The year of Paris has arrived: the scenario that 2024 inherits from 2023 and will have to finish configuring

The first of post-Covid-19, a new Olympic year is underway. The shortest Olympiad in modern times will, in spite of pending challenges and final stages of qualification, go through its hectic final meters towards July 24, the Wednesday when rugby 7s, first, and then football, give rise to activity outside the margins of the ceremonies.

There are 137 National Olympic Committees with at least one athlete qualified for Paris 2024. From France, with 434, to Zambia, with just one. There are sports that already know more than 90% of their competitors, others with the majority of boxes yet to be completed.

A handful of days before Christmas, Solideo, the construction company in Paris 2024, noted that 84% of the works have already been completed, maintained that the totality will be reached within the time under the stipulated budget and confirmed that the keys to the Olympic and Paralympic Village will be in the hands of the Organizing Committee on March 1. The other two stages built especially for the Games - the Aquatic Center and the Porte de la Chapelle Arena - would be delivered throughout April.

Some settled, others still standing, the controversies and tensions typical of the most massive multi-sports and cultural event have overlapped during the outgoing year. If, on the eve of Tokyo 2020, the debates revolved around delays, capacity, and protocols, the Paris 2024 agenda has not jeopardized achievement, but it has diversified: from the absence of air conditioning in the rooms in the middle of the northern summer to the neutral participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes in individual disciplines, including the price of tickets and transport, the flow of spectators and security at the opening ceremony, the surf control tower or the quality of the Seine water, all have demanding a public explanation from some authority.

Not only the —for now 12- athletes with passports from Russia and Belarus will compete without the shield in their clothing. The restriction has also been tight on Guatemalans since October 2022. The partial suspension of the statutes of the National Olympic Committee in the midst of an electoral bid resulted in the loss of Olympic status and the non-invitation of the IOC to Paris. At the Pan American Games in Santiago, they competed under the name of the Independent Athletes Team (EAI). Recently, the National Court of the Central American country determined that the Olympic Charter prevails over national laws, a ruling that could lead the way to normal participation in the Games. To date, there are eight classified.

Affected and committed in various ways by the respective wars against Russia and Hamas, the formation of the Ukrainian and Israeli delegations will be another issue on which the spotlight will be placed. Just as Ukrainian athletes were forced to prepare in Slovakia for the World Cup in Budapest, the participation - and under what conditions - of their athletes in immediate Olympic qualifiers, such as the World Swimming Championships in Doha, is being evaluated within the Israeli CONN.

The first two months will offer events that are as relevant as they are attractive. In addition to igniting the first flame of the year at the Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games, the men’s European Handball Championship will put at stake an Olympic spot for the champion (the host Germany, Sweden, Spain or Croatia, medalists in the last three Games, will fight for the ticket) and the South American Pre-Olympic Football Championship will qualify for the first two. Brazil and Argentina, winners of four of the last five Olympic titles, will participate.

Already in February, between 2 and 18, Doha 2024 will receive special attention as there will be new qualifiers in all disciplines (swimming, synchronized swimming, open water, jumping and water polo). At the end of the year and for different reasons, there were known absences of two swimming figures in Paris: triple Olympic champion Sun Yang, unable to qualify, and Russian Kliment Kolesnikov, who was self-excluded because he considered the conditions of neutrality imposed “unacceptable”.

The expectation placed on the presence of world-class stars such as Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé, Rafael Nadal or LeBron James will grow in the heat of speculation and incentives. The first was proposed by Bach. The others suggested to varying degrees the will to be. The players will face continental commitments with their national teams until the days before the Games, a proximity that conspires against the wishes of millions as much as the start of the season with their clubs. The final lists of the delegations will be announced during the first half of July, just before the most popular holiday of the current year.