, don’t forget to keep an eye out for the four new sports set to make a splash at this year’s Olympiad. In a multi-pronged effort to be more inclusive, gender-balanced and youth-centered in its selection of sport concentrations, breaking, sport climbing, skateboarding and surfing have all been added to the lineup in France.
Having made its Olympic debut at the 2018 Youth Games in Buenos Aires, breaking is a popular style of acrobatics-infused dance that originated from hip hop culture in the 1970’s. Paris will feature a men’s event and a women’s event where 16 B-Boys and 16 B-Girls will square off against each other in jaw-dropping solo battles.
The sport climbing category consists of three formats: boulder, speed and lead. According to Paris 2024, the boulder event tests the athletes’ ability to scale 4.5-meter-tall walls with no ropes, in the least attempts possible, over a set period of time. The speed event is designed to showcase the athletes’ precision and explosiveness as they mount 15-meter-high walls, featuring five degrees of incline. In the lead event, athletes have six minutes to climb as high as they can on a 15-meter wall without having seen the potential routes in advance.
After successfully debuting during the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo, Japan, skateboarding is back on the menu in Paris, featuring the sport’s two most popular disciplines in park and street. With each event category consisting of two rounds, judges will be scrutinizing the competitors’ most impressive tricks, taking into consideration their degree of difficulty, speed, and spectrum of moves.
After its inaugural run in the 2020 Tokyo Games, the surfing events for the Paris Games will occur outside of France on the fabled Teahupo’o waves in Tahiti. Five judges will assess the athletes’ variety, type and trick difficulty while analyzing the surfers’ overall flow, power and speed. The French Polynesia venue, which has been the site of the Pro Tahiti world championship competition for more than two decades, is revered for not only its best-in-class, challenging surf for short boarders, but also for its breath-taking beauty.
RELATED: The Olympic Medals in Paris Will Literally Contain a Piece of the Eiffel Tower
Which sports have been removed from the 2024 Summer Olympics in France?
With breaking, sport climbing, skateboarding, and surfing all earning roster spots in the 2024 Paris Games, their promotion sadly means that multiple sports are getting the boot. Come July, three sports will be absent from the City of Light, including karate, softball and the heavy hitter, baseball. Karate’s viewership has historically failed to generate significant traction with audiences, and the difficulty with baseball has traditionally been due to scheduling conflicts with Major League Baseball (MLB). While baseball was introduced in 1992 and softball in 1996, both were removed for the 2012 Games in London and only returned for a brief stint with the 2020 Tokyo Games.
Though fans of America’s National Pastime are unhappy to see their beloved sport strike out, both baseball and softball are set to return to the mound for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, California. According to The Athletic’s Evan Drellich, the MLB and MLBPA (the league’s players association) sent a joint letter to the IOC, urging the Olympic organizers to reinstate baseball and softball for the 2028 Games.
A Complete List of Olympic Sports for the 2024 Paris Games
In total, there will be a cumulative 329 medal events at the 2024 Paris Games, stemming from 32 different sports. Here is the full list of all 32 featured sports:
Aquatics (Swimming, Marathon Swimming, Diving, Water Polo, Artistic Swimming)
Archery
Athletics
Badminton
Basketball (3x3, Basketball)
Boxing
Breaking
Canoe (Canoe Sprint, Canoe Slalom)
Cycling (BMX Freestyle, BMX Racing, Road Cycling, Track Cycling)
Equestrian (Equestrian Eventing, Equestrian Dressage, Equestrian Jumping)
Fencing
Football
Golf
Gymnastics (Artistic Gymnastics, Rhythmic Gymnastics, Trampoline Gymnastics)
Handball
Hockey
Judo
Modern Pentathlon
Rowing
Rugby (Rugby Sevens)
Sailing
Shooting
Skateboarding
Sport Climbing
Surfing
Table Tennis
Taekwondo
Tennis
Triathlon
Volleyball (Beach Volleyball, Volleyball)
Weightlifting
Wrestling (Greco-Roman Wrestling, Freestyle Wrestling)
NBC and Peacock will present live coverage of the Opening Ceremony on Friday, July 26, beginning at noon ET. Telemundo will provide Spanish-language coverage beginning at 1 p.m. ET. Primetime coverage will begin at 7:30 p.m. ET/PT on NBC and Peacock.
