'I have a house full of Eiffel Towers': Olympic champions and debutants reveal what they are most excited for at Paris 2024
With the Opening Ceremony taking place on 26 July, athletes are in the final stages of preparation for the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
While competing in the biggest sporting show on earth will be at the forefront of their mind, that’s not all these soon-to-be Paris 2024 Olympians are excited about as they get ready for the Games.
Olympics.com spoke to athletes from across the globe to find out just what they were looking forward to in Paris and the answers were as revealing as they were varied. However, perhaps none were as surprising as the one given by Olympic high jump champ, Gianmarco Tamberi, who may just take the cake on this one.
“I think about Paris every day,” he told Olympics.com at the 2024 European Athletics Championships in June.
“I have a house full of Eiffel Towers. [My wife] Chiara doesn’t agree with this, but there will be like seven or eight,” he continued, laughing about all of the different renditions of the iconic French landmark he wants to put in his home.
“Jokes aside, I can tell you that I’m excited for Paris.”
From fashion to family - there's more to Paris 2024 than medals alone
For Karsten Warholm, the reigning Olympic 400m hurdles champion, the excitement revolves around what will happen on the track.
“What am I most looking forward to?” he asked rhetorically. “Running!"
“Hopefully, if I don't get a heart attack running from the hurdles, I will have plenty of time to see stuff later in my life. But for now, I'm at work. You know, I have one purpose,” he said.
Warholm was fresh off winning men’s 400m hurdles gold at the European Athletics Championships when he spoke to Olympics.com. And while the Norwegian is fully focused on the competition in Paris, the Netherlands’ Femke Bol revealed having her loved ones cheering on would be one the highlights of her Games.
“I’m looking forward to it completely,” she told us. “I went to Tokyo but it was during COVID and it was completely different. I have a lot of family and friends coming [to Paris], I’m really looking forward to being there.”
Jesse Grupper, the reigning Pan American sport climbing champion, echoed Bol’s sentiments.
“I'm really excited to have my family and friends and parents with me, and I'm really excited to just get to explore the city, walk around, get to see some art and museums. It'll be a really special time,” he said.
Grupper’s sport made its Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020 and this year the sport of breaking has been added to the Olympic roster. Team USA’s Jeffrey Louis (AKA B-Boy Jeffro) will be one of the 32 groundbreaking athletes competing in breaking at Paris 2024.
“I’m really interested to see everything Paris has to offer,” he said. “You know, usually when I’m done competing I want to explore and look at the structures and be inspired by fashion.
“I’m literally a blend of what’s around me and then with my own creative style and influence…[my team and I] just inspire and create,” he added. “So, I'm just looking forward to embodying everything and just embracing everything Paris has.”
Gold medalist Femke Bol of Netherlands celebrates after the Athletics - Women's 400m Hurdles Final on day 9 of the European Championships Munich 2022 at Olympiapark on August 19, 2022 in Munich, Germany.
The Opening Ceremony: "What, it's on the water?"
Britain’s reigning 800m silver medallist Keely Hodgkinson expressed her excitement about the rich culture that makes Paris one of the most alluring destinations on earth. “Luxury fashion and sport and art and everything else,” she answered, before stating that she’s especially “excited to experience an Olympics crowd."
Similarly, teammate Dina Asher-Smith, pointed to the impact of the crowd when asked what she felt would make Paris 2024 special.
“I’m really, really excited [for] the great crowds. I feel like the Olympics are going to be amazing and the crowds are going to be phenomenal.”
Beyond the crowds and the competition, Paris 2024 is set to be a once-in-a-lifetime event. These Games take place 100 years after the last Olympics in France and, this year’s showcase begins with an Opening Ceremony that will go down in the history books, as boats filled with Olympians parade down the Seine river.
It’s something American boxer Morelle McCane cannot wait to experience.
“I'm most excited about the opening ceremony. I was just like, 'What, it's on the water?' That is so cool,” she said.
“And then I can look over there and be ‘LeBron, hey! Look at me, it's Mo! Simone [Biles], hey!'” she laughed.