Everything you need to know as Team GB sends 327 athletes to Paris Olympic Games 2024

Paris is preparing to host its first Olympic Games for 100 years later this month, amid high hopes of a record-breaking Games for Great Britain.

Here NationalWorld casts its eye over preparations and answers some of the big questions ahead of its long-awaited return to the French capital.

How is the British Team shaping up?

Team GB will send 327 athletes to the Games, their smallest team since 2008. The reduction is partly due to a failure to qualify for the men’s rugby sevens, but is also testament to more restrictive qualification procedures in a number of sports such as boxing and taekwondo. Nevertheless, the decision by funding body UK Sport to set an expected medal range of 50-70 – the top end theoretically yielding a record medal haul for a post-war Games – is testament to proven quality, as opposed to quantity, in the British ranks.

Where are our medals going to come from?

Having won six golds at last year’s World Championships, rowing is a good bet to bring home plenty of medals, along with the usual suspects of sailing and cycling. Swimming and athletics are in pretty good shape for a handful each, and individual stars abound, from teenage skateboarder Sky Brown to two-time trampoline medallist Bryony Page, and Tokyo silver medallist, weightlifter Emily Campbell.

What are the other must-see events?

If it’s host nation heroics you’re after, look no further than the men’s rugby sevens, where the emerging France side will be led by the great Antoine Dupont, or judo heavyweight Teddy Riner who will be pursuing a third individual gold medal. For something completely different, breaking will be making its Olympic debut at the urban park at La Concorde, while kayak cross – in which all four athletes race down a whitewater course at the same time – is sure to throw up plenty of thrills and spills.

What can we expect of the host city?

Plenty has changed since Paris last hosted the Olympics exactly 100 years ago. An audacious opening ceremony will see organisers do away with the traditional stadium event and instead send boatfuls of competing nations down the middle of the Seine. The majority of the venues are situated within the Paris metropolitan area and take advantage of existing infrastructure, including Roland Garros and the Stade de France. Among the scattering of outlying venues are Marseille, which will host the Olympic sailing regatta, and Tahiti, home of the surfing competition.