PARIS, France — The 2024 Paris Olympics was a thrilling spectacle that showcased thousands of athletes in hundreds of events.
It was the third time that Paris hosted the Summer Olympics, and the first time in 100 years -- making 2024's festivities a century in the making. Paris first hosted the Summer Olympics for the 1900 Games.
The Olympic Games have changed a lot since 1924, naturally, but some traditions and results have remarkably stayed the same in the 10 decades since. The 1924 Paris Olympics started many traditions that continue today.
Similarities
U.S. wins medal table
Team USA's dominance at the Summer Olympics is a long-standing tradition stretching back to the first version of the Games in 1896. The United States scored 99 medals (45 gold) in 1924, over 60 more than the next closest competitor -- Finland. At the 2024 Paris Olympics, Team USA scored 126 medals (40 gold) to top the table. China equaled Team USA's 40 gold medals but finished in second with 91 total medals.
The United States has now finished at the top of the Olympic table in 19 of the 30 Summer Olympics.
Host country France finished third in 1924 with 38 total medals (13 gold). France finished fifth in 2024 with 64 total medals (16 gold).
Stade Yves-du-Manoir was used for events
Most of the 1924 Paris Olympics venues did not return for the 2024 Summer Olympics, either because they were torn down long ago or were too small to accommodate the size of the games in the 21st century. However, one venue made its Olympic return in 2024: Stade Yves-du-Manoir.
The stadium was the main site for the 1924 Summer Olympics. It hosted the Opening Ceremony and many of the events, including athletics, cycling, horse riding, gymnastics, tennis, and some football matches. The stadium was named Stade de Colombes until 1928.
During the 2024 Paris Olympics, the stadium was the venue for field hockey events. Field hockey was not offered at the 1924 Summer Olympics.
France scores a podium sweep
The only podium sweep of the 2024 Summer Olympics was won by France, the host country. Joris Daudet, Sylvian Andre, and Romain Mahieu finished took gold, silver, and bronze, respectively, in the men's BMX racing final on Aug. 2.
France's last Olympic podium sweep coincidentally came 100 years ago at the 1924 Paris Olympics. Albert Seguin earned gold while Jean Gounot and Francois Gangloff shared silver in the men's gymnastics side horse vault event.
The side horse vault was not the only event to feature a podium sweep in 1924. The United States took three podium sweeps in diving events and Sweden swept the modern pentathlon podium.
There was an Olympic Village
Olympians were housed at an Olympic Village for the first time at the 1924 Summer Olympics. The village was made up of cabins near the Olympic Stadium to house visiting athletes.
The 1924 Olympic Village lacked the robust features seen today, though. Female athletes were not even allowed in the village until 1956.
Still, the 1924 Olympic Village served as the first stepping stone for the feature to evolve into the behemoth that it is today.
U.S. takes gold in same four athletics events
There were 43 nations that won a medal in the athletics events at the 2024 Summer as opposed to just 15 medal-winning nations in the 1924 Summer Olympics athletics events. Team USA topped the athletics medal table in both years, scoring 14 medals in 2024 and 12 medals in 1924.
In both years, the United States won a gold medal in the same four athletic events. These four were the men's 110-meter hurdles, men's 400-meter hurdles, men's 4x100-meter relay, and the men's shot put.
Grant Holloway and Rai Benjamin won the two hurdle races, respectively in 2024. Ryan Crouser won the shot put event. Team USA's entry of Christopher Bailey, Vernon Norwood, Bryce Deadmon, Benjamin, and Quincy Wilson won the 4x100 relay.
Daniel Kinsey and Morgan Taylor won the hurdle races, respectively, in 1924. Bud Houser won the shot put event. The U.S. entry of Commodore Cochran, Alan Helffrich, Oliver MacDonald, and William Stevenson won the 4x100 relay.
Paris reaches top of Olympic host table
Even though it took 100 years for the Summer Olympics to return to Paris, the city once again shares the title for most times hosted the Games.
Paris is tied with London, England for the most Olympic host appearances with three.
When Paris hosted the 1924 Summer Olympics, it became the first city to host the Games two times.
Los Angeles will join London and Paris at the top of the list when the 2028 Summer Olympics are hosted in the city.
The Games were broadcast live
The 1924 Summer Olympics were the first version of the Games to be broadcast live over radio. The technology of the day limited the broadcasts to France for the most part but still provided an avenue for immediate coverage of the events.
NBC's coverage of the 2024 Paris Olympics proved to be the most extensive to date, with every event broadcast live on Peacock.
Soccer began before the opening ceremony
With the Olympic soccer tournaments typically taking over two weeks to complete, matches are held before the Olympic opening ceremony all the way until the days just before the closing ceremony.
In 1924, though, the tournament began on May 25, over a month before the July 5 opening ceremony. The gold medal match took place on June 9, still nearly a month before the opening ceremony. Uruguay won the gold. There was no women's soccer tournament at the 1924 Summer Olympics.
The 2024 men's tournament began on July 24, two days before the opening ceremony. The first matches of the women's tournament took place on July 25. The men's final was held on Aug. 9 with Spain winning. The United States won the women's final on Aug. 10.
Rugby made a rare appearance
Rugby was offered for just the fourth time at the 1924 Paris Olympics, with the United States taking gold in the rugby union and rugby sevens events.
Rugby did not return again at the Summer Olympics until the 2016 Rio Olympics.
In 2024, France captured gold in the men's rugby sevens event. New Zealand won the women's rugby sevens tournament.
Three flags were raised at the closing ceremony
The 1924 Paris Olympics introduced another longstanding Olympic tradition during the closing ceremony. Three flags were raised at the closing ceremony. These flags were the Olympic rings flag, the flag of France to represent Paris, and the flag of Netherlands to represent Amsterdam, which hosted the 1928 Summer Olympics.
The 2024 Summer Olympics closing ceremony featured the Olympic rings flag, the flag of France, and the flag of the United States.
Team USA won bronze in men's water polo
One medal oddity was scored by the United States in the men's water polo event. Team USA scored a bronze medal in both Summer Olympics.
In 1924, the U.S. beat Sweden 3-2 in the bronze medal match. In 2024, the U.S. beat Hungary in a penalty shootout to take the bronze.
Team USA last won a bronze medal at the 1972 Munich Olympics and has 10 medals in men's handball.
Hungary, France score silvers in same fencing events
Fencing saw two other nations score a silver medal in the same events 100 years apart.
France's Yannick Borel earned a silver in the men's individual epee event in 2024. That same event saw France's Roger Ducret win silver in 1924.
Hungary won silver in the team saber event after losing to South Korea in the 2024 final. Italy beat Hungary in the same event in 1924, leaving Hungary with a silver medal.
France and Hungary scored nearly identical fencing medal totals in 1924 and 2024. France won six medals in 1924 fencing events, including three golds, and won seven medals in 2024, including one gold. Hungary won four fencing medals in 1924 and three in 2024, earning one gold each year.
Differences
Number of athletes and countries
Possibly the most noticeable difference between the 1924 Summer Olympics and the 2024 Summer Olympics is the sheer size of the competition.
The 1924 Summer Olympics featured just over 3,000 athletes from 44 nations. The 2024 Summer Olympics featured over 10,000 athletes from 206 nations and affiliations. Only 135 women competed in 1924 while half of the 10,000 athletes in the 2024 Games are women.
While the 1924 Games look small compared to today, the Games were a huge step up from the 1920 Antwerp Olympics, when only 29 nations were represented.
Number of sports
One of the reasons the 2024 athlete count is much larger than the 1924 Games is that there are just over 200 more events being held today.
The 1924 Summer Olympics featured 126 events in 17 sports. The 2024 Summer Olympics saw 329 events in 32 sports.
The only sport offered in 1924 that no longer is around is polo, which was last featured in the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
Another contributing factor is that every sport has an equal number of men's and women's events in 2024. This was not the case in 1924.
Finland's fall from grace
Finland was one of the best competitors from the 1908 Summer Olympics until the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. In 1924, Finland finished second on the medal table with 14 golds and 37 total medals.
The Nordic nation has not scored 10 medals at an individual Summer Olympics since the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
Finland missed out on the medal table entirely in 2024. It's the first time that Finland has failed to earn a medal. The country sent 56 athletes to Paris, as opposed to 121 in 1924.
Finland's Winter Olympics efforts have been much better in recent decades.
2024 Summer Olympics took place in different cities, parts of the world
Every event of the 1924 Summer Olympics took place in or around Paris. Meanwhile, the 2024 Summer Olympics featured venues across France and the Pacific Ocean.
Most of the 2024 Games were held in Paris but other French cities got to host Olympic action as well. Marseille hosted soccer and sailing, Cateauroux hosted shooting, and Lille hosted basketball and handball, among other cities.
The wildest venture of the 2024 Summer Olympics took place 9,000 miles away from Paris on the island of Tahiti in French Polynesia. Surfing events were held at the Pacific Ocean location.
China's lack of presence in 1924
China placed second in the medal table in 2024, stretching its top-three streak to the last seven Olympic Games.
China's first short-lived attempt at competing at the Summer Olympics came in 1924 when four tennis players were sent to represent the Republic of China.
These four athletes took place in the opening ceremony but withdrew their entries shortly after, ending China's Olympic hopes.
The nation sent one athlete to the 1952 Helsinki Olympics and did not begin competing heavily until the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
The U.S. sent more athletes than France in 2024
Host nation France entered the most athletes in the 1924 Summer Olympics with 401 competitors. The United States sent the second most with 299.
Team USA sent the most athletes to Paris in 2024 with a resounding 592 competitors. France, meanwhile, sent 573 athletes to the Paris Olympics, 19 fewer than the United States.
Haiti won a medal in 1924
Only 27 nations earned a medal in the 1924 Summer Olympics, compared to 91 in 2024. One of the few countries that earned a medal in 1924 that did not in 2024 was Haiti.
Haiti won its first-ever Olympic medal in a shooting event in 1924. The nation has won just one other medal, a silver in a 1928 Amsterdam Olympics long jump event.
Haiti sent seven athletes to the 2024 Paris Olympics but none of them were able to earn a medal.
Art competitions in 1924
The Summer Olympics hosted art competitions from 1912 to 1948. Five art competitions were held at the 1924 Paris Olympics for architecture, literature, music, painting, and sculpture.
Host nation France earned three medals, including one gold. Luxembourg and Greece took the other two gold medals. The architecture and music competitions did not hand out a gold medal in 1924.
There were no art competitions at the 2024 Summer Olympics. However, the non-competitive Cultural Olympiad will run alongside the Olympics and Paralympics until Sept. 8.
France hosted the Winter Olympics in the same year
France's hosting efforts in 1924 did not begin with the Summer Olympics opening ceremony. The first edition of the Winter Olympics was hosted in Chamonix, France in January and February 1924.
The Summer Olympics and Winter Olympics were hosted in the same year until 1994. However, France was the first of just three nations to host the events in the same year.
The United States hosted the 1932 Summer Olympics (Los Angeles) and the 1932 Winter Olympics (Lake Placid). Germany hosted the 1936 Summer Olympics (Berlin) and the 1936 Winter Olympics (Garmisch-Partenkirchen).
France will host the Winter Olympics for the fourth time in 2030.
The cost was widely different
The 1924 Paris Olympics cost an estimated 10 million francs, equivalent to around $11.7 million in 2024.
The 2024 Paris Olympics cost an estimated 9 billion euros, equivalent to around $9.8 billion!
Women were limited to four sports
As mentioned before, women are much better represented in the 2024 Summer Olympics as opposed to the 1924 Summer Olympics.
In 1924, women were only allowed to compete in diving, fencing, swimming, and tennis events.
In 2024, there were hundreds of events for women to compete in at the Paris Olympics.
The first medals in 1924 were won before the opening ceremony
Kazakhstan won the first medal in the 2024 Paris Olympics with a bronze in a shooting event on July 27, a day after the opening ceremony.
The first medal of the 1924 Summer Olympics was handed out in a rugby union contest on May 18, nearly two months before the opening ceremony.
The United States won gold in the final over France. The match was met with a raucous crowd that stormed the field and reportedly forced Team USA to enter the locker room under police protection.
Only three nations competed in the sport in 1924. Romania took bronze by default after losing to the other two nations.
