Paris Olympics 2024: What is on and where to watch over the next five days?

While the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympics will take place on Friday evening, there are plenty of events which kick-off ahead of it.

In terms of Team Ireland, things begin on Wednesday with Rugby Sevens as Ireland take on South Africa in Paris.

If you are wondering where and what time the action is kicking off, here is all you need to know.

Wednesday, July 24th

Ireland vs South Africa, Rugby Sevens, 4:30pm on RTÉ Two</p>

Ireland vs Japan, Rugby Sevens, 7:30pm on RTÉ Two.

Thursday, July 25th

Ireland vs New Zealand, Rugby Seven, 3:30pm on RTÉ Two.

Friday, July 26th

On Friday, the games will officially be open with the ceremony taking place at 6pm. It is promised to be a ‘spectacular’ spectacle along the River Seine.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo wants Olympic visitors to look beyond the city’s most famous landmark and immerse themselves in the lifestyle of the capital, which has undergone a transformation over the last few years.

Hidalgo, who was elected in 2014, was re-elected four years ago and has been behind hundreds of kilometres of bicycle lanes being created around Paris and more than 100,000 trees being planted since 2020.

People navigate on a boat along the Seine river next to a pannel depicting a pictorial detail ahead of the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. (Photo by Sebastien Bozon/AFP).

Last week, Hidalgo bathed in the Seine after pledging to clean it up so that Parisians can enjoy it in the summer after the Olympics.

“When I arrived in Paris, I enjoyed the anonymous side of a big city, nobody would be looking at what time I would come back home at night,” Hidalgo told reporters over lunch at the City Hall on Tuesday.

“But there’s so much to it. Paris is a city where you have a bakery every five minutes (walk), you know your shopkeeper and your shopkeeper knows you.

“The first time you come to Paris, you come to see the landmarks, the Eiffel Tower etc. The second time, you want to experience the Parisian life and that’s what I want the people who come to the Olympics to experience,” Hidalgo said.

The identity of the person who lights the Olympic cauldron on the night of the opening ceremony is one of sport’s best-kept secrets, with less than a dozen people in the know.

Paris 2024 organising committee president Tony Estanguet on Sunday said the person who will light the cauldron on Friday was not yet aware they had been selected.