I am so excited. Today was my first day of volunteering at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Well, I bet you are thinking it is only 2023 – why am I talking about the Olympics. Even though it is approximately one year until the Olympics, in fact, they are currently having some “test” events.

I was selected to help at the triathlon test event. What is a test event? It is essentially a trial run of the Olympic event. Everything is identical to what will happen at the Olympics in one year. There is the same level of staffing, supervision, route, etc. Also at the same are the athletes who are competing (I say roughly because who knows what will happen in a year).

The individual triathlon races in the test event take place in the standard format (1.5 km swimming, 40 km cycling, and finally 10 km running), the flagship distance of Triathlon since its introduction to the Olympic Games program in Sydney in 2000.

The athletes in this test event are the best in the world and were chosen by their respective national organisations and the World Triathlon organization to compete. The women’s field includes the gold medal winner from the Tokyo summer Olympics, Flora Duffy, as well as bronze medalist Katie Zaferes. The men’s field includes the full slate of the gold medal winner from Tokyo, Kristian Bluemmenfelt, the silver medalist Alex Yee, and Hayden Wilde the bronze medalist. Hayden Wilde is currently ranked first in the world. There are 65 men and 65 women competing – all top athletes from their countries.

The men’s and women’s individual races will award potentially decisive points in the context of the 2023 World Triathlon Championship Series, a ranking that will determine the participation of certain athletes in Paris 2024. The world’s top athletes, will also benefit from competing on the course that awaits them in Paris in 2024, an ideal preparation less than a year before the Games.

The course covers some of the most iconic sites in Paris. (Here is a shot from my volunteering station at 5am this morning and one from later in the day.).

The swim is in the Seine and starts off the gorgeous Pont Alexandre and the finish is there as well. Officials and organizers have been working hard to clean up the Seine (more on that in another post).

The bike portion is up and down the Champs Elysee (just like the tour de France). For the triathlon they will make 7 loops of the course.

The run component also includes the Champs Elysee and they do 4 loops.

From my vantage point, I’ll see 7 passes of the athletes on their bikes AND 4 passes of the athletes running. So, I’m super excited about tomorrow! I’ll be up again at 4am to be on site manning my volunteer station in time for the competition to start.