The cost of this year's Games is estimated to be about 9bn euros (£7.6bn), less than any of the previous four Games - in Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro, London and Beijing.

Much of the funding is coming from private companies, ticket sales and sales of broadcasting rights.

The government's official auditors have said it may have to pay between 3bn and 5bn euros (£2.5bn and £4.2bn), external for costs such as policing.

For the fans on the ground, ticket holders expected to spend an estimated 2.6bn euros (£2.2bn).

Hoteliers in Paris pushed up their rates, in many cases doubling them or more, in anticipation of a big rise in demand. But there have been reports that many hotels have had unexpectedly low sales.

Bus and metro fares are also doubling in the capital during the Games. In January the Louvre art gallery put up its entrance fees by almost 30%.

Open water swimming and triathlon events are due to take place in the Seine, more than 100 years after swimming in the river was banned.

Tests done in mid-June showed that levels of E. coli in the water were 10 times the acceptable level.

However, Games organisers hope July sunshine and measures like a rainwater storage basin will make it clean enough.

On 17 July, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo took a dip to try and prove the river was safe.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Reuters

There will be tight security at the Olympic opening ceremony and at all Games venues throughout.

Between 35,000 and 45,000 security personnel, external will guard venues, and police the Olympic opening ceremony.

The original plan for the ceremony was to give free tickets to 600,000 members of the public to watch from the river's banks. However, the government was worried about potential threats such as a drone attack, and spectator numbers were scaled back to 326,000.

More than 220,000 of those will be invited guests, and 104,000 will be members of the public who have bought tickets.

An "anti-terrorism perimeter", external alongside the Seine in central Paris means the 20,000 people who live and work there must have passes to enter.

The women's 100m final will be held at 20:20 BST on Saturday, 3 August, and a little over 24 hours later, at 20:50 BST on 4 August, it will be the men's 100m final.

Both will take place at the Stade de France, where all the track and field events are being held.

Image source, Getty Images

In the men's race, can anyone deny Noah Lyles in his bid for an unprecedented four track golds?

The American, winner of Olympic bronze three years ago, claimed 100m, 200m and 4x100m gold at last year's World Championships and wants to add the 4x400m relay to his targets in Paris.

Great Britain's world bronze medallist Zharnel Hughes will hope to be among his rivals, while team-mate Louie Hinchliffe, coached by American great Carl Lewis, could provide one of the stories of the Games as the British 100m champion, 22, makes his Olympic debut following a breakout year.

Image source, Getty Images

For the women, Jamaican sprint icon Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce contests her final Olympics and aims to end her illustrious career by making the 100m podium at a fifth successive Games.

The 37-year-old five-time world 100m champion is the third-fastest woman in history, but faces stern competition from the likes of reigning world champion Sha'Carri Richardson and world 200m champion Shericka Jackson.

Russian and Belarusian athletes will be allowed to compete as neutral athletes, known as AIN (Individual Neutral Athletes).

But the IOC says they will not take part in the opening ceremony at the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

A decision on them being part of the closing ceremony will be taken at a later date.

Athletes from both countries were banned following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and will not be allowed to represent their nations at these Games.

For this summer's Games in Paris, the conditions of their inclusion include competing without flags, emblems or anthems of their country.

World Athletics has announced it will become the first international federation to award prize money at the Olympic Games.

The global governing body said a total prize pot of $2.4m (£1.9m) has been made available for this summer's Olympics in Paris, with gold medallists receiving $50,000 (£39,400).

Meet Olympic Phryge.

The name is based on the traditional small Phrygian hats the Olympic and Paralympic mascots are shaped after.

It is a symbol of freedom through French history and represents allegorical figures of the French republic.

The motto of the mascots is "Alone we go faster, but together we go further."

Image source, Getty Images

What sports are new for Paris 2024?published at 10:43 British Summer Time 26 July 2024

10:43 BST 26 July 2024

The only new sport for the 2024 Olympics is breaking. It is a style of dance that originated in the Bronx in New York during the 1970s but has evolved to become a competitive sport.

In Paris, breaking will not be seen until the latter part of the Games, with the women's event taking place on 9 August and the men's on 10 August. A total of 32 entrants, 16 men and 16 women will compete for the medals.

Baseball/softball and karate both featured in Tokyo three years ago but have been dropped for these Olympics.

The Paris 2024 Olympic Games will showcase 3,800 hours of live sport and award 329 gold medals in 32 sports over 18 days of competition across the capital and in other parts of France.

It's a gigantic beast, and you're not alone if you feel a bit overwhelmed by the amount of Olympics information about to barrel your way.

So, here's everything you need to know about the Games ahead...

Katie Falkingham
BBC Sport in Paris

I've ventured out of Paris city centre to Chateau de Versailles, the home of the equestrian events at these Games.

What a venue! If you look very, very closely in the background, you can see the Palace itself.

Image source, BBC Sport

As you can see in the foreground of the photo, while I was having my first look at the venue they were running through a practice of the victory ceremony for the eventing, which starts here on Saturday.

On this occasion, France won (obviously!) and the volunteer/newly-crowned Olympic champion truly took her moment on the podium, waving to the crowds before being presented with her 'medal'.

Matthew Henry
BBC Sport in Paris

All is quiet on the Seine for now.

These pictures are taken from Pont Ali Change, towards the start of this evening’s ceremony route.

The temporary seating will be filled later by spectators who bought precious tickets.

The observant among you will see the Eiffel Tower below which marks the end of the route.

Katie Falkingham
BBC Sport in Paris

Team GB have announced that Ethan Hayter will no longer contest the road time trial tomorrow. The Ineos Grenadiers rider will instead join up with the track team before the sport gets under way at the velodrome later in the Games.

Josh Tarling and Anna Henderson are still set to compete in the time trials for Team GB.

Team GB has flown out its own chef after deeming the food offering in the Olympic village needs "dramatic improvement".

Andy Anson, chief executive of the British Olympic Association, reported shortages of particular items as well as issues with the quality of meals served to athletes.

Athletes have consequently headed to Team GB's base in Clichy in search of better food, picking up packed meals for dinner while having their lunches and forcing the swift addition of an extra chef.

Anson told the Times: "There are not enough of certain foods: eggs, chicken, certain carbohydrates, and then there is the quality of the food, with raw meat being served to athletes. They have got to improve it over the next couple of days dramatically."

Sodexo Live is in charge of catering in the village and a spokesman told L'Equipe it "takes very seriously" feedback from athletes and "is working to increase our supplies to the restaurants in the athletes' village".

They added that eggs and grilled meats are "particularly popular and volumes have therefore been increased to satisfy the needs of the athletes".

How far would you go to compete at an Olympic Games?

An Australian field hockey player has opted to amputate part of his finger to compete in Paris.

Matt Dawson (pictured here before his operation) badly broke a digit on his right hand during team training in Perth two weeks ago, and recovery from surgery to repair it would have taken months.

So, the 30-year-old decided to have the finger removed from the knuckle up in order to take part in his third Games, shocking his team-mates and coach.

He will take to the field with the Kookaburras as they face Argentina on Saturday, just 16 days after he was injured.

Image source, Getty Images

Jo Currie
BBC Sport

This is extremely embarrassing for Canada Soccer and devastating for Bev Priestman personally. Leading the team to Olympic gold in Tokyo three years ago was arguably the biggest moment in the team’s history and Priestman’s career.

The fact that these latest revelations show that the use of drones to spy on opposition teams has been going on since before the Paris Games will raise big questions over who authorised such a tactic, who knew about it and when did it begin. Priestman’s job as head coach post-Olympics will certainly be called into question.

As a federation, you’d imagine that Canada Soccer will now also be looking to see if this is an isolated problem solely within the women’s nation team or ingrained across the organisation as a whole.

For the players, they will need to park these off field problems as best they can and as soon as possible as they face hosts France on Sunday in their second group game.

Canada women's football manager Bev Priestman has been removed as Olympic head coach and suspended by the country's football federation as the fall out continued after a drone was flown over New Zealand's training session on Monday.

Canada Soccer said it took the action because "over the past 24 hours, additional information has come to our attention regarding previous drone use against opponents, predating the Paris 2024 Olympic Games".

English-born Priestman, 38, had "voluntarily" withdrawn from her side's opening 2-0 victory over the Kiwis on Thursday, while Jasmine Mander, Priestman's assistant, was sent home along with "unaccredited analyst" Joseph Lombardi.

On Thursday a French court said Lombardi had been handed an eight-month suspended jail sentence after pleading guilty to flying a drone in an urban area without a licence.

In a statement Canada Soccer chief executive Kevin Blue confirmed Priestman will be suspended for the remainder of the Games while an "independent external review" takes place.

Image source, Getty Images