When are the Olympic and Paralympic Games and who is taking part?
The summer Olympics run from 26 July to 11 August, with 10,500 athletes competing in 32 sports and 329 medal events.
The Paralympics run from 28 August to 8 September, featuring 4,400 athletes in 22 sports and 549 medal events.
There will be 206 countries represented at the Olympics, and 184 at the Paralympics.
Paris previously held the summer Games in 1900 and 1924.
It will become only the second city to host them three times. London held them in 1908, 1948 and 2012.
The last summer Olympics took place in Tokyo in 2021, delayed by a year because of Covid.
There will be 15 Olympic and 11 Paralympic venues in central Paris.
The triathlon, marathon swimming and Para-triathlon events will take place in the capital’s Seine river.
The Stade de France will be the venue for the main athletics events. Six regional cities will stage football matches.
Marseille, on the Mediterranean coast, will host the sailing.
Surfing will take place in Teahupo’o, in Tahiti – a French overseas territory in the South Pacific.
The organisers say the Games will mainly use existing or temporary structures, to help reduce cost and carbon emissions.
Preparing the venues is reported to cost about 8bn euros (£6.85bn).
In July 2023, the president of the organising committee said the budget was “under control”.
Break-dancing or “breaking” will debut as an Olympic sport. The gymnastic style of dancing originated in New York in the 1970s.
The four events introduced in Tokyo – BMX, skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing – will continue.
Karate and baseball have been dropped.
Olympic opening ceremonies usually involve athletes parading in a stadium. In Paris, they will parade on a river.
The national squads will sail down the Seine for 6km (3.8 miles) through the centre of the city.
Athletes will gather in a stadium in a park called the Trocadero for the lighting of the Olympic Flame.
The organisers say they wanted to let the public watch the opening ceremony for free. Half a million spectators are expected to line the riverbank.
Neither Russia nor Belarus are allowed to send teams because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Belarus’ support for it. However, athletes from those countries can compete as Individual Neutral Athletes.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov criticised the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for not also barring Israel from taking part because of its military operation is Gaza.
IOC president Thomas Bach told the Reuters news agency that the comparison is wrong, and confirmed Israel’s participation.
There will also be a Refugee Olympic Team for athletes displaced from their home countries.
In the Tokyo Games, this team had 29 members from 11 countries including Syria, South Sudan, Afghanistan, and Cameroon.
(BBC)
