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• Paris 2024 promises to be an Olympic Games like no other

  Boats down the Seine, B-boys at the Place de la Concorde and the lure of cold, hard cash promise to make the Paris 2024 Olympics, which get underway in 100 days’ time in the French capital, a Games like none before.

  If traditionalists were already blanching at audacious plans to rip up over a century of opening ceremony traditions, let alone welcoming the sport of breaking into the Olympic fray, they will have been white-eyed with fury at the announcement that track and field stars will each pocket a USD50,000 bonus.

  After the relative sterility of a delayed and Covid-stricken Tokyo 2020, the French capital, as well as the individual sports on an ever-growing and potentially tenuous programme, is preparing to pull out all the stops.

  The Games will start on July 26 with the first opening ceremony to be staged outside a stadium, each national delegation instead sent bobbling 6km down the city’s major artery before disembarking in front of the Eiffel Tower.

  Two weeks later, windmills, freezers and top rocks will become an official part of the Olympic lexicon for the first time as breaking makes its debut, B-boys and B-girls going head-to-head in DJ-driven battles.

  If its inclusion is not quite as contentious as the appearance of live pigeon shooting on the programme for the first Paris Olympics in 1900, it has raised some questions about the IOC’s almost obsessional commitment towards attracting the attention of global youth.

  Breaking joins other recently established sports like skateboarding, surfing and BMXing in the so-called ‘urban’ section of a constantly evolving Olympic programme, and one for which it would appear a city like Paris is ideally suited.

  For Team GB, now led by the likes of 15-year-old Sky Brown, keen to build on her history-making skateboarding bronze in Tokyo, there is a sense of similar upheaval, as a generation of new stars emerge and begin to eclipse the established order.

  There will be no Laura Kenny to light up the Velodrome, while in contrast to their dominant pre-Tokyo preparations, question-marks hang over the ability of the likes of Adam Peaty and Max Whitlock to retain their respective titles.

  Nevertheless, Tom Dean, Keely Hodgkinson, Tom Daley, Beth Shriever and Emily Campbell will expect to return to the podium at the head of a squad that looks more than capable of resuming its top three status in the final medals table.

  Dean and his closest revival Duncan Scott continued a stunning surge to prominence by the British swimming team – kick-started by Peaty’s heroics in Rio – while Daley and Matty Lee underscored a wave of promise for Team GB in the water.

  Hodgkinson’s ongoing battle to avoid another silver lining against rivals Athing Mu and Mary Moraa will generate top billing on the track, where double world champion Josh Kerr resumes his mouthwatering rivalry with Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen.

  The international narrative will inevitably be headed by Simone Biles, hoping to add to her current haul of seven Olympic medals after recovering from a psychological phenomenon known as the ‘twisties’ which restricted her success in Tokyo to a solitary – if heroic – bronze on the beam.

  Meanwhile French hopes do not come any bigger – literally – than judo heavyweight Teddy Riner, who boasts three Olympic golds and 11 world titles, and bids to cap his extraordinary career with another victory on home soil.

  All of which will be played out in front of the welcome sight of sold-out grandstands, a world away from the bare bleachers in Tokyo, and a symbol, or so the IOC would like to see it, of the Games having weathered one of the most serious storms in its history.

  It is perhaps that new-found consciousness of the need to adapt that has pushed the IOC into making more aggressive changes, be it in future bidding processes or in urging the b-boys and b-girls off the streets and into the Olympic auditorium for the first time.

  The Olympic movement has evolved unthinkably since that first Paris Games 124 years ago, when resolutely amateur pursuits like angling, ballooning and croquet were also on the programme, the latter reportedly staged in front of a single paying spectator.

  Some might say the latest changes are a step too far. But after the turmoil of Tokyo, most of those fortunate enough to be present in Paris will just be grateful that the Olympics are back, and braced to bop to any kind of beat at all.

• 7 British and Irish athletes to watch at the Paris 2024 Olympics

  With 100 days to go until the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympics, the PA news agency picks out seven top British and Irish athletes to watch.

  Keely Hodgkinson

  Hodgkinson could be forgiven for feeling sick of silver linings. The 800m star has finished second to either Athing Mu or Mary Moraa at a series of big events including the Tokyo Olympics (to Mu), and last year’s World Championships (to Moraa). It will take a Herculean effort to go one better in Paris, but all eyes will be on what should prove one of the most competitive events of the track and field programme.

  Kimberley Woods

  Woods heads to Paris as the reigning world champion in the exhilarating and brand new Olympic discipline of kayak-cross, involving heats in which four competitors hurtle down the same whitewater course simultaneously. Despite its inherent unpredictability, the 28-year-old from Rugby also won the overall World Cup title in 2023 and has proved a cut above her closest rivals.

  Bradly Sinden

  The Doncaster taekwondo star was disappointed with a silver medal in the men’s -68kg category in Tokyo and vowed to learn from his mistakes. He will return to Olympic competition with a second world title in the bag and as a strong favourite to finally make good on his lifelong ambition and turn that agonising silver into gold in the French capital.

  Bryony Page

  A surprise silver medallist on the women’s trampoline in Rio, Page returned to the podium with a bronze medal in Tokyo. At the age of 33 her confidence continues to rocket, and World Championship gold in Birmingham in 2023 – where she shunted Olympic champion Zhu Xueying into second place – suggests Page has what it takes to complete the set in Paris.

  Tom Dean

  Double Tokyo gold medallist Dean set himself the staggering target of five medals in Paris only to find the recent British Championships did not go to plan. Likely to be denied the chance to defend his 200m freestyle title, Dean nevertheless remains determined to make multiple visits to the podium as he heads up one of the most promising British swimming squads in decades.

  Emma Wilson

  Wilson, who won windsurfing bronze in Tokyo, is well placed to land gold in Marseille after making a stunning statement at this year’s World Championships, in which she won 15 of 20 qualifying races before finishing second in the winner-takes-all final race. Her consistency at the top level makes her arguably the best medal bet among the traditional surge of British sailing contenders.

  Rhys McClenaghan

  The Irish pommel ace finally ascended to the top of his sport after winning the 2022 World Championships in Liverpool, and went on to repeat the feat in Antwerp last year. McClenaghan, who was denied a medal in Tokyo after an early error, will relish the prospect of renewing his long-time rivalry with defending Olympic champion Max Whitlock in Paris.

• Germany boss Nagelsmann will not be lured back to Bayern, says Ramelow

  Bayern Munich may always have an "attraction" to coaches but Carsten Ramelow does not expect Germany boss Julian Nagelsmann to return to the Bundesliga giants.

  Nagelsmann was dismissed from his role as Bayern coach back in March 2023, as his former side were trying to make ground on Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga title race.

  Thomas Tuchel was swiftly appointed as his replacement, leading the club to an 11th straight top-flight title last term, but the former Chelsea boss has failed to live up to expectations this season, and will leave at the end of the campaign.

  Xabi Alonso rebuffed Bayern's interest to stay at Bayer Leverkusen, and it remains to be seen who the Bundesliga giants will go for as Tuchel's replacement.

  Nagelsmann is preparing to lead Germany at Euro 2024, which they will host from June 14, and former international Ramelow cannot see him being enticed back to his old club.

  "Quite honestly, it's hard for me to imagine that," Ramelow told Stats Perform when asked about Nagelsmann reuniting with Bayern. 

  "I would be surprised. First, he was sacked at Bayern, then he got the chance to coach Germany and now he should return. 

  "I think he will stay as Germany head coach. I also think that Bayern has different ideas, so let's be surprised by what they do over the next months."

  Nagelsmann oversaw back-to-back friendly victories over France and Netherlands as Germany impressed in the March internationals.

  Meanwhile, Tuchel's Bayern are almost out of the running for the Bundesliga title but will hope to reach the Champions League semi-final when Arsenal return to Germany for their finely poised last-eight tie.

  Ramelow acknowledged that Bayern remain an attractive proposition for any coach, however.

  "I mean everything is possible, sure," he added. "But I think that Nagelsmann has his own ideas and you don't take over as a national team's head coach only for a few months.

  "Even though Bayern always has its attraction. But he coached them already and they had their reasons to sack him, so, I would be surprised."

  Germany start their Euro 2024 campaign against Scotland at Allianz Arena on June 14, after friendlies against Ukraine and Greece to warm up for the tournament.