Over 10,500 athletes will be in attendance at the 2024 Paris Olympics that begin on July 26th and run through August 11th. See below for the number of quota spots allowed per sport as track and field and swimming lead the way.
Track and field/athletics has the largest amount of quota spots with 1810 total. Swimming has the 2nd largest with 852, although this number is down from the previous quota of 878 that were allowed in Tokyo. World Aquatics has already sent out a message saying that athletes with the ‘B’ cuts may not qualify due to the quota.
This is because ‘B’ cuts are 4th priority, coming behind the ‘A’ cut swimmers, relay swimmers, and universality athletes. Universality allows for countries that do not have swimmers with ‘A’ or ‘B’ cuts to send 1 male and 1 female swimmer to the Olympic Games. Universality swimmers have a higher priority than athletes who have ‘B’ cuts and are already represented by their country.
Track and field notably has a total of 48 events while swimming has 35 events. Both have men’s events, women’s events, and mixed events.
Track and field and swimming lead the way and are followed by soccer/football (504 athletes from 28 teams) and rowing (502 athletes).
| Artistic Swimming | 96 |
| Diving | 128 |
| Open Water | 44 |
| Swimming | 852 |
| Water Polo | 264 |
| Archery | 128 |
| Athletics (Track and Field) | 1810 |
| Badminton | 166 |
| Basketball | 288 |
| Boxing | 248 |
| Breaking | 158 |
| Canoeing | 126 |
| Cycling | 180 |
| Equestrian | 200 |
| Fencing | 212 |
| Field Hockey | 384 (24 teams) |
| Soccer | 504 (28 teams) |
| Golf | 118 |
| Gymnastics | 318 |
| Handball | 336 (24 teams) |
| Judo | 372 |
| Modern Pentathlon | 20 |
| Rowing | 502 |
| Rugby | 288 |
| Sailing | 330 |
| Shooting | 340 |
| Skateboarding | 44 |
| Sport Climbing | 68 |
| Surfing | 48 |
| Table tennis | 172 |
| Taekwondo | 128 |
| Tennis | 172 |
| Triathlon | 110 |
| Volleyball | 24 teams (288) |
| Weightlifting | 120 |
| Wrestling | 288 |
World Aquatics has a total of 1,384 spots which is still less than the 1,810 that Athletics has (which includes sports like walking).
World Athletics uses Rankings for each event to see who is eligible, if you are not high enough on the ranking you do not get to go. Depending on the event I think it is somewhere between 16 & 40 for each event and they also use Universitality spots.
The ranking system is not based on your 1 single best results but on your best results plus how you have performed in several competitions at different levels.
Do we want swimming to switch to a ranking system that is basically 16-24 athletes higher than… Read more »
Does track and field have roster limitations like swimming does? I watched all of the swimming and track and field sessions and not once did I hear the track and field announcers say anything about roster limits. In swimming, it was a big deal. If track doesn’t, why not?
Also, I know the IOC or FINA made it so that only two per nation got to go because they didn’t want podium sweeps. Why was the same not applied to track and field?
I believe there is. I remember hearing yesterday one of the women who was in the relay pool for the US didn’t qualify because of the roster limit I may be wrong though
Track and Field probably had more different countries participating and winning medals in the 1970’s when the decision was made regarding swimming.
It might have been around the same time that the Semifinals were removed.
The 1980 Moscow Olympics were the last Games that swimming was allowed three entrants per event. I agree that track/field having three per event seems unfair. I don’t think the roster limits were in place back then but not sure. An interesting point is that, after the 1972 Munich Games, the 200 IM was removed from the program and wasn’t part of the 1976 and 1980 programs, but was restored for the 1984 Games. Maybe restoring the 200 IM to the program was a compromise to limit the entrants to two per event?