This summer’s Paris 2024 Olympics will feature a slightly different program than in past years.
One new event will be featured for the first time in Paris this summer, and three others have been removed.
The Paris 2024 opening ceremony takes place in less than three weeks on July 26. Canada is projected to win the 12th most medals of any nation.
New sport: Breaking
Breaking, a dance competition where competitors are scored by a panel of judges, is making its Olympics debut this summer. It has previously been featured at the Buenos Aires 2018 Summer Youth Olympic Games.
Involving the sport in this year’s Games is part of the committee’s plan to build an “inclusive, gender-balanced and youth-centred Games.”
Canada will be represented in breaking by 27-year-old Philip Kim, also known as Phil Wizard. He is the 2022 WDSF breaking world champion and has finished as runner-up on two other occasions.
He has a significant social media presence with roughly 75,000 followers.
Removed: Karate
Karate was included for the first time at the Tokyo 2020 Games, but it will not be featured this summer.
Canada did not get any medals in karate events during the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
It’s unlikely that karate will return for the Los Angeles 2028 Games, so it might be a while before we see it at another competition.
Removed: Baseball
Baseball was first played at the Olympics in some capacity in 1900 and was made an official Summer Olympics sport in 1992. It took a break from the Olympics after 2008 but returned for Tokyo 2020.
The final provided a very entertaining finish as Japan just narrowly edged out a victory over the United States for the gold medal.
The event will not be taking place at the Paris 2024 Olympics. The games are scheduled for the middle of the MLB calendar which could be part of the reason why the event is being skipped over.
Removed: Softball
The story for softball is similar to that for baseball. It was played at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics for the first time since 2008 but will be missing in Paris.
The good news for softball fans is that the competition will likely return for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
Canada won a bronze medal in softball at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics as they beat Mexico in the third-place game.
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