On TV

The good news is that there is lots of TV coverage and all of it is on the free-to-air channels.

The opening ceremony and the rest of the Olympic and Paralympic events will be screened on Swiss national broadcasters SRF (Swiss German), RTS (Swiss French) and RSI (Swiss Italian). 

SRF is showing 14 hours a day of live coverage from the French capital (between 9am and 11pm) with presenting team Annette Fetscherin and Lukas Studer interviewing medal winners and guests – in German – from their studio in the heart of Paris.

The Swiss-German broadcaster is also reporting live from the Games on its radio station SRF 3.

Preference will of course be given to showing events featuring Swiss athletes on the terrestrial channels, but there are also plenty of web channels available to watch too so you can pick and choose the events you’d prefer to watch.

SRF, RTS and RSI have come together to offer nine online livestreams via their Olympic Player or you can also watch in the respective broadcasters’ apps. These web channels will generally not have any commentary and you can watch them while you’re on the go, if you prefer.

If you’re looking for more general coverage, and have a subscription, Eurosport is also covering the games.

READ ALSO: What you should know about Switzerland’s 2024 Olympic Team

Big screens

But if you’d rather head out, where better to watch the Olympic magic unfold than at a museum dedicated to all things Olympics?

The Lausanne-based Olympic Museum – the world’s largest archive of Games memorabilia – will be broadcasting the opening ceremony and the games live from a big screen in the Olympic Park’s Olympic Fountain for the whole of the opening weekend.

The ceremony and the rest of the Olympics will also be shown on smaller screens in the museum’s restaurant, auditorium and snack bar.

And if you’d like to practise your sporting prowess, or admire others’, they’re also holding a series of free sporting activities, athlete demos, workshops and live music shows.

While you’re there, it’s a great opportunity to dive into their current exhibition that takes you on an immersive journey to the Paris Olympics of past and present.

Similarly, sports bars around Switzerland may well be showing some of the games on TV.

The need-to-know information

The opening ceremony kicks off at 7.30pm on Friday July 26th with a speech by French President Emmanuel Macron who will formally declare the games open.

The ceremony – set to be a spectacular sight of 160 boats and barges sailing down the capital’s Seine – concludes with the lighting of the Olympic cauldron at around 11.15pm.

Former Olympic gold medal winners Nina Christen and Nino Schurter will be carrying the Swiss flag.

Over 120 Swiss athletes will be heading to the Paris Olympics – Switzerland’s largest delegation since 1984 – with athletics, cycling and rowing the most represented sports. And there will be up to 25 athletes at the Paralympics.

English-language coverage

Of course, the Swiss coverage of the games will be in French, German or Italian. If you want to watch with English commentary you can try some of the foreign broadcasters (subject to rights and accessibility) such as the UK’s BBC, Ireland’s RTE or the USA’s NBC.

You can find the list of TV channels across the world who will show Olympics coverage here.

And if you fancy a trip to France for the Games (July 26th to August 11th), there are still some tickets available via the official site, plus more on the resale site. And there are still plenty of tickets for the Paralympics (August 28th to September 8th).