In the coming year, all eyes in the sporting world will converge on Paris as the eagerly anticipated first post-COVID Olympic Games take center stage.
Yet, this two-week extravaganza is just the beginning, setting the scene for another 12 months of captivating sports drama.
Four continental football tournaments will commence, beginning with the Asian Cup in Qatar and the Africa Cup of Nations in the Ivory Coast in January, offering little respite for players and fans.
In June and July, Germany will host the European Championship. The hosts, running out of time to put together a team capable of reviving past glories, will face the challenge.
Simultaneously, the Copa America will take place in the United States, considered a rehearsal for the 2026 World Cup.
Saudi Arabia will enhance its status as a global sporting hub in February when Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury meet in Riyadh to decide the undisputed heavyweight boxing title – a clash in which the hype will reach stratospheric proportions.
As further proof of Gulf states' appetite for staging major events, swimmers and divers will get an early chance to put down markers for Paris when the Aquatics World Championships take place in Qatar in February – the first time it has been held in the region.
After a minuscule break, the tennis season resumes days after Christmas, and the Australian Open will welcome Spanish great Rafa Nadal, who is returning to Grand Slam action in what will probably be his farewell year.
The NFL's Super Bowl will dominate the U.S. sporting narrative in the buildup to the February showpiece in Nevada. In Australia, 2024 kicks off in traditional fashion with a cricket test series against Pakistan.
The sporting conveyor belt, it seems, gets more loaded each year, but once every four years, everything, for a few weeks at least, bows before the Olympic Games.
Paris is, and will continue to be, dogged by the usual gripes about staging the greatest show on earth. Transport issues and security concerns are par for the course, but organizers are also contending with an outbreak of bed bugs, pollution in the River Seine, and a stink about Paris's traditional street booksellers being dispersed.
By the time thousands of sportsmen and women arrive in the French capital, however, the focus will likely switch to a return to near Olympic normality after the delayed and COVID-impacted Tokyo Games played out in deserted stadiums.
International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach says Paris will be a "new era" for the Games – more inclusive and more sustainable than ever before. Russian and Belarusian athletes, competing as neutrals, will also be welcomed with open arms, according to Paris 2024 chief Tony Estanguet.
His opinion, however, might not be shared by all.
The world's oldest sporting competition, the America's Cup, returns in October when Barcelona hosts the 37th edition of sailing's blue riband event, with New Zealand seeking to regain the Auld Mug.
While great sporting sagas will unfold around the globe in 2024, featuring feats of human skill, endurance and athleticism, the narrative will have less edifying battles. The European Court of Justice's ruling in December has raised the specter of civil war in football, with the proposed European Super League back on the agenda.
Golf also appears at a crossroads, with the Saudi Arabia-funded LIV Golf likely to continue disrupting the status quo over the next 12 months, with more top players defecting to the money-spinning tour. Sport, increasingly, is a ruthless business where money alone talks and the joy is ebbing away.
