The 2024 Olympics start on July 26. Well, a handful of preliminary matches of some sports will take place in the two days before that, but the main event really starts on July 26. When it does, Paris Olympics will become just the second city after London to host the Olympics three times. The French capital was the venue for the second-ever Olympics in the year 1900 and then hosted the Games almost exactly 100 years ago in 1924.

The 2024 Games will feature a celebration of the centenary of the 1924 Olympics. It is safe to say that quite a lot has changed in the world since the last time Paris played host. Here we take a look at how the Olympics have changed in that intervening period.

The schedule:

Perhaps the first thing that jumps at you when you look at Paris 1924 is the sheer length of it. It started on May 4 and ended on July 27 with 17 sports and 126 medal events, thus going on for just under three months. In stark contrast, the 2024 Games will feature nearly double the number of sports (32) and 329 medal events over the course of about two weeks.

The Games program: Most of the sports that were featured in 1924 have survived to the 2024 Olympics. It is to be noted that women's events were yet to be introduced in nearly all events, including athletics, football, wrestling and boxing. For the sport of football, the 1924 Games is regarded as the first-ever world championship of any kind. The titles won here and in 1928 are the only two instances where FIFA, football's global governing body, considers Olympic golds as equivalent to a World Cup title. Paris 1924 was the last time tennis featured on the Olympic programme until it returned at Seoul 1988. It was also the last time we saw rugby in the 15-player variant, with the sport only returning at Rio 2016 in the seven-athlete variant (rugby sevens).

The Olympic Village: The 1924 Games marks the first instance of athletes being accommodated in an Olympic Village. Organizers built wooden huts and established an accommodation centre near the Stade Olympique de Colombes, now the Stade Yves-du-Manoir, and called it the "Olympic Village," allowing the various world teams to stay in the same location, under the same conditions, and with common services. The Village for the 2024 Games is located five minutes from the Saint-Denis stadium, seven kilometres from the centre of the French capital. It is designed to accommodate well over 10,000 competitors.

Participation numbers: 3,089 athletes (135 women and 2,954 men) from 44 countries took part in the 1924 Olympics. The countries of Ecuador, Ireland, Lithuania, Philippines and Uruguay sent delegations for the first time. Latvia and Poland also made their debuts at the Summer Games, but months before had sent athletes to the Winter Games in Chamonix. A total of 44 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) were represented at the 1924 Games. A whopping 10,500 athletes are expected to participate in the 2024 Games and represent over 200 countries.

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