When this summer’s Olympians parade through Paris on the Seine on Friday, several athletes will be missing, including at least one from Utah.
Soccer player Taylor Booth and the rest of the players on both the men’s and women’s U.S. Olympic soccer teams will not be participating in the 2024 Paris Olympics opening ceremony.
Despite the opening ceremony marking the start of the Summer Games, Olympic competition has already begun for soccer — or, for the international fans, football.
Why the U.S. men’s soccer team isn’t at the opening ceremony
Booth and the rest of the U.S. men’s soccer team played their first match of the Paris Olympics against host nation France on Wednesday. The U.S. shut out France for the first half before conceding three goals in the second and losing the match.
The U.S. team plays New Zealand on Saturday in Marseille, which is a 7 1/2 hour drive from Friday’s opening ceremony in Paris. It’s a match the team needs to win to keep its hopes of advancing to the knockout stage alive.
Only the top two teams in the four-team groups and the top two third-place teams advance out of the group stage.
A loss to New Zealand and a France win or draw over Guinea would eliminate the U.S. from quarterfinals contention, according to CBS Sports. If either of those scenarios occur, the U.S. men’s team’s match against Guinea on Tuesday, July 30, would be inconsequential.
Why the U.S. women’s soccer team isn’t at the opening ceremony
The U.S. women’s soccer players are coming off a 3-0 victory against Zambia on Thursday. That game made Emma Hayes the first U.S. women’s national team head coach to win their first game in their first major tournament by at least three goals, according to OptaJack.
The U.S. women will not be at the opening ceremony in Paris because of a similar situation to what the men’s team is going through. They are stationed even farther away in Nice, a 9 hour and 45 minute drive from Paris.
The U.S. women’s soccer team plays its next match against Germany in Marseille, where the men’s team is stationed. Germany is coming off its own 3-0 victory over Australia. Germany is currently ranked as the fourth best team by FIFA, while the U.S. is ranked fifth, which is its lowest ranking ever, according to ESPN.
Under new head coach Hayes, the U.S. is looking to recover from its disappointing performance — and earliest World Cup exit — in last summer’s FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Why isn’t Katie Ledecky at the Olympics opening ceremony?
In addition to the soccer Olympians, Katie Ledecky — one of the most decorated U.S. Olympians of all time — and many other swimmers will miss Friday’s opening ceremony.
Ledecky will be competing the next morning in the 400-meter freestyle at 11 a.m. Paris time on Saturday.
This summer, she will also be competing in the 800-meter and 1,500-meter freestyle events, as well as the 4x200 freestyle relay.
“I never planned on going to opening ceremony this year. I know a lot of swimmers that are racing the first few days don’t really have it in mind and I know some of the swimmers that compete later on in the week might be attending. I got to do that in 2012. It’s a tremendous experience,” Ledecky said Wednesday in a press conference.