Did you know part of the 2024 Olympics will be held in Tahiti? How about the fact there are concerns about swimmers competing in a filthy river?

With the Paris Olympics just a few sleeps away, here’s everything you need to know to get up to speed.

How many events and athletes are involved?

The Paris Olympics will encompass 329 medal events across 32 sports.

About 10,500 athletes will compete from 206 National Olympic Committees.

Has Paris hosted the Olympics before?

Yes – twice.

The modern Games were born after a meeting of thousands of stakeholders in Paris in June 1894.

After the modern Olympic Games were first held in Athens in 1896, Paris hosted the second event in 1900.

The 1900 Paris Olympics lasted from May to October and was the first at which women competed. The first female Olympic champion was British tennis player Charlotte Cooper.

The next time Paris hosted the Olympics was 1924, with more than 3000 athletes from 44 countries involved – a significant rise from 997 athletes from 24 countries in 1900.

The 1924 Games lasted more than four months, and involved architecture, literature, painting, sculpture, and music competitions in the build-up to the sports.

That year’s Games were the first to feature the Olympic motto, ‘Citius, Altius, Fortius’ (‘Faster, Higher, Stronger’), coined by French Dominican preacher Henri Didon and promoted by International Olympic Committee co-founder Pierre de Coubertin.

The 1924 Paris Olympics also introduced the first Olympic Village, which mainly consisted of temporary three-bed wooden cabins.

The 2024 Paris Olympics marks the 100-year anniversary of the 1924 event.

Where are the Paris Olympic venues?

Events will be held across 35 official venues.

Stadiums account for many, including the pre-existing Stade de France in the Parisian suburb Saint-Denis, which is two kilometres from the Olympic and Paralympic Village.

New construction includes the Aquatics Centre (for artistic swimming, diving, and water polo), the Adidas Arena (also known as the Porte de la Chapelle Arena, for badminton and rhythmic gymnastics), and the Le Bourget Sport Climbing Venue (for sport climbing).

Events will also be held at iconic locations across Paris, including the Eiffel Tower, Palace of Versailles, Grand Palais and city hall.

Surfing is being held in Tahiti; football will be played in Bordeaux, Nantes, Lyon, Saint-Etienne, Nice and Marseille; sailing will be in Marseille; and Lille will also host team sports.

Why are surfing events in Tahiti?

Although Paris is this year’s Olympic host city, it’s not able to host every sporting event required.

This is where Tahiti, a French semi-autonomous territory, comes in.

Surfers will compete off the shores of the small village of Teahupo’o, about a 21-hour flight away from Paris.

The Teahupo’o wave can reach up to seven metres high, and comes with big barrels, heavy drops, and a shallow reef below.

The decision is not completely out of the blue; Teahupo’o has hosted the Pro Tahiti world championship event for more than two decades, and is considered one of the highlights on the World Surf League’s men’s championship tour.

But the original proposed scale of the Olympic site, which included roads, housing, and a 14-tonne aluminium judging tower that required drilling into the coral reef, sparked backlash from environmental and surf communities.

Following protests and an online petition, plans for a lighter tower with shallower foundations were announced in November.

A test run in December destroyed significant amounts of coral.

France’s Minister for Sport and the Olympic and Paralympic Games Amélie Oudéa-Castéra ruled out relocating the Olympic surfing events, and said there was “no plan B”.

A nine-tonne, three-storey judging tower now sits in an area that has little coral, and 98 per cent of Olympic housing will be within the homes of locals.

Athletes will be accommodated on a cruise ship.

Concerns remain about possible long-term effects of the judging tower.

Primarily, drilling into the coral reef could result in the production of an algae that makes fish poisonous, something that would devastate the community that heavily relies on fishing for food and income.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo bathes in the Seine at Bras Marie. Photo: Getty

What is the issue with swimming in the Seine?

This year, Olympic marathon and triathlon swimmers will complete 10-kilometre and 1500-metre courses, respectively, in the iconic Seine.

Although the river that runs through Paris may conjure a romantic image for people who have never visited the city, its water has long been considered unsafe.

The health risks are so severe that swimming in the Seine has been banned since 1923.

Over the centuries, humans have dumped everything from bodies to motorcycles into the river. A local government on the outskirts of Paris reports 360 tonnes of large items are hauled out of the Seine every year.

The biggest concern is wastewater, including domestic and industrial sewage.

Since 2015, billions of dollars have been invested in making the Seine cleaner in time for the Olympics.

But in 2022 alone, 1.9 million cubic metres of untreated wastewater was spewed into the Seine. Last month testing found the river was still too polluted with faecal bacteria to host swimming.

Officials now promise the water is safe.

To prove it, Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo jumped in for a swim this week, even after locals threatened to defecate in the river in protest.

Heavy rain could result in a spike in water pollution, and races will be postponed for a few days if that occurs.