The Summer Olympics
countdown is officially on.
This final year of training
will go fast for Team USA.
Joining us now,
NBC Olympic primetime host
Mike Tirico from Paris.
Thanks for the time,
Cheryl. Good to be with you.
I know you've been to a few Olympic Games.
This one is 1 to have on
your bucket list for sure.
Oh, I absolutely cannot wait.
That setting behind you
just makes us all excited.
It feels like there's a different energy,
different excitement around these Olympics.
Do you feel that as well?
No doubt, Cheryl.
Look, the last three Olympics were in Asia,
so far away for Americans,
and then the last two with COVI,
no fans in the stands for the most part.
This has Europe very accessible.
So many Americans come to Parisa
regular basis during the summer anyway.
And then the fans,
the Parisians have gobbled up tickets
and people around the world have
gotten their chance to get some
tickets when they've been put on sale.
So I think from all of those perspectives,
post Pandemic fans in the stands Paris,
what more could you ask for?
The motto, So fitting the motto,
is games wide open.
More than 7,000,000 tickets sold already,
and we expect a lot of Americans
to travel to Team Cheer
Team USA on in person there.
I think we'll see that Cheryl t,
especially given what the last few games
have met with how far the trip .
And it's the parents that I'm
excited for the most of the aths
who have worked so many years.
And if the parents who've gotten up all
those mornings to take them to practice,
a lot of them didn't get the opportunity to
go to Pyeongchang or to Tokyo or to Beijing,
Getting here to France will
be a little bit different.
So I expect we'll see a lot of ,
white, blue, not just the color,
the French flag, but also the r,
white, blue, the stars and stris
as well in the 366 days from no.
That's such an important point.
I know it was hard for family
members to watch so far away.
So to be there in person will
be so spectacular. You know,
the Summer Olympics are huge here in Atlanta.
We really have this embarrassmef
riches in Georgia for Olympic talent,
women's soccer, track and field swimming.
I'm thinking about Nick Fink, Chase Kalish.
So we absolutely can't wait for these games.
Yeah. Kelly O'Hara,
you mentioned soccer,
Brody Malone, the gymnastics.
He's one that I'm watching.
He did his college gymnastics at Stanford,
was an NCAA champion and with
his roots from Somerville there.
He's an athlete who we really
want to watch because he was
really on that trajectory where
he's somebody who can compete fr
medals and had an injury last y.
So this is an important year fom
to get back to where he was before he
got injured because that's somey
you could see as another Georgin
representing the USA on the plam
when when the medals are handed.
And by the way when athletes win medals.
Some of the celebration the next day is
going to happen at a Plaza right behind
us at the base of the Eiffel To.
So it's an extra bonus have a ml
around your neck in the Eiffel r
as the background for the pictu.
It's a pretty darn cool keepsake
to have forever.
How neat that this games really.
Paris will be a a character of the game.
So many of the competitions happening
within the city at at iconic pl.
Absolutely. You talked about
the Eiffel Tower a moment ago.
That's where beach volleyball i.
Bring some sand and bring a net,
DJ stands and both the beach volleyball
competition for the Olympic gol,
right at the base of one of thet
iconic images in all of the wor.
Then you'll have at that,
plus de la Concorde join the plazas here,
one of the very famous plazas
that has centuries of history.
We're going to have some modern
sports like 3 on 3, basketball,
BMX, cycling and breaking,
which you might refer to as break dancing.
That's an Olympic sport.
There's a World Championships for it.
There are great competitors,
great athletes,
beats including some from the Uo
a lot of the mix will include te
background of one of the most photographed
and beautiful cities in the wor.
What a perfect recipe for these games
to come back to what we've knowr
so many of our years growing up as kids
Mike and the first time an
equal number of male and female
athletes in an Olympic Games.
That is something that the IOC
has been very focused on doing d
they've really put it to practi.
And the beneficiary of that
in some ways is Team USA.
If you think back over 1/2 centy
to when Title nine started,
now you see it at Georgia and Georgia Tech,
the great women's teams at both schools.
And we see it with Team USA in e
basketball success that got started back
from the Atlanta games and the women's
soccer that we talked about bef.
Team US A's women's teams are so strong.
And the individual athletes
like Katie Ledecky in the pool.
And to have an equal number of
medals and opportunities for
women athletes as male athletes,
that's the right thing to do.
And it just kind of points towas
where these Olympic Games shoule
and where they've actually arrived to.
They've set it as a goal and
reached it in so many ways,
which is kind of cool to see.
And we all get to watch history
unfold together. A year from no.
NBC Olympic primetime host
Mike Trico, thanks so much.
Thank you. Look forward to seeig
Y'all here in Paris in the year.
We look forward to it, too. Thanks a lot.
Next summer, the City of Light
will open its arms to the world,
and Paris will have a starring e
in this grand global spectacle,
with the set as a launching point for a
summer long celebration at an opening
ceremony on My Getting We've Seen Before.
From the red clay of Roland Garros to the
sprawling grounds of Versailles and the
sweeping elegance of the shops at his end,
Paris will welcome more than 100
athletes whose dreams will come to life
on these city streets with hist,
legacy and gold medal streaks at stake.
Their families, friends and fans will
fill the French capital in full throated
support and celebration as the Games take
center stage in this spectacular city,
the Paris Olympics and Paralymps
in the summer of 2024.