UFC star Ciryl Gane to carry the Olympic torch ahead of the 2024 Summer Games in Paris
Ciryl Gane will carry the Olympic torch on June 4.
Seven weeks before the games officially kick off in Paris, France on July 26, the former UFC interim heavyweight world champion will carry the torch in his hometown of La Roche-sur-Yon.
“Proud to carry the flame,” Gane wrote in a translated post on Instagram. “Hoping to one day see MMA in an Olympic event.”
More than 10,000 athletes will converge on ‘The City of Light’ this summer vying for one of the most coveted prizes in all of competitive sports — an Olympic medal.
Kicking off on the final Friday in July, the opening ceremony will be held on the Seine River with boats representing each national delegation and traveling east to west, winding their way through the center of Paris where the athletes will compete for the following 16 days.
In addition to the athletes, the Olympic Games will play host to over 40,000 volunteers and 20,000 accredited journalists. The 329 scheduled events will emanate from 35 different venues, generating 350,000 hours of broadcast television. Millions of spectators will watch the festivities live from Paris while billions more will watch from their homes and mobile devices around the globe.
The 2024 Summer Olympics debuts a new sport — but it’s not MMA
Of the 32 different sports on display, there will be one newcomer to the 2024 Games — Breaking.
Also known as break dancing, breaking is an urban dance style that became a staple of hip-hop culture in the 1970s. According to the official Olympics website, the event will feature “16 B-Boys and 16 B-Girls facing off in spectacular solo battles” all while improvising their moves to the beat of the DJ’s tracks.
Breaking will be the only new sport introduced at this year’s games, but sport climbing, skateboarding, and surfing will make its return to the Olympics after debuting in Tokyo four years ago.
Unfortunately, mixed martial arts will not be part of the games, but many fight fans are holding out hope that the sport will one day grace the Olympic stage. For now, combat sports aficionados can enjoy karate, judo, wrestling, and boxing which have been a part of the summer spectacular for some time.
In 2022, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) granted provisional recognition to sambo, kickboxing, and Muay Thai, though none of them will be making their debut in 2024. Perhaps we’ll see them at the 2028 games when the Olympics head to Los Angeles, Calif.
