Paris 1924 to Paris 2024: A look back, and a look ahead
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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — A lot can happen in a century.
And if the athletes and the spectators of the VIII Olympiade Paris 1924 (the 1924 Paris Summer Olympics) were able to see the Jeux de la XXXIII Olympiade (2024 Paris Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games) the big-eyed, human-sized phryges — nod to the red caps worn during the French Revolution — walking around the city would be only one of many unfamiliar sights.
Colorado, specifically Colorado Springs — the self-proclaimed ”Olympic City USA” and home of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Museum (USOPM) — takes the Olympics and Paralympics very seriously.
“There will probably be about 200 [committees] this year,” said Gary Heaston, a guest experience team member at the Olympic and Paralympic Museum, which currently has an exhibit contrasting the 1924 and 2024 Games.
“There were about 126 events then, and they’ll be over 300 medal events alone at this Games,” Heaston said.
Three hundred and twenty-nine to be exact (after thousands of trials and competition events) in which more than 590 Team USA athletes will compete.
The 1924 Paris Summer Olympics were the second time that Paris welcomed the Games after first hosting in 1900 for the second modern Olympiad after the Games returned in Athens in 1896.
Pierre De Coubertin, a French academic and strong proponent of physical education who became known as the “father of the Olympic Games,” is credited with re-igniting the Olympic flame (not literally; the Olympic flame wouldn’t be introduced until the 1928 Amsterdam Summer Olympics).
De Coubertin mobilized a mass of politicians, organizers and athletes to revive the Olympic Games, which had been essentially defunct since the ancient Greeks.
Adieu Basque pelota, and bonjour breakdancing
The events themselves have shifted as well.
Four demonstration sports — events included only to showcase sports specific to the host country, and not for competition — appeared in 1924. These included Basque pelota (a court, racquet sport), savate (French boxing), canoe and canne de combat (a variation of fencing using a sort of stick called a canne).
Paris 1924 also continued the Olympic Art Competition, which featured names like Maurice Ravel and Jean Giraudoux being considered in events like literature, sculpting, painting, architecture and music.
“They had a men’s polo team, which is no longer part of the Olympic competition,” said Heaston. “And now it’s 7-man rugby as opposed to 15-man rugby.”
Heaston pointed to a side wall exhibiting all of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic pictograms, the logos created to depict each sport in competition.
This year’s new addition?
“Breaking,” said Heaston. “They took out baseball and softball, and they took out karate, which were in the Tokyo 2020 Games. But breaking will be out again in 2028.”
While the International Olympic Committee (the IOC) has the final say on which sports will be included in Summer and Winter Games, there are a number of criteria — about 35 — that a sport must meet, including how it will “add to the Olympic’s legacy” to its broadcasting potential to its feasibility to fit within the scope of the Games.
Host countries also have a say in what sports might be included, which is why France was able to get Breaking officially included (it is not a “demonstration” sport, as it will be part of medal competition).
“Le breakdance” did not make the cut for the 2028 Games in Los Angeles, but baseball, softball, cricket, lacrosse, squash and flag football are all on the ticket.
Before he was king of the jungle, Tarzan was king of the pool
Team USA had the highest medal count of the 1924 Games, and both the most gold medals and overall medals in Tokyo 2020, meaning expectations for this year are high.
But with more than 160 more nations competing in 2024 compared to 1924, filling the trophy case might not be quite as easy.
Already the Olympics were of a completely different scale, boasting over 3,000 athletes in attendance coming from 45 National Olympic Committees, more than ever before.
“We had Johnny Weissmuller, who was probably one of the biggest names we had that year,” said Heaston of Team USA’s star from the 1924 Games. “Though he may be even more famous today for what he did post-Games.
Weissmuller, who some credit as being one of swimming’s first superstars, won five Olympic gold medals throughout his career and earned four medals at Paris 1924: gold medals in the 100m freestyle, the 4x200m relay, the 400m freestyle, and a bronze medal in water polo.
And when Weismuller was finished breaking world records (28 across his career) and winning Olympic medals, he took his talents and physique to the silver screen, where he starred in 12 films as “Tarzan.”
Another famous figure competing in 1924 was the multi-talented Eddie Eagan, a Denver-native and one-time University of Denver student, Army lieutenant, and Yale University and Harvard Law School graduate who to this day remains the only person to win a gold medal in the Winter Games and the Summer Games in different events.
Eagan learned to box while growing up in Denver. He began studying at the University of Denver before leaving to serve in the Army in France during World War I. Upon returning and enrolling at Yale, he competed and won the light-heavyweight gold medal at the Antwerp 1920 Olympic Games.
Eagan failed to medal in Paris four years later.
However, undeterred, he returned to the Olympic stage at Lake Placid 1932, this time bundled up and sitting on the American four-man bobsled team.
“Eagan was 34 years old, and he had never even been in a bobsled before this,” said Heaston, “but he was just in the right place at the right time.”
“And they said, ‘Hey, do you want to be part of our team,’ and he said, ‘Sure,’ and literally jumped in at the chance, and next thing you know Eddie has won two gold medals.”
The team won gold in Lake Placid, writing Eagan into Summer and Olympic history books.
100 Years of the Olympic Village
“[Paris 1924] was the first time that they had an Olympic Village,” said Heaston.
Far from the TikTok ready dormitories of the 2024 games, the original Village Olympique featured a dirt path that led to a few wooden shacks.
According to Frantz Reichel, the then Secretary General of the Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games Paris 1924, the village served to “help foster this sense of cordiality that teaches men to become acquainted with each other better first and then to hold each other in higher esteem…”
However, despite there being about 135 women competing in Paris 1924 (making up less than 5% of all athletes competing), the Village was strictly closed to them all.
Women were not allowed in the Olympic Village until Melbourne 1956, instead being housed in separate accommodation sites.
The village included a post office, a salon and laundry, and restaurants that supposedly served wine with lunch and dinner.
The 2024 Olympic Village now spans across three cities and accommodates more than 20,000 Olympic and Paralympic athletes.
Training spaces are outfitted for different sports, and the main restaurant serves about 40,000 meals a day to hungry athletes.
And while the facilities have expanded to include fitness centers, enormous laundry facilities, and a multifaith center, they’re not without concerns over sustainability to the viral cardboard beds.
Athletes within the Olympic Village have also been known to become a bit more than cordial as was originally planned — which is to say, they’re having sex. Lots of it.
The whole world is watching
Outside of the athletes and the athletics, Paris 1924 Games marked a significant step forward in news and media coverage.
“There were around 1000 journalists that were believed to have attended the 1924 Games, and fan attendances hit records,” said Heaston.
“1924 was also the first time that the Games were broadcast on radio, which was using cutting-edge technology at the time.”
About 650,000 spectators were said to have attended the Paris 1924 Games, which pales in comparison to the 15 million expected to attend this year.
NBCUniversal alone is projecting to stream 7,000 hours of coverage across the Games..
The opening ceremonies July 26th drew in nearly 29 million viewers (the most since 2012), and the Games as a whole are predicted to be viewed by nearly 1.5 billion people around the world.
Centennial Games marked by athletes from the Centennial State
All figures and facts aside, one thing has not changed: Colorado still produces some of the nation’s finest athletes.
A wealth of talent from Colorado qualified for Paris 2024
Some familiar faces to be rooting for in the days to come:
- Valarie Allman, Track and Field (Longmont, CO)
- Riley Amos, Cycling (Denver, CO)
- Christopher Blevens, Cycling (Durango, CO)
- Wyndham Clark, Golf (Denver, CO)
- Valerie Constien, Track and Field (Edwards, CO)
- Elise Cranny, Track and Field (Boulder, CO)
- Olivia Cummins, Cycling (Fort Collins, CO)
- Hailey Danz, Paralympian (Colorado Springs, CO)
- Colin Duffy, Sport Climbing (Broomfield, CO)
- Anna Hall, Track and Field (Highlands Ranch, CO)
- Beatriz Hatz, Para Track and Field (Lakewood, CO)
- Lindsey Horan, Soccer (Golden, CO)
- Woody Kincaid, Track and Field (Littleton, CO)
- Rylan Kissell, Shooting (Littleton, CO)
- Leonard Korir, Track and Field (Colorado Springs, CO)
- Elizabeth Marks, Para Swimming (Colorado Springs, CO)
- Jack O’Neil, Para Swimming (Colorado Springs, CO)
- Josh O’Neill, Wheelchair Rugby (Colorado Springs, CO)
- Jordyn Poulter, Volleyball (Aurora, CO)
- Brooke Raboutou, Sport Climbing (Boulder, CO)
- Howie Sanborn, Triathlon (Denver, CO)
- Sophia Smith, Soccer (Windsor, CO)
- Melissa Stockwell, Triathlon (Colorado Springs, CO)
- Mallory Swanson, Soccer (Highlands Ranch, CO)
- Jataya Taylor, Wheelchair Fencing (Aurora, CO)
- Jessica Thoennes, Rowing (Highlands Ranch, CO)
- Haleigh Washington, Volleyball (Colorado Springs, CO)
- Emma Weber, Swimming (Boulder, CO)
- Derrick White, Basketball (Parker, CO)