Six months until Paris 2024: Six incredible Olympic venues you may not know

In exactly six months, the Olympic Games Paris 2024 will start with the Opening Ceremony on the river Seine.

It will be the beginning of 16 days of competition, celebration, dreams achieved, emotions stretched, and way more, in 35 venues across Paris, Ile-de-France, mainland France, and even overseas.

Paris 2024 will be an Olympic Games like no other with so many events happening in landscapes familiar from many a postcard. A variety of locations include a dream beach in the middle of the Pacific, in front of a 3,000-year-old monument, and last but not least, the celebrated Eiffel Tower.

As we celebrate the six months to go before the next Olympic Games, let’s discover six venues that will catch your eye, not only for the events happening there, but for the surroundings, too.

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Eiffel Tower Stadium

• Capacity: 12,860
• Sports: Beach volleyball
• Location: Paris

Beach volleyball players are luckier than most.

After Bondi Beach at Sydney 2000 and Copacabana at Rio 2016, the athletes will play in another iconic location in six months' time.

For, at Paris 2024, the Eiffel Tower Stadium will host both men and women tournaments. The name's venue says it all: it's located at the foot of the most famous landmark in Paris.

There, the Iron Lady will overlook the four athletes competing in front of more than 12,000 fans. And who knows, maybe she'll be cheering them on, too?

It will not be the only venue with the Eiffel Tower as its backdrop.

The Champ de Mars Arena is nearby and will offer the same sight for athletes in judo and wrestling.

The Trocadero, located just on the other bank of the river Seine, will host the departure of the road cycling races at the Champions Park, while the marathon will pass by the foot of the Eiffel Tower.

Grand Palais

• Capacity: 8,000
• Sports: Fencing, Taekwondo
• Location: Paris

Culture is a huge vibe in Paris, with the Grand Palais perhaps one of the most important places in this regard in the locale.

For more than a century, this site located next to the Champs-Élysées has welcomed exhibitions and different artistic and sporting events.

In six months, the biggest of them all will be happening here with fencing and taekwondo competitions hosted in the Grand Palais.

Renowned for its architecture, as much as the events it hosts, everything is amazing about this building, including its magnificent nave and glass roof.

The construction of such an acclaimed structure at the end of the 19th century, for the 1900 Universal Exhibition, made it a real masterpiece, and now Olympians will be able to enjoy it, fighting in a place as prestigious as the medals they are chasing.

Concorde

• Capacity: up to 37,000
• Sports: 3x3 Basketball, BMX Freestyle, Breaking, Skateboarding
• Location: Paris

La Concorde is a square like no other.

It’s located between the Champs-Élysées and the Jardin des Tuileries. Even more amazing, on the other side of the ”most beautiful avenue in the world”, you have the Arc de Triomphe and the Louvre at the other end of one of Paris’ most notable gardens.

The biggest square in Paris is also the site of the oldest monument in Paris: Luxor Obelisk.

It was built during Ramses II reign and is more than 3,000 years old. It was given as a gift by Egypt during the XIX century and nestled in this incredible landmark ever since.

It is over here, at the foot of a monument that has stood for centuries, that the most recent sports in the Olympic programme will take place. In the heart of the city of Paris, all urban sports will gather in a temporary urban park: 3x3 basketball, breaking, BMX freestyle and skateboarding.

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Palace of Versailles

• Capacity: 15,000 to 40,000 – event dependent
• Sports: Equestrian, Modern Pentathlon
• Location: Versailles

The Palace of Versailles is the former epicentre of French royalty, a national museum, and a site with UNESCO World Heritage status.

This summer, it will also become an Olympic venue. The former home of King Louis XIV will host equestrian and modern pentathlon events, held in a temporary venue located in the famous garden of the Palace.

This site will show how rich the French history is with one of its most famous symbols, a castle whose fame and prestige has crossed time and borders.

The Palace of Versailles will also be seen by the marathon runners as the route of the 42,195km race will waeve from Paris to Versailles and back to Paris in honour of the Women's March on Versailles, a protest during the French Revolution.

Marseille Marina

• Capacity: 12,262
• Sport: Sailing
• Location: Marseille

Not all of Paris 2024's incredible Olympic venues will be concentrated in and around the French capital.

Marseille Marina is proof of that. All aspects of France will be highlighted by the Olympic Games Paris 2024 and that includes the vibrant and warm Mediterranean coast.

Sailing events will be held in Marseille, the second most populous city in France. The Olympic venue is located between two of the most important attractions in the city: the Basilique Notre-Dame de la Garde and Prado Beach.

Marseille’s port is famous, and the marina developed for the Olympic Games could have the same destiny. It could become a significant activity in a town with a huge passion for football but also a strong focus on water-based activities.

Another important milestone will be showcased here: the arrival of the Olympic Torch, from Greece, to Marseille by sea.

Teahupo’o

• Capacity: 600
• Sports: Surfing
• Location: Teahupo’o, Tahiti, French Polynesia

During the Olympic Games Paris 2024, events will also happen in the Southern Hemisphere, more than 10,000km away from mainland France.

Teahupo’o, a small village in Tahiti, an island in French Polynesia, will host surfing events.

Already famous in the surfing world as a stop on the World Surfing League tour, the crystal-clear water and mountain landscape background, makes Teahupo'o look like a postcard from paradise.

But when it comes to surf this iconic wave, the experience isn't quite so relaxing. With a height of usually two or three metres and shallow coral reefs, the site is demanding, even for the best surfers in the world.

“If we thought Tokyo was big for surfing, I think this will be a whole other level,” said Carissa Moore, the Tokyo 2020 gold medallist who announced she was stepping away from competitive surfing after the Paris Games.

But defence of her Olympic title comes first, and in one of the most iconic Olympic locations of all time.

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