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Louise Thomas
Editor
The Paris 2024 Olympic Games are almost here, meaning a number of famous faces are expected to attend this year’s summer sporting event.
The Olympics kick off on Friday, July 26 with an opening ceremony unlike any before. More than 10,000 athletes from around the world will take part in a 100-boat parade along the River Seine, with rumored performances from Céline Dion and Lady Gaga. With some of the world’s biggest pop stars set to attend the Olympics, many people are wondering what other A-listers will be spotted at the games – most notably, Taylor Swift.
The “Anti-Hero” singer recently kicked off the European leg of her record-breaking Eras Tour at the La Défense Arena in Paris, a 40,000-seat stadium set to host several Olympic sporting events. While Swift has since performed a number of sold-out shows in Ireland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, she also has gaps in her packed Eras Tour schedule.
The 14-time Grammy winner isn’t scheduled to perform on the day of the opening ceremony, nor during the end of the summer games on August 11. In fact, she has a three-day break between her July 24 concert in Hamburg and her July 27-28 shows in Munich. From there, she heads to Warsaw to perform at the PGE Narodowy from August 1-3. The European leg of the Eras Tour continues for three days in Vienna, before returning to Wembley Stadium in London for five shows.
Swift has been known to make quick trips in between her busy Eras Tour schedule. Swift famously made it to the 2024 Super Bowl in Las Vegas to watch her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce, beat the San Francisco 49ers. The “Shake It Off” singer performed in Tokyo, Japan, the night before the Super Bowl – a 17-hour time difference. Since Swift made the 12-hour flight from Japan to Nevada, it’s certainly possible for her to take the less-than-two-hour flight from Germany to France.
Although Swift has yet to confirm whether she’ll attend this year’s Olympics, she’s often shown her support for Team USA. Last month, she shared a selfie with the Prince of Wales, his children Prince George and Princess Charlotte, and her boyfriend Kelce. In the photograph, the NFL star was visibly wearing a black and white Team USA Olympic baseball hat.
Swift also has close ties with seven-time Olympic medalist Simone Biles, who will be making her return to the Olympics as a member of the USA women’s gymnastics team. During the 2024 US Olympic Gymnastic Trials, Biles competed in the qualifiers with an incredible floor routine set to Swift’s 2017 song, “...Ready For It?”
In June, Swift responded to the gymnastics legend by reposting a video of her floor routine to X, formerly Twitter, along with the caption: “Watched this so many times and still unready. She’s ready for it tho.”
In 2021, after Biles withdrew from the Tokyo Olympics due to her mental health, Swift showed her support for Biles in a moving video tribute. As the singer narrated the clip, set to her 2020 song “This Is Me Trying,” she acknowledged the public scrutiny that Biles faced after announcing her decision to leave the competition.
“What do we want from our heroes? What do we expect of them? What do we need from them? What happens when they surprise us?” Swift narrated over clips of Biles performing on the vault and cheering on her teammates. “When you have the attention of the world, everything you do takes on a bigger meaning. It can be a heavy burden. It can be a chance to change everything.”
Swift concluded: “Throughout the last week, her voice has been as significant as her talents, her honesty as beautiful as the perfection that has long been her signature. But don’t you see? It still is. She’s perfectly human, and that’s what makes it so easy to call her a hero. Simone Biles, back on the beam in Tokyo.”
Biles responded to the message, writing: “I’m crying. How special. I love you Taylor Swift.”
The “Bad Blood” singer replied: “I cried watching YOU. I feel so lucky to have gotten to watch you all these years, but this week was a lesson in emotional intelligence and resilience. We all learned from you. Thank you.”
In addition to Biles, the US women’s water polo team are big fans of the pop star. Gold medalist Maggie Steffens and her teammates attended one of Swift’s Eras Tour concerts in Paris last May, the same stadium where the last three rounds of the men’s and women’s water polo tournaments are going to be held.
“We talked about it after [the concert],” Steffens told the AP on Wednesday. “We had a team meeting of, like, if we get the chance to play in La Défense Arena, we want to be like her. We want to be able to love the pressure and be able to perform and have fun and enjoy that moment and make the most of it.”
Swift even gifted the Eras Tour tickets to the women’s water polo team after her representatives were contacted by their team manager, Ally Beck.
“As bada** and powerful of a woman as she is, for us to be able to see that in person was pretty magical,” Steffens said.
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