Column: My storylines for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games

Bonjour, Snohomish County.

The Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games begin this week, and like many other households, mine will be watching Team USA and the thousands of other incredible athletes from various countries competing on one of the world’s biggest stages.

Forty-five sports will be featured during the next two weeks in the City of Lights, beginning July 26 and concluding August 11.

The opening ceremony, for the first time in Olympic Summer Games history, will be held in the host nation’s city rather than inside a stadium. More than 200 countries and 10,000 athletes will be announced as they travel down the iconic Seine River.

This summer global event occurs every four years, and I’m excited to see who will take gold, silver and bronze and stand on the podium with their country’s flag raised and anthem played.

NBC Sports published a comprehensive list of all the athletes for Team USA. The article can be accessed here.

Below are a couple of storylines I’ll be following. I’m interested in what countries and athletes you’ll be watching. Email me at taras.mccurdie@heraldnet.com.

Soccer

Even after a disappointing display at Copa America and being eliminated in the group stage, I believe the U.S. men’s team can advance to the knockout stage, maybe even further at Paris 2024.

The U.S. simply doesn’t have the same number of caliber players as Europe and other continents, and I’m not going to go in-depth about Gregg Berhalter’s firing. His duties were under a critical eye every day, but what he was able to accomplish was respectable, helping lead the U.S. to 2021 and 2024 CONCACAF Nations League and 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup titles and spot in the 2022 World Cup Round of 16. I do think a change was needed, though, to bring in some fresh perspectives, which is common for teams in all sports.

The U.S. men’s Olympic squad is coached by Serbian Marko Mitrović, and the 18-man roster is not the same as the one seen at Copa America. The Olympics tournament format for men is capped at players under the age of 23 with an exception to bring on three older players. So Copa America roster players like goalkeeper Matt Turner (30), defenders Mark McKenzie (25) and Tim Ream (36), midfielder Weston McKennie (25) and forwards Christian Pulisic (25) and Tim Weah (24) to name a few won’t be at the Olympics. Defenders Miles Robinson (27) and Walker Zimmerman (31) and midfielder Djordje Mihailovic (25) are the three exceptions.

Does the Copa America result foreshadow the red, white and blue’s chances of not making it out of the Olympic group stages? No. I think they have a very good shot against Guinea and New Zealand. But can they top Argentina, France or Spain for a spot on the podium? Those games will be testers but not impossible since Argentina’s Lionel Messi and France’s Kylian Mbappe won’t be playing. The USMNT do play France in the group stage before the knockout stage, so that will alow them to see what they’ll be going up against if they advance that far.

Morocco and Ukraine also have some firepower, though the rosters are different than what we’ve been used to seeing in the major global tournaments.

Morocco placed fourth in the 2022 World Cup, losing to Croatia in the bronze medal match. The tournament was a historical journey for Morocco as it became the first African team to reach the semifinals of the World Cup. Using this as momentum, I wouldn’t be surprised if they advanced past the knockout stage.

My home country, Ukraine, is dealing with a war against Russia, so there is a lot more on the line than just a medal. Ukraine failed to advance out of the group stages in UEFA Euro 2024 but did make it to the quarterfinals at UEFA Euro 2020 after beating Sweden 2-1. For the past four years, Ukraine has put up good fights against some of the better teams in Europe: Scotland, Wales, Republic of Ireland, England, Germany and Belgium.

On the women’s side, I’ll of course be rooting for the U.S. women’s team. However, I’m disappointed to not see veteran Alex Morgan, 35, the fifth-leading scorer in USWNT history, not make coach Emma Hayes’ roster.

Soccer became a medal sport for men at the Paris 1900 Games and Atlanta in 1996 for women. And while the USMNT has never won an Olympic gold medal, the USWNT has earned five medals: four gold and one silver.

The U.S. men have also not won a World Cup while the U.S. women have won four times and been runners-up once.

If I were a betting man, I’d say the USWNT advances the furthest in Paris compared to the men.

Tennis

With Wimbledon completed earlier this month and the U.S. Open to occur mid-August, the Olympics are a perfect in-between tournament.

Men’s singles and doubles, women’s singles and doubles and mixed doubles will be held at the courts used at Roland Garros (i.e. French Open). For Spain’s Rafael Nadal, aka the King of Clay, and his doubles partner, Carlos Alcaraz, the clay surface will be to their advantage.

When you have Nadal, 38, who in my eyes is the superman of tennis, a legend and veteran, teaming up with Alcaraz, 21, one of the youngest players on the ATP tour, and they are both from the same country, that’s a sign from God.

Nadal is a 22-time Grand Slam men’s singles champion, and of those wins, 14 are Roland Garros titles, four U.S. Open, two Australian Open and two Wimbledon. He’s also won two Olympic gold medals: Beijing 2008 singles and Rio 2016 doubles.

The Grand Slam tournaments Alcaraz has won include the 2022 U.S. Open, 2023 and 2024 Wimbledon crowns, both against Serbia’s Novak Djokovic, and the 2024 French open against Germany’s Alexander Zverev. Zverev, specifically, is looking to win his second-straight Olympic gold medal after claiming his first at Tokyo 2020.

And let’s not forget about Djokovic. The 37-year-old Serbian has not really been a hot streak lately, but he has put himself in contention for trophies.

Djokovic claimed bronze at Beijing 2008, but that’s been it, at least for now.

At Tokyo 2020, he lost to Zverev in the semifinals before Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta defeated him in the bronze medal match. At London 2012, Djokovic lost to Great Britain’s Andy Murray in the semifinals and then to Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro in the bronze medal match. del Potro also eliminated Djokovic in the first round at Rio 2016.

So all in all, Djokovic, the 24-time Grand Slam men’s singles champion (10 Australian Open, seven Wimbledon, four U.S. Open and three Roland Garros titles) has a very good chance to not only get back to the semifinals but also earn gold for the first and maybe last time.

But given this is the Olympics, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some of these other players upset the applecart and surprise the world: Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime, Denmark’s Holger Rune, France’s Gael Monfils, Great Britain’s Andy Murray, Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas, Individual Neutral Athletes’ (i.e. Russia’s) Daniil Medvedev, Japan’s Kei Nishikori, Norway’s Casper Rudd, Switzerland’s Stan Wawrinka and U.S.’ Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul.

In the women’s draw, I’ll be cheering for my fellow Ukrainians: Anhelina Kalinina, Marta Kostyuk, Elina Svitolina and Dayana Yastremska, all who are in the WTA top 50. Svitolina won bronze at Tokyo 2020 and placed fifth at Rio 2016.

And U.S. 20-year-old Coco Gauff, who’s No. 2 in the WTA, will also be on my radar. But she’ll have some of these other top-tier players trying to interrupt her path to the podium: Canada’s Leylah Fernandez, Czechia’s Barbora Krejcikova, Linda Noskova and Karolina Muchova, Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki, Germany’s Angelique Kerber, Greece’s Maria Sakkari, Japan’s Naomi Osaka, Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina and Yulia Putintseva, Lativa’s Jelena Ostapenko, Poland’s Iga Swiatek and U.S.’ Jessica Pegula, Danielle Collins and Emma Navarro.