Part 1: Overview of the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics

The 2024 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXXIII(33rd) Olympiad, is taking place in Paris, France from 26th July to 11th August 2024.  The opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympics, branded as “Paris 2024”, was held on the Seine River in Paris, France, on 26th July 2024.

• In the history of the modern Olympics, this was the first opening ceremony to ever take place outside of a stadium.

2024 Summer Olympics:

i.Motto: “Games Wide Open” (French: Ouvrons grand les Jeux).

ii.The Official Musical Theme of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games is entitled “Parade” composed by Victor le Masne, a French Composer.

iii.Mascot: The Phryges are the official mascot of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The Phryge represents freedom and showcases important historical figures of the French Republic.

• The mascot features blue, white and red, the colours of France’s tricolour flag with the golden Paris 2024 logo emblazoned across its chest.

Participants and Events:

i.The 2024 Olympic Games host around 10,500 athletes from 203 National Olympic Committees competing across 32 sports in 329 events.

ii.Breakdancing, professionally known as Breaking, has made its debut as an Olympic sport in Paris 2024.

iii.Surfing, skateboarding, sport climbing and 3×3 basketball each made its Olympic debut at the 2020 Tokyo Games, and returns for a 2nd time at the Paris 2024 Games.

iv.Russia and Belarus have been banned from participating in the 2024 Paris Olympics due to their involvement in the ongoing war in Ukraine.

• A limited number of individual athletes from Russia and Belarus  who meet strict eligibility criteria were allowed to compete as “Individual Neutral Athletes” (AINs – Athlètes Individuels Neutres)

India At 2024 Olympics:

i.India is represented by around 117 athletes, including 70 men and 47 women, in 16 sports across 69 medal events.

ii.Rohan Bopanna, the 44-year-old Indian tennis player, is the oldest athlete representing India at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

• He is 17 years younger than the overall oldest athlete at the Games.

Indian Medal Winners:

As of 7th August 2024, Indian shooters won 3 bronze medals at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Key Highlights:

i.Manu Bhaker won the bronze in the Women’s 10 Metre Air Pistol event and became the first Indian woman to win a medal in Shooting.

• The gold and silver of the event were won by Oh Ye Jin and Kim Ye Ji of the Republic of Korea(South Korea) respectively.

ii.Manu Bhaker and Sarabjot Singh won the bronze in the Mixed 10-metre Air Pistol team event by defeating Republic of Korea’s Oh Ye Jin and Lee Wonho.

• This marks Inida’s first-ever medal in a shooting team event.
• With this victory, Manu Bhaker became the first markswoman to win two Olympic medals in a single edition.
• Gold Medal was won by Serbia’s Zorana Arunovic & Damir Mikec and Silver Medal was won by Türkiye’s Sevval Ilayda Tarhan & Yusuf Dikec.

iii.Swapnil Kusale won the bronze medal in Men’s 50-meter rifle three-position(3P) event. this marks India’s first-ever Olympic shooting medal in this category.

• Liu Yukun of China won the gold medal and Serhiy Kulish of Ukraine won the silver medal.

Note:

i.With this, India’s total medal count in shooting at the Olympics becomes seven (1 gold, 2 Silver and 4 Bronze).

ii.Other Olympic medals of India in shooting:

• Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore won the silver in Men’s Double Trap at the Athens Olympics 2004. This was India’s first Olympic medal in shooting.
• Abhinav Bindra won the Gold in Men’s 10m Air Rifle at Beijing Olympics 2008. This was India’s first & only gold medal in shooting
• At the 2012 London Olympics, Gagan Narang won the Bronze in Men’s 10m Air Rifle and Vijay Kumar won the Silver in Men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol.

Significant Result of Indian Athletes:

i.Table Tennis: Manika Batra became the first Indian table tennis player to enter the pre-quarterfinals. She beat France’s Prithika Pavade in the women’s singles.

ii.Archery: Dhiraj Bommadevara and Ankita Bhakat finished fourth in the mixed team archery event. They lost the bronze medal match to the USA’s Brady Ellison and Casey Kaufhold.

iii.Shooting:

• Arjun Babuta finished fourth in the men’s 10m air rifle event.
• Manu Bhaker finished fourth in the women’s 25m pistol final. She lost against Hungary’s Veronika Major.
• Maheshwari Chauhan and Anantjeet Singh Naruka finished in fourth in Skeet Mixed Team event. They lost to China’s Jiang Yiting and Lyu Jianlin in the bronze medal match.

iv.Badminton: Lakshya Sen finished fourth in the badminton men’s singles event. He lost to Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia in the bronze medal match.

• He became the first Indian male shuttler to reach the semi-finals of the Olympic badminton men’s singles event.
• He defeated world no. 4 Jonatan Christie of Indonesia and HS Prannoy (India) en route to the semi-finals. In the semi-finals, he lost to Viktor Axelsen of Denmark.

v.Weightlifting: Mirabai Chanu finished fourth in the women’s 49kg weightlifting event.

• Previously, she won a silver medal in the women’s 49kg category at Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Serbia’s Novak Djokovic won the gold medal in Tennis Men’s Singles:

Serbian Tennis player Novak Djokovic won his first Olympic gold medal in Men’s Singles by defeating Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz in the finals.

• With this, he becomes the 5th player in tennis history to complete the “Golden Slam”, winning all four Grand Slam titles and an Olympic gold.
• The other players who have completed the Golden Slam are Serena Williams, Rafael Nadal, Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf.
• Djokovic has won a record 24 Grand Slam men’s singles titles, including 10 Australian Open; 3 French Open; 7 Wimbledon and 4 US Open.

Cindy Winner Ngamba wins refugee team’s 1st ever Olympic medal

Cindy Winner Djankeu Ngamba, representing the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Refugee Olympic Team, settled for the bronze medal in the women’s boxing 75kg class after a semi-final loss to Panama’s Atheyna Bylon.

• She became the first-ever athlete to win a medal for the Refugee Olympic Team.
• She was born in Cameroon and has lived in England for 15 years but is still awaiting citizenship.

Refugee Olympic Team:

The Refugee Olympic Team was set up in 2016 to represent millions of displaced people across the globe. The 2024 team includes 37 athletes.

American gymnast Simone Biles won 3 Gold & 1 Silver

i.American gymnast Simone Biles won three gold medals and one silver medal, increasing her career total to seven gold medals and 11 Olympic medals overall.

• She won the Gold in Women’s All-Around and Women’s Vault events in Artistic Gymnastics and she was also a part of the United States of America(USA)’s Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Team which won the gold medal.
• She also won the Silver Medal in the Women’s Floor Exercise event.

ii.With these victories, Her total Olympic medal count is now 11, which includes 7 golds, 2 silvers, and 2 bronzes.

USA’s Katie Ledecky makes Olympics history with 9th gold medal in swimming

i.American swimmer, Katie Ledecky, won her 9th Olympic gold medal to equal the all-time women’s record.

• In Paris 2024, she won the gold in Women’s 800m Freestyle and Women’s 1500m Freestyle; and Bronze in Women’s 400m Freestyle.
• she was a part of the USA Women’s team that won the Silver in the Women’s 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay.

ii.With these victories, her total Olympic medal count stands at 14, including 9 gold, 3 silvers and 2 bronze.

iii.She has won the gold in the Women’s 800m Freestyle event for the 4th consecutive time at the Olympics.  She becomes the only woman – and only swimmer other than the USA’s Michael Phelps with four Olympic golds in the same event.

France’s Leon Marchand broke 4 Olympic records:

French swimmer, Léon Marchand, broke 4 Olympic Records and won 4 Gold Medals in individual events.

• Léon’s Olympic records are: 200m Individual Medley – 1:54.06; 200m Butterfly – 1:51.21, 200m Breaststroke 2:05.85 and 400m and Individual Medley – 4:02.95.
• He also won a bronze medal as part of the men’s 4x100m medley relay team.

World Records:

i.Pan Zhanle of China broke the world record in the men’s 100m freestyle swimming with a time of 46.40 seconds and won the gold medal. This was the first swimming world record of the Paris 2024.

• This also marked the first-ever medal of the China in this event.
• He also won the gold medal in the Men’s 4x100m Freestyle Relay and a bronze medal in the Men’s 4x200m Freestyle Relay.

ii.American swimmer, Bobby Finke won the Olympic gold medal and broke the world record to win the gold medal in the men’s 1500m freestyle swimming event.

• He set a new world record time of 14:30.67, surpassing the previous mark of 14:31.02 set by China’s Sun Yang at the 2012 London Olympics.

iii.The USA’s mixed 4x400m relay team featuring Vernon Norwood, Shamier Little, Bryce Deadmon and Kaylyn Brown broke the world record in the mixed 4x400m relay with a time of 3:07.41.

• The previous world record time of 3:08.80 was set by another American relay team (Justin Robinson, Rosey Effiong, Matthew Boling, Alexis Holmes) during the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi received Olympic Laurel

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, received the Olympic Laurel at the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics 2024 in Paris, France.  He became the third recipient of the Olympic Laurel.

• Filippo Grandi, a Vice-Chair of the Olympic Refuge Foundation, participated in the opening ceremony of Paris 2024 representing UNHCR as well as the world’s 120 million forcibly displaced people.

Background:

i.Filippo Grandi was named the recipient of the Olympic Laurel by IOC President Thomas Bach during the 142nd IOC Session held in July 2024 in Paris.

ii.Olympic Laurel is an IOC award to honour outstanding achievements in education, culture, development and peace through sport.

Points to note:

i.UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is partnering with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the International Paralympic Committee and the Olympic Refuge Foundation to support refugees at the Games in Paris.

ii.The first Olympic Laurel was awarded to 2-time Olympic champion from Kenya and IOC Honorary Member Kip Keino, during the Olympic Games Rio 2016 and the 2nd Olympic Laurel was awarded to social entrepreneur and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh during the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.

Points to note:

i.Tilotama Ikareth, a 20-year-old from Kerala(India), carried the Olympic torch along with 23 other Para taekwondo athletes at the 2024 Paris Olympics torch relay. She was born with a partially paralysed right arm and has dyslexia.

ii.Indian Army officer Lieutenant Colonel Kabilan Sai Ashok (32 years old) became India’s youngest referee to officiate the boxing events at Paris 2024.

• He is only the fourth Indian since 1904 to officiate at the Olympics.
• He is also the first to have represented the country as a player and an official at a world championship event.

India and Paris 2024:

i.On 5th August 2024, The Department of Post under the Ministry of Communication released four commemorative stamps for the 33rd Summer Olympics(Paris 2024) at an event held in New Delhi, Delhi.

• The stamps were unveiled by Union Minister Jyotiraditya M Scindia, Ministry of Communications, and Union Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya, Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports (MoYAS).
• The stamps reflect India’s commitment to sports, serving as a symbol of national pride and encouragement for athletes

ii.The Government of India has approved financial assistance of Rs 11.2 crore towards the participation of the Indian contingent in the Paris Olympics.

iii.The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced a financial contribution of Rs 8.5 crore to the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to support Indian athletes in their preparations for the 2024 Paris Olympics.