The Paris Olympics start soon, on 27 July. New Zealand is sending a team of 195 athletes to the Games. There are 98 men and 97 women. 34 athletes (or 17.4 percent of the team) are Māori, and others come from a wide range of cultural backgrounds, such as Samoan, Tongan, Australian, Chinese, and Indian – but they are all New Zealanders. The youngest is Milly Clegg, in the football team, who is just 18 years old. The oldest team member is an equestrian, or horse-rider, Tim Price, who is 45 years old.

101 of the athletes are competing at the Olympics for the first time, while the other 94 have already been to at least one Olympics. They will compete in 23 sports, including canoe/ kayak, rowing, athletics, swimming, cycling, rugby sevens, and football. There is a new Olympic sport this year, breaking (or breakdancing), but there is no New Zealander competing in that sport.

At the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, New Zealand won 20 medals in total, including seven gold medals. This was the highest number of medals New Zealand has ever won at an Olympic Games. We have to wait and see how many medals the team will win this year.

If you want to watch the 2024 Olympics, you can watch them on Sky. There will be 12 channels for the Games. Some events will be on Sky Open, which is free-to-air. That means you don’t need a subscription to Sky for that channel.

Vocabulary

athlete – someone who competes in sport competitions

equestrian (noun) – someone who rides horses or competes in equestrian sports

equestrian (adj) – relating to horses

canoe/ kayak – a long, light boat that is pointed at both ends

athletics – sports such as running, high jump, and long jump

subscription – an amount of money you pay regularly for a service, for example, for a streaming service