The Paris Olympics are finally here! After months, if not years, of lead up, the biggest quadrennial meet in the world will hit the purple track in style with medals, records, and glory on the line.

A full schedule of events with live results can be found here. You can also find a searchable list of entries and a helpful FAQ on the World Athletics website.

In the United States, track and field events will be broadcast on Peacock (subscription required) and the NBC/Universal family of TV stations. A full broadcast schedule can be found here. If you don’t live in the U.S. and want to watch, more information on international broadcasts can be found here.

We’re excited to have a full CITIUS MAG team on the ground in Paris providing daily live shows before and after the action, including interviews with competing athletes, our TORCH TALK recap show, and the return of GOOD MORNING TRACK AND FIELD. Make sure you’re subscribed to the CITIUS MAG YouTube channel for live shows, and subscribe (and share with your friends!) to the CITIUS MAG newsletter for daily newsletters in your inbox after every day of track and field competition.

Without further ado, here’s everything you need to know about the men’s sprint events at the Paris Olympics.

Men’s 100 meters

First round: Saturday, August 3, 5:45 am E.T.

Is this truly a two-man race to be crowned the new “world’s fastest man?” That’s the question on the minds of Jamaican and American fans… and pretty much everyone else’s, too. Noah Lyles is the reigning World champion, coming off decisive wins at the U.S. Trials and Paris Diamond League, the latter in a lifetime-best 9.81. 23-year-old Kishane Thompson has never been to a global championship, but he’s the world leader at 9.77 and has looked very comfortable dispatching strong international competition all season. But is the race really down to Thompson vs. Lyles?

Top contenders: To win the coveted Olympic crown, either Thompson or Lyles will also have to take down reigning Olympic champ Marcell Jacobs, 2022 World champ Fred Kerley, and rising medal contenders like Letsile Tebogo and Oblique Seville. Jacobs and Kerley are both game-day players, but Jacobs, despite running his fastest post-Tokyo 100m earlier this summer, has been plagued by injuries in recent seasons, and Kerley is a big wild card this year after changing sponsors mid-season. Tebogo and Seville are both young runners who’ve improved mightily over the last several years, but they’ll be facing a spotlight brighter than any they’ve seen to date in Paris.

More names to watch: American Kenny Bednarek is known more internationally as a 200m runner, with two global medals in the longer event, but he’s improved tremendously at the 100m this year and with a few more ticks off his recent 9.87 PB he could easily be in the medal mix. Kenyan Ferdinand Omanyala is the world #2 this year with an altitude-aided 9.79 performance in Nairobi this June, but historically Omanyala has struggled to perform in a championship setting. Brit Zharnel Hughes, who took bronze last year, hasn’t shown quite the same form in 2024, but he’s clocked a few strong 200ms and can’t be counted out. And a pair of South Africans, newcomer Benjamin Richardson and veteran Akani Simbine, have each run 9.86 and could be a wild card medalist if they perform well on the day – although Richardson has yet to back up the only sub-10 of his career to date with an equally-impressive follow-up.

Men’s 200 meters

First round: Monday, August 5, 1:55 pm E.T.

Many of the same names that will be competitive in the 100m will be back in action over double the distance. Here, Lyles is a big favorite as the 3x World champion, but last Olympics he faltered when it counted most and ended up with bronze. Of the men who beat him then, Bednarek is having the best year of his career so far and is definitely a medal contender, and Olympic champ Andre De Grasse has yet to post the sort of time assumed necessary to contend… but he also hasn’t lost a 200m yet this season. Their big problem is that Lyles has only gotten better since 2021, and until someone shows they can consistently run in the 19.4s or faster, he’ll be hard to topple.

Top contenders: The two men with the best shot at Lyles are Letsile Tebogo, who ran 19.50 last July and looked smooth and composed winning his most recent 200m, a 19.87 in Monaco, and Erriyon Knighton, the only other sub-19.5 guy on the start list. Knighton and Tebogo picked up silver and bronze in Budapest last year and the oddsmakers would likely project a repeat of the 2023 podium. But given that both men are under 22 years old, their improvement curves could catch up to Lyles in a hurry as they continue to gain championship experience.

More names to watch: Bednarek has two global medals over 200m in the last three years and clocked a lifetime best 19.59 at the Olympic Trials, so he can’t be counted out to land back on the podium. There’s less room for someone else to crack the top echelon here than in the 100m, but if someone does, it could be Hughes, Dominican Alexander Ogando, or Florida-based Liberian Joe Fahnbulleh.

Men’s 400 meters

First round: Sunday, August 4, 1:05 pm E.T.

After a 2023 and early 2024 in the men’s 400m that could best be described as underwhelming, the men’s 400m has suddenly begun heating up over the last few weeks and looks like it could be one of the most exciting events to watch in Paris. Two men broke 44 seconds for the first time in their careers this season: U.S. champion and last year’s bronze medallist Quincy Hall with his 43.80 in Monaco and Budapest silver medallist from Britain Matthew Hudson-Smith with his 43.74 in London. They likely go in as the gold medal favorites based on times, current form and proven global championship medal winning experience.

Top contenders: World Indoor and European champion Alexander Doom (Belgium) is having the season of his life, and is winning medals and chopping huge chunks off his PR (currently 44.15) each time he runs. 2022 World champion Michael Norman (USA) and defending Olympic champion Steven Gardiner (Bahamas)both coming back from injury, have been running slightly below average (by very high standards) this season. Gardiner’s fastest time is 44.39, but he has continued his undefeated ways in 400m races he finishes – a streak stretching back to the beginning of 2018.

More names to watch: NCAA champion Christoper Morales Williams of Georgia and Canada was the world leader with 44.05 from early May until mid July and had a stunning NCAA season both indoors and outdoors, but has struggled to make any impact in the two Diamond League races he has run in July so it may be that the long NCAA season has taken a toll. Jereem Richards of Trinidad and Tobago put himself into the mix with his 44.18 at the London Diamond League. And last, but certainly not least is Kirani James (Grenada), the triple Olympic individual medallist over 400m who has run 44.38 this year.

2023 World Champion Antonio Watson (Jamaica) pulled up injured in the heats of the Jamaican Championships and will not be in Paris. World record holder Wayde van Niekerk (South Africa) has chosen to focus on the 200m this year so will not be in his signature event.

Men’s 110m hurdles

First round: Sunday, August 4, 5:50 am E.T.

Can anyone take down Grant Holloway? So far in 2024, that answer is no. Holloway has not lost a single round, prelim, or final of any hurdles race, indoors or out. Holloway is the 3x World champion and fastest active competitor in the event. His 12.81 PB is only 1/100th away from Aries Merritt’s world record! But Holloway is mortal, as shown by his silver medal finish to Jamaican Hansle Parchment in Tokyo. The high-stakes nature of the 110m hurdles means that a single misplaced step or dropped heel could mean the difference between triumph and disaster, but the odds are certainly in Holloway’s favor.

Top contenders: Parchment squeaked onto Jamaica’s Olympic squad, and his 13.19 season’s best is only #3 on his own team. Unless he finds an extra bit of championship juice, he’ll be hard-pressed to defend his title. Instead, a U.S. sweep is certainly possible, as the only three sub-13 performers on the year are Holloway and his teammates Freddie Crittenden and Daniel Roberts. Italian Lorenzo Simonelli will do his best to spoil the party, and Frenchman Sasha Zhoya will be looking to muster a medal-winning performance to dazzle the home crowd.

More names to watch: Even with Parchment not (yet) up to form, Jamaica has a good shot at a medal of some color with Orlando Bennett and Rasheed Broadbell. They both have season’s bests of 13.18, but Broadbell ran 12.94 just one year ago (although he’s had trouble making global finals in the past). And Japan has a pair of hurdlers who’ve run 13.10 or faster, with national champion Rachid Muratake clocking a 13.07 amid a strong season and last year’s 5th-placer at Worlds Shunsuke Izumiya right on his heels.

Men’s 400m hurdles

First round: Monday, August 5, 4:05 am E.T.

Quick note on shorthand: when we’re talking about the “Big Three,” it’s the trio in this event who have won seven of its last nine global medals: Olympic champ Karsten Warholm, 2022 World champ Alison dos Santos, and 2024 world leader Rai Benjamin. Warholm, dos Santos, and Benjamin have all shown they’re fit and ready to throw down, with each man clocking multiple sub-47 second performances already this season. When they all met head to head in Monaco, Benjamin came out on top, but he’s also the only athlete among the trio without an individual gold medal on his shelf

Top contenders: It’s hard to say if there’s a true favorite in this event: Benjamin has beaten Warholm, who’s beaten dos Santos, who’s beaten Warholm earlier in the year. Benjamin hasn’t taken an L in this event yet this season, but he has only raced outside of the U.S. once in that timeframe, and also only finished third in Budapest last year. Given how easy it is for these three to advance through the early rounds of racing, we’ll probably not know for sure who’s fittest until the final itself.

More names to watch: Team USA’s Trevor Bassitt and Kyron McMaster of the British Virgin Islands have each picked up a medal at the last two world championships and are running well this season – just likely not yet well enough to threaten the hegemony at the top. Two Jamaicans, Roshawn Clarke and Malik James-King, have also run in the mid-47s this season, but unless one of them levels up or one of the top contenders falters, their times simply won’t be enough to land on the podium.

4x100m Relay

First rounds: Thursday, August 8, 5:35 am E.T.

The 4x100m relay, with its tight exchange zones and high-speed handoffs, is a famously unpredictable event with a high potential for upsets. Having the four fastest runners in the field is rarely a guarantee of victory, something team Team USA and its storied history of dropped batons and DQs knows all too well. That being said, the U.S. team are the reigning World champions and World Relays champions, and if they get the stick around cleanly, they should be the favorites with Noah Lyles on the anchor.

If they falter, the teams with the best track record (no pun intended) of recent success include Canada, Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Italy, and Jamaica. Italy and Canada’s chances will likely rely largely on Marcell Jacobs’s and Andre de Grasse’s respective forms, and Jamaica probably has the most raw talent to beat out the U.S. team in a pure-speed race. But anything can happen over two rounds of racing.

4x400m Relay

First rounds: Friday, August 9, 5:05 am E.T.