Olympic Games (2024)

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      Paris Olympics Party Features Zendaya, LeBron James, Snoop Dogg and More Stars

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      Athletes, actors and fashion designers celebrated before the opening of the Games in Paris at a bash hosted by LVMH, the French luxury goods conglomerate.The French luxury conglomerate LVMH, which has spent about $163 million inserting itself into seemingly every nonsport aspect of the Olympics, held an opening ceremony of its own on Thursday night. Serena Williams, Jeremy Allen White, Charlize Theron, Mick Jagger, the French actor Omar Sy and Snoop Dogg were among the many starry guests who attended LVMH’s pre-party, grandly called the Prelude to the Olympics.As is so often the case when fashion meets branding meets a glitzy event, Anna Wintour was one of the evening’s co-hosts, sweeping serenely down the red carpet (actually more like a green running track) with the Australian director Baz Luhrmann on her arm. She wore a long glittery gown that Nicolas Ghesquière, the women’s creative designer for Louis Vuitton, “very kindly designed for me for tonight,” she said. Mr. Luhrmann wore denim pants and a denim shirt.Though a number of stars — Zendaya, LeBron James, Zac Efron, Elizabeth Banks — made it into the party at the Louis Vuitton Foundation without stopping, others gamely opined about fashion, sports and how the Olympics brings people together. Wearing a beautifully tailored non-LVMH suit and a pair of sneakers, the tennis star Novak Djokovic undercut his surly reputation with charming anecdotes in both French and English. (He said he had to take it easy — he was scheduled to play his first match, against Matthew Ebden of Australia, on Saturday.)Mr. Luhrmann said that the party represented the dissolving of boundaries among different kinds of celebrity. “We’re living in a world where, whether you come from popular music, fashion, sports — there’s no silo,” he said. “It’s all one great piece of theater.”“Sports stars are the new superstars,” Ms. Wintour said.It’s hard to overstate how deeply entwined the 2024 games are with LVMH, the massive company whose brands include Louis Vuitton, Moët & Chandon, Tiffany and Sephora. LVMH’s jewelry workshop Chaumet designed the medals the athletes will receive. Louis Vuitton created the trunks the medals will be carried on, and the trays on which they will be presented.The outfits worn by the French athletes in the opening ceremony, including sleeveless jackets for women, were designed by the LVMH company Berluti, together with the French fashion editor Carine Roitfeld. Sephora, the LVMH cosmetics company, is sponsoring the Olympic torch relay, which will end when the games begin on Friday.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      How a U.S. Antidoping Law Fueled Global Tensions

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      The Olympics are opening amid outright antagonism between international sports authorities and the United States over American investigations into the handling of doping allegations abroad.In the tumultuous final weeks of Donald J. Trump’s presidency, he signed into law, with little fanfare, bipartisan legislation that gave the United States vast new powers to police doping at competitions like the Olympics.The law authorized the Justice Department to criminally prosecute coaches, trainers, doctors and sports officials from around the world involved in facilitating doping, even if the event was held outside the United States.Nearly four years later, simmering anger among global athletic authorities about use of the law has exploded into public conflict. That has left the Olympic and antidoping movements unsettled as the Summer Games prepare to open on Friday in Paris and raised new questions about the reach of U.S. law enforcement powers abroad.The Justice Department is continuing to investigate whether Chinese antidoping authorities and the World Anti-Doping Agency — the organization, known as WADA, that is supposed to ensure a level playing field in sports — covered up the positive tests of nearly two dozen elite Chinese swimmers who went on to win medals at the last Summer Games.Some of those swimmers are competing again in Paris.The backlash from the investigation intensified on Wednesday when the International Olympic Committee announced that it had awarded the 2034 Winter Games to Salt Lake City. The award came with a stunning catch: The committee, deeply unnerved by the U.S. investigation, insisted on the right to rescind the decision if the United States continues to take actions “where the supreme authority of the World Anti-Doping Agency in the fight against doping is not fully respected.”The move set up a situation in which the bid may be contingent on the results of a Justice Department and F.B.I. investigation and led to new salvos between two camps. On one side are the I.O.C. and WADA, and on the other are Travis Tygart, the head of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, Congress and advocates for athletes.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Why the Olympics’ Parade of Nations Is the World’s Costume Party

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      When the athletes march in — or float in, as they will in Paris on Friday — you can enjoy the illusion that it’s a small world after all.Welcome back to the Olympics, and a five-ringed circus of sport and security, national pride and international sponsorship.This summer’s Games begin in Paris this Friday, with an uncommon opening ceremony: athletes and acrobats floating along the Seine for as many spectators as the antiterror police will allow. “No other country would have tried this,” crowed President Emmanuel Macron in an interview this week, though the ministers by his side will be from a caretaker government. France is still processing its recent snap legislative election, which nearly brought the far right to power. The ceremony will be all about France’s openness to the world. Not all the local spectators will approve of the message.A rendering of the opening ceremony of the Paris Games. Participants will sail upriver to the Eiffel Tower and the Trocadéro: two landmarks of the capital that were built for 19th-century World’s Fairs.Florian Hulleu/Paris 2024, Agence France-Presse, via Getty ImagesA big modern show, then, after the Covid-shocked, zero-spectator Summer Games in Tokyo. But for all its contemporary soft power — the “Emily in Paris” tie-in, the medals displayed in Louis Vuitton trunks — these Paris Olympics will also be a throwback.The modern Games are a French invention, after all: a projection of Panhellenic manhood onto contemporary Europe by a romantic educator and “fanatical colonialist” (as Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Games, called himself). The opening ceremony, especially, plunges the world’s athletes into the nationalist structures of the late 19th century. The flag-waving of the Olympics, the it’s-a-small-world amusements of the universal exhibition, or the repellent human zoos at colonial fairs: there have been many ways to bring the whole world to Paris.This year’s parade of nations will be on the water. Teams will process through the city center on nearly 100 boats before arriving at the Trocadéro.Florian Hulleu/Paris 2024, Agence France-Presse, via Getty ImagesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Racheal Kundananji Leads Zambia Against USWNT at Paris 2024

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      In seven years, Racheal Kundananji went from playing her first organized game to signing a multimillion-dollar contract. Her rise could have lasting effects.Racheal Kundananji was just 17 when she showed up to practice with her first-ever soccer team wearing track spikes.Until then, track and field was the only organized sport she had known in the Zambian copper-mining region where she grew up. Now she was sprinting around a bumpy patch of dirt that seemed more suitable for off-road biking than for soccer, displaying skills as rugged as the field itself.“She would run very fast,” said Risto Mupaka, a coach of the team, Konkola Queens. But, he added, “turning was a problem.”It didn’t take her long to figure out the game. After only four practices, Kundananji played her first match. She scored three goals.Seven years since that debut, Kundananji, 24, will lead Zambia’s national team into the Paris Olympics carrying a title that those who knew her at 17 could have scarcely believed: She is now one of the most valuable women’s soccer players on the planet.Bay F.C., a San Francisco-based expansion team in the National Women’s Soccer League, paid $788,000 to acquire Kundananji in February. It was the highest transfer fee ever paid for a female player.Darren Yamashita/USA Today Sports, via ReutersWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      What Do Olympians Eat for Breakfast?

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      The road to the Olympics is paved with carbs.An estimated 15,000 athletes are prepared to compete in Paris this summer. Most will arrive with detailed plans for what to eat before, during and after their events.“Part of their training is their nutrition,” said Sarah Wick, a sports dietitian and the director of sports nutrition for the Ohio State Sports Medicine Institute. “It’s just like strength and conditioning. They need to know just what nutrition they need, and when they need it.”High-performance athletes require plenty of carbohydrates for energy and enough protein to repair their muscles and recover between workouts. Every event and athlete has different needs, but they all require fuel, and lots of it. Still, that doesn’t mean they’re eating only health foods.Usain Bolt, for one, estimated that he ate 100 McDonalds chicken nuggets each day at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, because they were a familiar food he knew his stomach could handle. He went on to win three gold medals.We asked a handful of Paris-bound Olympians to share their food diaries and photos from a typical training week in the lead-up to the Games.Here are their breakfast routines, along with a few other snack highlights.Getty ImagesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      When the Paris Olympics Begin, the Seine Is His Stage

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      To open the Games, the theater director Thomas Jolly has masterminded a spectacular waterborne ceremony depicting 12 scenes from French history.In French, the word for stage, “scène,” sounds exactly like the name of the river that runs through Paris.The Seine.That’s one of the first things the director Thomas Jolly liked about the idea of creating an opening ceremony that would float through the heart of Paris.For the past two years, the river has become his workroom, offering challenges unknown to most theater directors: currents and wind tunnels, a vulnerable fish hatchery, a plan for thousands of athletes to float through in boats, 45,000 police officers scattered around for security. Also required: regular check-ins with the French president and Paris mayor.As artistic director of all four Olympic and Paralympic ceremonies, he also has perks most directors could only dream of: a budget of nearly $150 million and more than 15,000 workers, including dancers and musicians. He can also expect a live audience of half a million and 1.5 billion spectators on television.If Jolly pulls it off, this will be the first time an opening ceremony is unfurled outside the secure confines of a stadium. The Seine has not seen such a celebration in 285 years, since King Louis XV celebrated the marriage of his daughter to the prince of Spain.A time-lapse video of a boat rehearsal for the opening Olympic ceremony on the Seine.By Dmitry KostyukovWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      The Windmills Are Back Up on the Moulin Rouge

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      The Paris landmark has completed its restoration after the blades fell off this spring — and just in time for the Summer Olympic Games to begin.The moulin is back. The rouge never left.The Moulin Rouge, the famed Paris cabaret, has restored its iconic windmill after its blades broke and fell to the ground in April. The construction was finished weeks before the Paris Olympics are set to begin — and before the flame passes by on its relay route through Paris on July 15.“We wanted to be ready for this special moment,” said Jean-Victor Clerico, the managing director, whose family has run the cabaret since 1955, adding, “The Moulin Rouge without the blades? It’s not the same.”The cabaret, whose name means “red windmill” in French, has stayed open through the repairs. But it had stood functionally topless since April, when parts of the lettering also fell. No one was injured; a spokeswoman blamed a mechanical problem.Sympathy poured in from around the world, Mr. Clerico said. Fans sent in letters of support, he said. Some even wrote poems. For two months, the Moulin Rouge raced to remount the aluminum blades, pushing a metalwork company to work quickly to meet their deadline.Finally, right on schedule, the cabaret celebrated its full return to glory on Friday evening with a street show. As the bright neon lights on the windmill flicked back on, a crowd of about 1,500 people burst into cheers, Mr. Clerico said.Dancers performed the cancan — an emblem of the city, and of the cabaret culture epitomized by the Moulin Rouge — in blue, white and red costumes. They yipped and kicked, rustling their ruffles and shaking their skirts. Mr. Clerico said that the outdoor show was only the second time that the cabaret put on a cancan on the street. (The first was on its 130th anniversary in 2019.)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Swimmer Trying to Make Olympic History Is Left Off the U.S. Team

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      When the sport of artistic swimming, formerly synchronized swimming, announced it would allow men to compete in the Paris Games, Bill May saw his chance. But the U.S. team chose only women.Bill May, the 45-year-old artistic swimmer who was vying for a chance to be the first man to compete in the sport at the Olympics this summer, did not make the U.S. team’s final roster, the team announced on Saturday.Of the 12 people on the U.S. artistic swimming team, only eight, plus an alternate, were chosen to travel to the Paris Games in July. Mr. May, the only man on the team — who became eligible for the Olympics when a rule change opened the competition to men for the first time — was not among them.Mr. May, who also works as the head coach of Santa Clara Artistic Swimming, one of the premier clubs in the country, did not immediately respond to a request for a comment on the decision. He said in a recent interview with The New York Times that it would be “almost like a slap in the face” if men were not represented at the Paris Games.Adam Andrasko, chief executive of USA Artistic Swimming, called Mr. May “an inspiration.”But, Mr. Andrasko said, the team had to send the strongest squad possible to Paris. One of the complicating factors is that all eight athletes have to swim all three routines — technical, free and acrobatic — and they can’t swap in and out depending on their individual strengths.“Unfortunately, the rules of artistic swimming only allow for eight athletes to swim all three routines,” Mr. Andrasko said in a statement. ”We will continue to celebrate Bill and support male participation across the sport while also celebrating the story of these eight incredible women.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More