Paris Olympics 2024: What To Watch & How To Watch It In Perth

In case you missed it, the Paris Olympics is about to start, bringing with it 16 days of sporting entertainment across many different sporting disciplines. Each country vying for as many medals as possible along the way.

There’s a six-hour time difference between Paris and Perth so there will likely be some late nights ahead for watching some of the key matches. For those late nights and super early mornings when you’re caught up watching the Matildas kick their way to the final, and are a little worried about work the next day, that’s why we invented ‘working from home’ and sick leave. 

While the Matilda’s games in the Group stage don’t mesh well with Perth’s timezone, the Boomers fit perfectly, making them almost prime-time viewing for us.

We’ve deciphered the schedules of some of what’s on so that you don’t miss a beat.

How to watch the Olympics

While the time difference isn’t ideal, thankfully, we’ll still have a lot of options for watching the almost endless Olympic Games content that will be showing. 

Out and about

If you want to get amongst the atmosphere and watch with fellow fans, Perth is full of great sports bars that will be streaming a lot of the Olympics. Safe bets are Crown Sports Bar and Varsity, depending on the times. The big screen at Yagan Square will also be playing throughout the Games.  

At home

Most of us will be watching at home so we have two options. Some of the schedule will be airing on Channel 9 on free-to-air TV. 

If you’re looking for the where to watch every single minute of the Olympics, Stan has you covered with dedicated channels showing the games, commentary, and the top ten moments of every day of the games. They also have international channels from the UK, India, and New Zealand. 

Stan’s Games coverage also includes some West Aussie commentators including Tara Rushton and John Steffensen. 

Paris Olympics 2024 Opening Ceremony

The Opening Ceremony is always a favourite and this year, it’s going to be a little bit different.

How? Well, for the first time in history of the Olympic Summer Games, it won’t be help in a stadium. In what we hope will be a new trend, Paris will bring the Opening Ceremony into the heart of the city, along its main artery — the Seine. 

The river parade will follow the course of the Seine, departing from the Austerlitz bridge making its way around the two islands at the centre of the city — the Île Saint Louis and the Île de la Cité — before passing under several bridges and gateways. 

The athletes on board the parade boats will get glimpses of some of the official Games venues, including Parc Urbain La Concorde, the Esplanade des Invalides, the Grand Palais, and the Iéna bridge where the parade will come to a stop before the ceremony’s finale at the Trocadéro.

That’s all very interesting, but where and when can the Opening Ceremony be watched? It’ll be showing on July 27th at 1:30 am Perth time (AWST). See above for where it can be watched.

Our picks of what to watch

Stan’s Top Ten highlights

Every morning, Stan will be streaming a Top Ten, giving you instant access to some of the best moments from the night before. You’ll see it as soon as you open the app, just click and play (you know the drill by now). 

Obviously, watch the Matildas

This goes without saying given their recent popularity and fandom in Australia, but we’re going to say it anyway. Watch the Matildas. We’re going to make a prediction and say they’ll be the most-watched Paris Olympics fixture in Australia. 

They’ve landed themselves in Group B alongside USA, Zambia, and Germany.

With a bit of luck on their side, they’ll end the Olympics as the champions, taking the baton from 2020’s champs, Canada.

Match	Perth Time & Date
Germany v Australia, Stade de Marseille	1:00 am on 26 July 2024
Australia v Zambia, Stade de Nice	1:00 am on 29 July 2024
Australia v United States, Stade de Marseille	1:00 am on 1 August 2024

Basketball

While we’ll all be cheering for Australia’s Boomers, there’s no doubt that many of us will also be wanting to tune into the Team USA Basketball team as well. Below are the initial schedules for both teams in the Group stages. When they advance, we’ll have updated schedules for you.

The Boomers have drawn one of the toughest groups with Spain, Canada, and Greece — all potential gold medal contenders — so it’s going to be a tough group stage with some great matches to watch.

Watch the basketball on Stan.

Boomers Matches

Match	Perth Time & Date
Boomers vs Spain	5:00 pm on 27 July 2024
Boomers vs Canada	7:30 pm 30 July 2024
Boomers vs Greece	7:30 pm 2 August 2024

Team USA Matches

Match	Perth Time & Date
USA vs. Serbia	11:15 pm on 28 July 2024
USA vs. South Sudan	3:00 am on 1 August 2024
USA vs. Puerto Rico	11:15 pm on 3 August 2024

Swimming

One of Australia’s biggest strengths at every Olympics is our abilities in the pool. It’s almost a guarantee that we’re going to dominate the medal count in the swimming events. And Paris will be no different with eight Australian swimmers currently holding a number one world ranking. Swimmers to watch out for:

• Ariarne Titmus in the 200m and 400m freestyle
• Cam McEvoy in the 50m freestyle
• Kaylee McKeown in the 200m backstroke and 200m individual medley
• Sam Short in the 800m freestyle 

Based on our current world rankings, Australia is predicted to win eight gold medals and a combined 14 silver and bronze medals.

To make sure you don’t miss any of the medal action in the pool and watch our Aussies claim gold, swimming finals will be held from 29th July to 5th August with times starting from 2:30 am (AWST).

Watch the swimming events on Stan.

Track and Field

Some say athletics are the pinnacle of the Olympic games and to be honest, for the entertainment factor, we’d have to agree. 

While Australia won’t feature heavily on the track, we do have a few genuine medal chances with Nina Kennedy — who won gold in Pole Vault last year at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest — and both Nicola Olyslagers and Eleanor Patterson in the High Jump. Olyslagers won silver at the Tokyo Games while Patterson won the World Championship title in 2022. There is only 1cm separating the two between their personal bests.

The whole world will be tuning into the ‘main events’ of the Olympics — the 100m and 200m finals — as we watch on to see who will claim the crown as the fastest man and woman in the world. See below for the 100m and 200m finals start times.

Watch the Track and Field events on Stan.

Paris 2024 Olympics FAQs

Full Olympics 2024 schedule

You can find the full Paris Olympics schedule here for the games that we haven’t outlined above. Just remember to adjust for the time difference.