Nora Brennan, '26
This summer, the Olympics will be held in Paris from July 26 to August 11. It will be the 100th anniversary since Paris last held the Olympic games. This year will be an exciting one with returning stars, expected debut stars, and new sports.
Returning stars expected at the Olympic games include Simone Biles, who did not participate in the Tokyo Olympics to take care of her mental health. She may or may not be at the Olympics this summer. She is hoping to return, but it has not been confirmed yet. Another returning athlete is Sky Brown, who won a bronze medal in skateboarding at the age of 13 at the Tokyo Olympics. This year, she is attempting to qualify for surfing in addition to skateboarding. Katie Grimes and Katie Ledecky will both be returning to compete in swimming events, one a veteran and one only 18. Both are expected to win many medals for Team USA.
Some of the expected young and new stars include Griffen Colapinto, who didn’t qualify for surfing in Tokyo. He has since been ranked number 1 in the world and qualified for the US Olympic team very early on. Erriyon Knighton ran a 19.84 in the 200m during the Olympic trials, breaking Usain Bolt’s records, and is expected to win some medals this year for the United States during this year’s Olympic track and field events. Additionally, Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes will participate for the first time together at the Olympics in women’s beach volleyball. They both played together at the University of Southern California and won back-to-back NCAA titles, reunited recently to win the 2023 World Championships, and hope to win their first Olympic gold together this year.
This year, for the first time ever, breakdancing will be held as an Olympic sport. Additionally, surfing, skateboarding, and sport climbing, which were all new at the Tokyo Olympics, will appear again this year in Paris. With these additional inclusions to the Olympics, there will also be sports removed. Baseball and softball will not be included this year but will return again at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Karate has also been removed from the Paris Olympics, but with no return planned for this sport, to many karate fans' disappointment.
As the games grow closer, and the city of Paris gets ready to host these games, athletes will continue competing for these coveted Olympic spots to try and win on a global stage with everyone watching. The games are sure to be exciting with returning old stars and new Olympic qualifiers to watch, making this an exciting year to tune into the Olympics.
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