All eyes are on Paris 2024 Olympics

By David Mullen

Obviously, the Paris 2024 Olympics, beginning on Friday, July 26 and ending with the Closing Ceremony on Sunday, August 11, will have virtually no resemblance to the 1896 Summer Olympics, aka “the Games of the I Olympiad” in Athens, Greece from April 6 through April 15, 1896, recognized as the first international Olympic Games held in modern history. 

The biggest changes might be the competitions themselves. The first games featured 14 competitive sports, including track and field, cycling, fencing, gymnastics, shooting, swimming, tennis, weightlifting and wrestling. More than 65 percent of competing athletes were Greek. The U.S. was the only non-European country participating. Swimming events were held in the Mediterranean Sea. Boxing did not become an Olympic sport until 1904 when the games were held in St. Louis. 

Back in the late 1800s, no one could call a Samsung retailer on their Samsung phone using AT&T service and order a new Samsung 75” Class QN90C Neo QLED 4K UHD Smart Tizen TV, pay for it with a Visa credit card and pick it up in a Toyota Venza. 

No one was watching the Games in 1896 on NBC, USA Network, Golf Channel, CNBC or E! or streaming coverage on Peacock, nbcolympics.com, nbc.com, the NBC App or the NBC Olympics App. Fans were not watching wrestling — with no weight classifications — at the Panathenaic Stadium sipping a Michelob Ultra or a Coca-Cola in their licensed Men’s Fanatics Black Paris 2024 Summer Olympics Pullover Hoodie ($79.99). If the hoodie gets soiled, reach for the Tide detergent. Proctor & Gamble is an official Olympic sponsor.

These brands and many others have spent hundreds of millions of dollars for the rights to control brand marketing at the Paris Games. The one thing that remains constant is that the Athens 1896 Olympics and the Paris 2024 Olympics are organized and governed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which was started by French aristocrat Pierre de Coubertin in Paris in 1894.

Viewers and streamers will see more than advertising from the myriads of IOC-approved corporate sponsors. They will be treated to 39 sports, 329 events and more than 10,000 athletes. And what they will be watching would shock those that thought the Mediterranean Sea was an Olympic-size swimming pool 128 years ago. 

Coming off the COVID-19 hangover of the Tokyo 2020, which became the turned 2021 Olympics, Paris is being billed as the first gender-equal Olympics. The same number of male and female athletes are set to take part in the Paris Games. To support the inclusion umbrella, Visa is spending heavily behind the “Not Without You” campaign, Samsung is promoting the message “Open Always Wins” and Toyota is driving home a “Mobility for All” theme.

As far as personalities, from U.S. flag bearer LeBron James to the American treasure gymnast Simone Biles, there is no battle of the sexes when it comes to marketing star power. In fact, the advantage traditionally goes to the women athletes, with a number of star gymnasts, swimmers, sprinters and hoopsters ready to win over the hearts and wallets of American TV viewers. 

These Olympics are the first designed with social media in mind. The IOC is evoking Rule 40, where Olympic athletes will be monitored for “personal non-Olympic partner” messaging. Team USA canoer Evy Leibfarth unwrapped her IOC-approved merchandise and water-resistant apparel from Nike and Ralph Lauren to an adoring audience on TikTok. 

In an attempt to make the Olympic Games more relevant and attractive to a younger audience more motivated by Instagram posts than scores posted in synchronized swimming, the IOC has introduced  games that have Olympic purists — if there is such a group — scratching their heads. 

New sports this year include competitive breakdancing, the urban dancing first introduced on the streets of New York City in the 1970s; kayak cross, where competitors can use their oars for jostling and kiteboarding, some high energy form of sailing. Sport climbing, surfing and skateboarding are in. Baseball, softball and karate are out.

The modern pentathlon has been condensed into 90 minutes. It’s an “arena football” version designed to appeal to short attention spans. Men can compete in artistic swimming for the first time. Women’s boxing introduces a bantamweight class. Skeet shooting and volleyball are getting similar edits for time.

With Paris six hours ahead of New York, seven ahead of Dallas and nine hours ahead of Los Angeles, short highlight clips will take precedence over live action.  

By all accounts the Athens 1896 Olympics were a huge success. The Games have lived on and evolved. The Paris 2024 Olympics will be measured by the number of social media hits and eyes on the TV screens and phone and tablets using streaming services than the wave currents swimmers faced in the Mediterranean Sea.

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