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Can Paris as Olympic host renew enthusiasm for the Games?
Follow our Olympics coverage from the Paris Games.
The Olympic Games have had a rough decade.
For so many people over the past 10 years, those five multicolored rings that were long synonymous with the pinnacle of sport came to symbolize billions in wasteful spending, similar excesses of political and moral dissonance and a dismantling of the idea of the Games as pure competitions played for spirit and country.
Every cycle, the Games stumbled through another series of problems: Russia’s annexing of Crimea and its use of a systemic doping program during the Sochi Games in 2014; the threat of the Zika virus and unparalleled disorganization in Rio de Janeiro in 2016; the threat of nuclear war in South Korea in 2018; the depressing images of empty stadiums because of the coronavirus pandemic in Tokyo in 2021 and Beijing in 2022.
Empty stands due to the COVID-19 pandemic took the shine off the Tokyo Games, which were also delayed one year. (Tim Clayton / Corbis via Getty Images)
At those same Beijing Games, organizers and the International Olympic Committee were frequently asked about free speech and the treatment of ethnic minority groups like the Uyghurs, a situation the United Nations later described as crimes against humanity, easily flying in the face of the stated values of the Olympics.
With each dent, television audiences in the United States have turned away in significant numbers, threatening one of the largest single sources of Olympic revenue.
Now comes Paris. One of the world’s leading tourist destinations, a city that conjures levels of fascination and romanticism that few if any can top, will take on the task of restoring to the Olympic Games that mythical quality that for so long allowed it to exist as something so much more than sport.
That quality might have always been more myth than truth. Crass commercialism helped transform the Olympics into a multibillion-dollar behemoth from the quaint sports festival seen when Paris last hosted 100 years ago. Still, Paris has promised to bring back the luster.
“I have been an athlete, and I love the pressure,” Tony Estanguet, a three-time gold medalist in canoe and the president of the Paris 2024 Organizing Committee, said during a visit to New York last fall. “How can we move the line and be more creative and more innovative? The success of the Games relies on this ability to evolve and to make the brand, this event, more attractive. It’s a permanent fight.”
The IOC, the roughly 100-member organization based in Switzerland that owns the trademark to the famous rings and awards the Games to cities that compete to hoist them, has been losing that fight lately for several reasons. One has been a lack of geographic diversity, with the previous three Olympics in East Asia.
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To change that, the IOC in recent years altered its bidding rules to take a more active role in targeting cities rather than simply selecting from whichever candidates offer themselves up. After Paris, the Olympics will head to northern Italy; Los Angeles; the French Alps; Brisbane, Australia; and Salt Lake City. Organizers hope that will help revive lagging interest in Western Europe and the Americas.
“No question in my mind, moving the Games to such an iconic European city like Paris, plus having fans and partners back in person, will be such a needed and welcomed lift,” said Michael Lynch, a leading international sports consultant and the former director of sports marketing for Visa, one of the main sponsors of the Olympics.
For their part, the French have taken up the fight in the most French way: by showing off their beautiful capital. Estanguet and his team decided years ago when they first bid for these Games to marry sports and culture as never before by placing the Games at some of the most famous and recognizable locations in and around the French capital.
The move is a stark turn away from the plan most cities have followed when they have hosted recent Olympics. That playbook generally involved finding a massive, undeveloped or long-since abandoned tract and building a huge park filled with sports facilities, usually somewhere outside the center of the city, and putting a big fence around it.
Paris did a bit of that with its Olympic Village, where athletes will live, in St. Denis, north of the city center and not far from the Stade de France, where track and field will take place. The aquatics center — host to diving, water polo and artistic swimming — is near there, too.
Just about everything else is stuffed into or just beyond the peripheral road that encircles the main area of Paris, which can be traversed on foot with a comfortable pair of shoes in an afternoon.
As the sun sets beyond the city Friday evening, the opening ceremony will unfold along the Seine, with some 10,000 athletes floating down the river on boats rather than marching into an enclosed, remote stadium. Beach volleyball will take place at the Eiffel Tower. Fencing will take place at the Grand Palais. Breaking, skateboarding and 3×3 basketball will happen near Place de la Concorde. The equestrian competition will happen at Versailles.
Beach volleyball in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower figures to be one of the visual spectacles of the Paris Olympics. (Tim Clayton / Corbis via Getty Images)
In addition to creating a two-week commercial for Paris, organizers want to reimagine what the Olympics can be by bringing them closer to population centers rather than siphoning them away in a remote area. It’s especially poignant after Tokyo and Beijing, two consecutive versions of the Olympics that were siloed as never before, with COVID-19 prompting organizers to prohibit paid spectators.
The fallout was ugly, especially in the United States, where the size of the television audience dwindled for NBC, whose media rights fee accounts for about 50 percent of Olympic television revenue. Coverage from Beijing in 2022 dropped 40 percent from South Korea in 2018, which was down from Sochi in 2014. Coverage from Tokyo in 2021 was down 42 percent from Rio in 2016.
Michael Payne, the former director of marketing for the IOC, said audiences have grown elsewhere, especially for the host countries in Asia, but after a few “challenging Games,” in his words, Paris brings the chance for a “reboot.”
“Would be good to get back to normal,” Payne said with Olympian understatement.
There is no guarantee for that. However wondrous and new Friday’s opening ceremony might appear, clouds are hanging over the Games, as there always are in this era.
Russia, long one of the most important countries in the Olympic movement, remains a pariah nation because of its history of state-sponsored doping and its invasion of Ukraine. Athletes from Russia and Belarus will compete as part of a neutral group of athletes with no national affiliation.
Israel’s war in Gaza, a significant response to deadly attacks by Hamas last October, has sparked calls for athletes from Israel to be banned and generated demonstrations at Israel’s first men’s soccer game Wednesday.
The threat of a terrorist attack looms, especially when so many events will take place in the center of Paris.
The worldwide anti-doping system, which relies on independent national organizations to test their athletes, has broken down. COVID-19 rates are rising. With people from all over the world converging on Paris, the city might become the ultimate petri dish, especially the Olympic Village, where the athletes will live and eat and socialize for the next 17 days.
David Wallechinsky, a leading Olympic historian, said he walked 10 miles through Paris this week searching for a pre-Games buzz. He couldn’t find it. Still, he knows everything changes once the competitions begin, the stadiums fill and the host country wins its first gold medal.
Wallechinsky also knows one thing for certain.
“It’ll look good,” he said of the Paris Games.
Estanguet wants more than that. He knows the world will be watching.
“The pressure is positive to me,” he said. “We have to succeed.”
Equestrian events will take place in front of the Palace of Versailles, one of the many marriages of sport and iconic venue at the Games. (Pierre-Philippe Marcou / AFP via Getty Images)
(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; photo of the Eiffel Tower: Maja Hitij / Getty Images)
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The highly anticipated 30th WNBA season tipped off Friday with three games, including the expansion Toronto Tempo’s first-ever contest.
The action continued Saturday with a full slate, including Caitlin Clark’s return after an injury-riddled sophomore season.
Clark and the Indiana Fever hosted the Dallas Wings on Saturday afternoon in a matchup featuring the four most recent No. 1 overall picks. The Wings outlasted the Fever 107-104, but the game was defined by Azzi Fudd’s — the most recent top pick — underwhelming debut.
Dallas Wings guards Azzi Fudd and Paige Bueckers react during the first half of the Fever’s season opener at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on May 9, 2026. (Grace Smith/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
Fudd played 18 minutes off the bench, scoring three points — the lowest ever by a No. 1 overall pick in a WNBA debut.
Wings coach Jose Fernandez addressed Fudd’s performance after the game, encouraging the rookie to, “Keep doing what she’s doing, it’s her first year in the league. We got five really talented backcourt players.”
EX-WNBA STAR CRITICAL OF SKY ROOKIE HAILEY VAN LITH, BELIEVES POPULARITY PLAYED ROLE IN DRAFT SELECTION
In addition to Fudd, Dallas’ backcourt features last year’s top draft pick Paige Bueckers, last season’s No. 12 overall pick Aziaha James, four-time All-Star Arike Ogunbowale and starting guard Odyssey Sims.
Until Saturday, Kelsey Plum held the record for the lowest-scoring debut by a No. 1 pick. Selected first overall by the then-San Antonio Stars in 2017, she scored just four points in her debut. The Stars relocated to Las Vegas in 2018 and was subsequently rebranded as the Aces.
Dallas Wings guard Azzi Fudd warms up before the game against the Indiana Fever at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana, on May 9, 2026. (Michael Hickey/Getty Images)
Despite the slow start to her first season in the league, Plum ended the year with All-Rookie team honors. In the years since, she’s been named to four All-Star teams and won two championships with the Aces.
The Wings’ decision to take Fudd with the No. 1 overall pick drew controversy, raising questions about whether Bueckers’ personal relationship with her influenced the selection. Late last month, Bueckers said last month it did not.
Azzi Fudd poses with WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert after being selected first overall by the Dallas Wings during the 2026 WNBA Draft at The Shed in New York City on April 13, 2026. (Angelina Katsanis/Getty Images)
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“Azzi Fudd was the No. 1 draft pick because she earned it, and it had nothing to do with me and everything to do with who she is as a human being, who she is as a basketball player,” Bueckers said, according to ESPN.
Neither Bueckers nor Fudd has publicly updated their relationship status since the April draft.
“Quite frankly, I believe me and Azzi’s personal relationship is nobody’s business but our own,” Bueckers also said in April. “And what we choose to share is completely up to us.”
Next up, the Wings play their home opener on Tuesday when they host the Atlanta Dream.
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The Lakers are one playoff defeat from their season being over and from the conversation turning to LeBron James’ future.
They are in a hole no team has climbed out of in the history of the NBA, the Lakers’ 131-108 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 3 putting L.A. down 3-0 in the best-of-seven Western Conference semifinal series.
James and his teammates gave a gallant effort Saturday night at Crypto.com Arena, but the defending champion proved to be more than the Lakers could handle.
James finished his night with 19 points on seven-for-19 shooting, eight assists and six rebounds. Rui Hachimura had 21 points and Austin Reaves finished with 17 points and nine assists.
Even so, the Lakers have now lost all three games by double digits.
And the Lakers are fully aware that no NBA team has successfully come back from a 3-0 deficit in the playoffs, with those teams holding a 161-0 record. Only four teams have forced a Game 7 after trailing 3-0, all of which ultimately lost the series, including the Boston Celtics in 2023.
Lakers forward LeBron James shows frustration as Thunder center Chet Holmgren slam dunks during Game 3 on Saturday night.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Game 4 is Monday night, when the Lakers will try to stave off elimination and a night that will determine how the conversations go with James if they lose.
James has been frequently asked this season about retirement, but he has not given any indication of what the future holds for him.
He’s 41 years old and playing in an NBA-record 23rd season.
James is in the final year of his contract that pays him $52 million, making him a free agent this offseason. He can retire, join another team or perhaps return to the Lakers next season.
That will be the conversation if the Lakers can’t win Game 4.
They will see the same Thunder team that had seven players score in double figures, led by Ajay Mitchell’s 24 points and 10 assists and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s 23 points and nine assists.
The Lakers went down 13 in the third quarter and had to play catchup the rest of the way. They never did, going down by 112-94 with 6 minutes and 12 seconds left, forcing Lakers coach JJ Redick to call a timeout.
The deficit just kept growing, topping out at 27 points in the fourth.
They were outscored 33-20 in the third quarter. The Lakers didn’t take care of the basketball in the third, turning it over six times, and they didn’t play good defense, allowing the Thunder to shoot 59.1% from the field and 55.6 percent from three-point range,
The Lakers did not give an inch to the Thunder in the first half, even when they fell behind by 10 points.
They just kept grinding until they led 59-57 at halftime.
Hachimura had 16 points in the first half, continuing his hot three-point shooting by making all four of his threes. Luke Kennard came off the bench to give the Lakers 13 points, shooting five for six from the field and three for four from three-point range.
The Lakers kept the pressure defense on Gilgeous-Alexander. Though he had 14 points in the first half, he shot only four for 14 from the field and one for five from three-point range.
The Lakers shot 55% from three-point range in the first half, which went a long way in helping them.
The Lakers lost the first two games by identical margins of 18 points and each loss was magnified because Gilgeous-Alexander was kept under wraps for the most part by L.A.’s defense.
When Gilgeous-Alexander picked up his fourth foul with 10:34 left in the third quarter of Game 2 and went to the bench, the Thunder turned a five-point lead into a 13-point advantage at the end of the quarter.
So, when he wasn’t on the court, the Lakers failed to take advantage.
“Well, you know, again, I’ll repeat what I said after the game: we’ve got to be better in the non-Shai minutes,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said.
Role players like Mitchell and Jared McCain hurt the Lakers in the second game. Chet Holmgren also was hard to deal with.
“Mitchell and McCain have hurt us in those non-Shai minutes, and then Chet [Holmgren] has hurt us the whole game,” Redick said. “I think you’ve got to be willing to live with something. Shai playing one-on-one, thus far in the series, we haven’t been willing to live with, so you’re going to be in rotation. That can lead to smalls on bigs at the hole, and the offensive rebounding from Chet has really hurt us.”
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In 2025, Alex Palou kicked off the Month of May with a Sonsio Grand Prix win at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
Based on the odds, it’s likely that Palou will find himself in Winner’s Circle again this Saturday when INDYCAR goes back to IMS on May 9 (4:30 p.m. ET, FOX).
Considering Palou has already captured the checkered flag three times this season, are there any other drivers whose odds are worth a wager?
Here are the latest lines at DraftKings Sportsbook as of May 9.
This page may contain affiliate links to legal sports betting partners. If you sign up or place a wager, FOX Sports may be compensated. Read more about Sports Betting on FOX Sports.
Sonsio Grand Prix 2026
Àlex Palou: 5/18 (bet $10 to win $12.78 total)
Kyle Kirkwood: 5/1 (bet $10 to win $60 total)
Pato O’Ward: 12/1 (bet $10 to win $130 total)
David Malukas: 14/1 (bet $10 to win $150 total)
Josef Newgarden: 16/1 (bet $10 to win $170 total)
Scott McLaughlin: 20/1 (bet $10 to win $210 total)
Christian Lundgaard: 30/1 (bet $10 to win $310 total)
Scott Dixon: 40/1 (bet $10 to win $410 total)
Will Power: 60/1 (bet $10 to win $610 total)
Felix Rosenqvist: 80/1 (bet $10 to win $810 total)
Alexander Rossi: 100/1 (bet $10 to win $1,010 total)
Marcus Ericsson: 100/1 (bet $10 to win $1,010 total)
Marcus Armstrong: 100/1 (bet $10 to win $1,010 total)
Christian Rasmussen: 150/1 (bet $10 to win $1,510 total)
Graham Rahal: 150/1 (bet $10 to win $1,510 total)
Louis Foster: 300/1 (bet $10 to win $3,010 total)
Dennis Hauger: 500/1 (bet $10 to win $5,010 total)
Romain Grosjean: 500/1 (bet $10 to win $5,010 total)
Santino Ferrucci: 500/1 (bet $10 to win $5,010 total)
Rinus Veekay: 500/1 (bet $10 to win $5,010 total)
Kyffin Simpson: 500/1 (bet $10 to win $5,010 total)
Caio Collet: 1000/1 (bet $10 to win $10,010 total)
Sting Ray Robb: 1000/1 (bet $10 to win $10,010 total)
Nolan Siegel: 1000/1 (bet $10 to win $10,010 total)
Mick Schumacher: 1000/1 (bet $10 to win $10,010 total)
Here’s what to know about the oddsboard:
Heavy Favorite: It doesn’t look like Alex Palou’s dominance will be slowing down anytime soon. As noted above, he’s already won three of the five races since the INDYCAR season started in March. With 186 laps led, Palou sits first in the standings and has the shortest odds to win the title again. Last season, he started from the pole and led 29 laps before winning the race.
Long Shot to Watch: While his odds of 150/1 to win at IMS are much longer than Palou’s, Graham Rahal is one to watch. At this race in 2025, he started second and led 49 laps before finishing sixth. He finished second at this course in 2015, 2020 and 2023. He’s currently 10th in the INDYCAR standings, with one top five and three top 10s.
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