Due to tweaks in scheduling, the next Olympics have finals in artistic gymnastics, pool swimming and track and field on both Saturday and Sunday of the middle weekend for the second time ever, joining 1988, according to Olympic historian Bill Mallon of Olympedia.org.
The Paris 2024 competition schedule was published last week. For the most part, it looks similar to recent Games.
However, the number of finals sessions in pool swimming increased from eight to nine, meaning that competition will run an extra day through the second Sunday of the Games.
The more detailed swimming event schedule hasn’t been announced, but the extra session will mean changes, which could include the women’s 200m and 1500m freestyle events no longer being in the same session. In Tokyo, Katie Ledecky swam both finals within two hours of each other, finishing fifth in the 200m free and then winning the first Olympic women’s 1500m free.
In gymnastics, the number of days off between the individual all-around finals and the apparatus finals was shortened from two to one for 2024, meaning there will be gymnastics competition on both days of the middle weekend for the first time since 1992.
Track and field has traditionally started on the Friday before the middle weekend of the Games and is scheduled to do so again in Paris.
In Tokyo, gymnastics, swimming and track and field all had finals on the middle Sunday of the Games due to swimming having morning finals, so that sport’s last session was on Sunday instead of Saturday. Artistic gymnastics event finals began that Sunday after that sport had two days off.
The only other time that all three sports had medal events on both the middle Saturday and Sunday was in 1988.
Gymnastics had no days off between all-around and apparatus finals in Seoul. The swimming schedule was different with the first finals on the second day of competition, a Monday, back when the Opening Ceremony was on a Saturday.
Finals in artistic gymnastics, pool swimming and track and field were also held on multiple days in 1912, 1972 and 2008, but never on both days of the middle weekend, according to Mallon.
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