Path to Paris: Paris 2024 Olympic Games

Overview

Australian athletes have competed in all summer Olympic Games of the modern era. Our first Olympian was Edwin Flack, who won two gold medals and one bronze at the first modern Olympiad in Athens in 1896. Australia is one of the world’s most successful sporting nations: in the last three Olympic Games Australia’s aggregate medal tally has ranked us among the top 10 of all participants. Historically most medals won by Australian athletes have been in the sports of Swimming, Athletics, Cycling and Rowing, in that order.

The Games of the XXXIII Olympiad will be held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024. Paris will be the main host city, with an additional 16 host cities spread across Metropolitan France and one in Tahiti—an island within the French overseas country and overseas collectivity of French Polynesia—as a subsite. Paris will become the second city after London to host the modern Olympic Games three times, having previously done so in 1900 and in 1924.

The 2024 Summer Olympic program is scheduled to feature 32 sports encompassing 329 events, the first Summer Olympics since 1960 to have fewer events than the preceding edition. Around 10,500 athletes will compete across 41 venues. The Australian team comprises around 470 athletes. The motto for the Paris Olympic Games is “Games Wide Open”.

Technical specifications

Issue date: 24 June 2024
Issue withdrawal date: 1 January 2025
Denomination: 1 x $1.50
Stamp & product design: Tim Hancock, Backpack
Paper: gummed: Tullis Russell 104gsm Red Phosphor/Blue PVA Stamp Paper
Printer: gummed: RA Printing
Printing process: Offset lithography
Stamp size (mm): 37.5 x 26
Minisheet/sheetlet size (mm): 101 x 156
Perforations: 13.86 x 14.6
Sheet layout: Module of 10
FDI Postmark: Canberra ACT 2061
FDI withdrawal date: 23 July 2024

Stamps in this issue

$1.50 Paris Olympic Games

The stamp design features the Olympic colours of red, blue, black, yellow and green. The now-familiar Olympic symbol of five interlocking rings in these colours was created in 1913 by Pierre de Coubertin, co-founder of the International Olympic Committee and the “father of the modern Olympic Games”. At the time, the five colours included all the colours of every competing country’s flag. The coloured lines in the stamp are reminiscent of an athletics track and also form the outline of France’s most recognisable symbol, the Eiffel Tower. Constructed for the 1889 Paris Exposition and rising 330 metres, the famous iron tower is still the tallest structure in Paris.