Paris 2024: A world record, a dancing crowd and that glorious purple track – Olympic athletics starts in style

Stars shine brightest on day one of Paris 2024 athletics

Of course, it wouldn’t matter at all what colour the Stade de France track was if the athletes didn’t perform.

And by golly did they perform.

The morning session gave Paris 2024 its first glance of a rising superstar as the USA’s Sha’Carri Richardson set down a marker of 10.94 to win her round 1 heat in the women’s 100m.

The sight of the American jumping up and down with her arms in the air to hype up the crowd was one of the highlights of the day.

In truth, it didn’t take much to motivate this crowd as they raised the roof in the stadium – even if it had no actual roof covering it today.

The women’s 5000m saw Kipyegon get off to a blistering start with victory in her heat, which also included the Netherlands’ Sifan Hassan who took the first steps on her astonishing attempt at an Olympic triple that includes the 5000m, 10,000m and – yep, you heard it right – the marathon.

Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh and Australia’s Nicola Olyslagers shone in the women’s high jump, Canadian world champ Ethan Katzberg thrilled in the hammer throw, Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson sauntered through the 800m, and the first gold medal of the Games was awarded to Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei in the men’s 10,000 metres. That rapid run of 26:43.14 also happened to be an Olympic record.

And we even witnessed a world record as the USA stormed to victory in the 4x400m mixed relay.

On. Day. One.

One thing’s for sure, this track isn’t just purple – it’s also super fast.

At the end of the night, the crowd sang along as Gloria Gaynor’s disco hit “I will survive” was blasted out of the stadium speakers. And as people danced in the stands, you got the feeling that athletics at these Games is going to be one heck of a party – Paris 2024 style.