The Olympics: From breakdance to Nauru, a curious journey

The Paris 2024 Olympics got underway on Friday with a spectacular opening ceremony held on the river Seine amid heightened security. The Olympic games will end on Sunday 11 August. The following are some curiosities about the games in Paris and the Olympics in general.  

Breakdance is a sport 

Breakdance or breaking, as it is known in sport jargon, first featured in the summer youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires in 2018. After its outstanding success, breaking was added to the Paris 2024 Olympic programme as a new sport. The breaking competition comprises two events—one for men and one for women—where 16 B-Boys and 16 B-Girls will face off in spectacular solo battles. The events will take place at a temporary venue set up at Place de La Concorde, which has been transformed into an urban sport park for the games. 

Surfing in... Tahiti 

The Olympic games will be held across several venues, some of which are outside Paris. And in line with Paris 2024’s ambition to spread the games across France, the surfing competition will be held in the overseas French territory of Tahiti in the Pacific Ocean. Tahiti is part of French Polynesia and lies 4,400km south of the US State of Hawaii. The Olympic Village in Tahiti is based on temporary facilities modelled on traditional Polynesian homes known as ‘farès’. They will be relocated and redeployed as social housing after the games. 

Sport climbing debuts 

Paris 2024 sees the inclusion of sport climbing as an Olympic discipline. The Le Bourget climbing venue is one of only two facilities – the other being the Aquatics Centre in Saint-Denis – to be built specifically for the Olympic games. The climbing venue is situated in Seine-Saint-Denis area and five climbing walls (four outdoor and one indoor) will be used during the games. The indoors facilities will be retained for use by the community after the Olympics, while the outdoor structures will be redeployed elsewhere. 

Beach volley beneath the Eiffel Tower 

The Champs de Mars beneath the Eiffel Tower will host a temporary massive outdoor arena where beach volleyball and blind football events will take place. The venue will be dismantled after the games. 

Refugee team 

The IOC Refugee Olympic Team will be competing in the Paris 2024 Olympics with 37 athletes, hosted by 15 National Olympic Committees. They will compete across 12 sports. The team represents more than 100 million forcibly displaced people worldwide and competed for the first time in the 2016 summer Olympics. In Paris, the team is led by the Chef de Mission, Masomah Ali Zada; herself a member of the Refugee Olympic Team Tokyo 2020. The IOC Executive Board selected the Refugee Olympic Team and to be eligible, athletes must be elite competitors in their respective sport and be refugees in their host country, recognised by UNCHR, the UN refugee agency. Balanced representation in terms of sport, gender and regions will also be taken into consideration. 

Smallest competing country 

There are 206 countries in the International Olympic Committee and each will have at least one athlete participating in Paris 2024 games. Nauru, a small island nation situated in the Pacific Ocean, is the smallest country by population to compete in the Olympics. Nauru has a population of around 12,100. It first competed in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and has yet to win a medal. 

Most medals 

The US has won a total of 3,105 medals, holding the overall record. This includes having won the most gold, silver and bronze medals won. Germany sits second with 1,211 medals, while the now defunct Soviet Union comes in third with 1,204 medals. France and Great Britain clock in at fourth and fifth respectively with 1,039 and 1,036 medals. 

No medals 

There are more than 60 countries that have participated in the Olympics but never won a medal. Malta is one of these countries. 

Security headache 

With Paris 2024 being held across different venues in and around the city, security has been a massive headache. But the French authorities have put up a games-time force of up to 45,000 police and gendarmes, also backed up by a 10,000-strong contingent of soldiers that has set up the largest military camp in Paris since World War II. It is expected that the soldiers should be able to reach any of the city's Olympic venues within 30 minutes. 

Rafale fighter jets, airspace-monitoring AWACS surveillance flights, Reaper surveillance drones, helicopters that can carry sharpshooters, and equipment to disable drones are among the measures that will police the Paris skies. 

Five athletes, four disciplines 

Malta will field five athletes in four disciplines - shooting, judo, swimming and athletics. 

Gianluca Chetcuti will compete in shooting, while Katryna Esposito battled it out in the 48kg judo competition. Sasha Gatt and Kyle Micallef will take part in the 1,500m and 50m freestyle swimming events respectively, while track athlete Beppe Grillo will compete in the 100m race.  

Flagbearers 

Chetcuti and Gatt were the flag bearers for Team Malta during the opening ceremony held on the Seine River, where boats carrying each national delegation travelled the six-kilometre route in front of the Trocadéro, in a spectacular opening. 

Competitions 

29 July: Gianluca Chetcuti qualifying event trap shooting (9:00am) 

30 July: Chetcuti qualifying event trap shooting (9:00am); Sasha Gatt swimming 1,500m freestyle heats (11:00am) 

01 August: Kyle Micallef swimming 50m heats (11:00am) 

03 August: Beppe Grillo athletics 100m race preliminary round (10:30am) 

Katryna Esposito competed in the 48kg judo event yesterday. 

Olympic sports at Paris 2024 

• Archery 
• Artistic gymnastics 
• Artistic swimming 
• Athletics 
• Badminton 
• Basketball 
• Basketball 3x3 
• Beach volleyball 
• Boxing 
• Breaking 
• Canoe slalom 
• Canoe sprint 
• Cycling BMX freestyle 
• Cycling BMX racing 
• Cycling mountain bike 
• Cycling road 
• Cycling track 
• Diving 
• Equestrian 
• Fencing 
• Football 
• Golf 
• Handball 
• Hockey 
• Judo 
• Marathon swimming 
• Modern pentathlon 
• Rhythmic gymnastics 
• Rowing 
• Rugby sevens 
• Sailing 
• Shooting 
• Skateboarding 
• Sport climbing 
• Surfing 
• Swimming 
• Table tennis 
• Taekwondo 
• Tennis 
• Trampoline 
• Triathlon 
• Volleyball 
• Water polo 
• Weightlifting 
• Wrestling