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50 free Paris 2024 Olympics trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Paris 2024 was the Games that left the stadium. Athletes arrived by boat along the Seine, the cauldron floated over the Tuileries under a helium balloon, surfers competed 15,000 kilometres away in Tahiti, and every medal carried a hexagon of iron cut from the Eiffel Tower. It was also the first Olympics with equal numbers of men and women. These 50 questions range across the whole fortnight: the host-city vote in Lima, the venues from Marseille to Teahupo'o, Thomas Jolly's rain-soaked opening ceremony and Céline Dion's closer, the Phryges mascots, breaking's debut, Formula Kite and kayak cross, the Village's missing air conditioning, and the medal table where the United States and China both won 40 golds. Star turns from Léon Marchand, Zhang Yufei and refugee boxer Cindy Ngamba get their own questions. Easy questions stick to the headlines; the hard tier asks who designed the medals, which 1984 Games last split the ceremonies across two venues, and what the closing ceremony was called. Every answer is cited to a page we checked, with a short explanation so you learn something either way.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which sport made its Olympic debut at Paris 2024?
Breaking
The other three had all arrived at Tokyo 2020; breaking was the one genuinely new sport on the Paris programme.
Q 02Along which river were the athletes paraded by boat at the opening ceremony?
Seine
It was the first modern Olympic opening ceremony staged outside a stadium, and most of it happened in the rain.
Q 03In which city did the IOC Session formally award the Games to Paris in 2017?
Lima
The two French IOC members, Guy Drut and Tony Estanguet, were not allowed to vote under the Olympic Charter.
Q 04Which other city was the last rival left when the IOC decided to award 2024 and 2028 together?
Los Angeles
Boston, Hamburg, Rome and Budapest had all withdrawn, leaving the IOC to hand Paris 2024 and Los Angeles 2028 in one go.
Q 05Paris first hosted the Summer Olympics in 1900 and again in which year?
1924
Paris 2024 marked the centenary of those Games, making Paris the second city after London to host three Summer Olympics.
Q 06Where were the surfing events held?
Teahupo'o, Tahiti
The Tahiti surf site was 15,716 km from Paris, the most distant Olympic venue in history.
Q 07Which Mediterranean city hosted the sailing events?
Marseille
Marseille, 777 km from Paris, also staged some of the football matches.
Q 08Which nation topped the medal table at Paris 2024?
United States
It was the fourth straight Summer Games atop the table for the Americans and their 19th overall.
Q 09How many gold medals did the top two nations each win, tying for first place?
40
The tie was broken on silvers; it was the first gold tie between the two most successful nations in Summer Olympic history.
Q 10Which nation finished third in the gold-medal table with 20 golds?
Japan
Japan's 20 golds and 45 total medals put it third by gold but only sixth by overall count.
Q 11Where did host nation France finish in the gold-medal table?
5th
France's 16 golds and 64 medals were its first top-five finish since Atlanta 1996.
Q 12Which boxer won the Refugee Olympic Team's first-ever medal?
Cindy Ngamba
Ngamba, a refugee from Cameroon, took bronze in the ring.
Q 13Which of these countries won its first-ever Olympic gold medal at Paris 2024?
Dominica
Dominica and Saint Lucia both opened their Olympic medal accounts with gold; Albania and Cape Verde won their first medals but not gold.
Q 14Roughly how many tickets were sold, an all-time Olympic record?
Q 21Which singer closed the opening ceremony?
Céline Dion
The Canadian star's performance capped a show that also featured Gojira and Philippe Katerine.
Q 22Who sang "La Marseillaise" from the roof of the Grand Palais?
Axelle Saint-Cirel
The mezzo-soprano performed the anthem atop the Grand Palais in a dress in the colours of the tricolour.
Q 23Philippe Katerine appeared painted blue as which Greek god?
Dionysus
His turn as the god of wine was part of the feast-of-the-gods tableau that sparked a global debate.
9.5 million
Including the Paralympics the total reached 12.1 million, and several sports reported record attendances.
Q 15Which previous Games held the ticket-sales record that Paris broke?
Atlanta 1996
Paris sold 9.5 million of its 10 million available tickets.
Q 16The medals contain hexagons of scrap iron taken from which structure?
Eiffel Tower
The iron came from the tower's original construction and was engraved with the Games' logo.
Q 17Which Parisian jewellery house designed the medals?
Chaumet
Around 5,084 medals were struck by the French mint, Monnaie de Paris.
Q 18Which Greek goddess appears on the reverse of the medals?
Nike
She is shown inside the Panathenaic Stadium, host of the first modern Olympics in 1896.
Q 19The podiums were painted gray as a homage to what?
The rooftops of Paris
They were built in France from French wood and fully recycled plastic, with a design inspired by the Eiffel Tower.
Q 20Who was the artistic director of the opening ceremony?
Thomas Jolly
Jolly described the theme as love and "shared humanity", and later defended the much-debated feast-of-the-gods segment.
Q 24Which heavy metal band performed during the opening ceremony?
Gojira
The French metal act played from the windows of the Conciergerie alongside soprano Marina Viotti.
Q 25Judoka Teddy Riner lit the cauldron alongside which sprinter?
Marie-José Pérec
Pérec, a triple Olympic champion, and Riner are both from Guadeloupe.
Q 26Above which Paris park did the balloon-style cauldron float each night?
Tuileries
The cauldron was topped by a 30-metre helium sphere inspired by hot-air balloons.
Q 27How were the cauldron's flames produced, a first for the Olympics?
LED lights and water mist
No fuel burned at all; the glow came from LEDs and aerosol water jets.
Q 28Where was the closing ceremony held?
Stade de France
It was the first Games since Sarajevo 1984 to hold the opening and closing ceremonies in different places.
Q 29What was the title of the closing ceremony?
Records
It imagined a dystopian future in which aliens rediscover and reinvent the vanished Olympic Games.
Q 30Which American actor appeared in the LA28 handover at the closing ceremony?
Tom Cruise
He shared the segment with Red Hot Chili Peppers, Billie Eilish, Snoop Dogg and H.E.R.