Soccer at 2024 Paris Olympics: How it works, Team USA stars, what else to know

Here's what you need to know about soccer at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

When did soccer become an Olympic sport?

That’s a complicated question. According to the International Olympic Committee, it was at the 1900 Summer Games but FIFA says the first official Olympic tournament wasn’t until 1908. Regardless of whose version you go with, soccer has been at every Summer Games since then with the exception of 1932.

Why not at those Games? FIFA opted not to organize an Olympic tournament because it wanted to promote its own international tournament.

You might have heard of it. It’s called the World Cup.

The women’s tournament was not added to the Olympic program until 1996, five years after the first World Cup for women's soccer.

How does Olympic soccer work?

There are 16 men’s teams and 12 women’s teams in the Olympic tournaments. The men’s tournament is considered a “youth” event, meaning rosters are made up of Under-23 players, though each team can bring three over-age players. The women’s tournament has no age restrictions.

Each country is assigned to a four-team group and plays three, round-robin “group-stage” games. Teams get three points for a win and one point for a draw, and games end after 90 minutes regardless of the score. The top two teams in each group advance to the knockout rounds, as do the two best third-place teams in the women’s tournament.

The knockout rounds are elimination games, so if the score is tied at the end of regulation, it goes to overtime: two 15-minute halves, with a halftime in between. If the score is still tied after that, it goes to a penalty shootout. Each team gets five penalty kicks, and they alternate shots.

If the teams are still tied after those first five shots, they keep taking PKs until one team has converted one more than its opponent.

Who are the top Team USA athletes in soccer?

Though some of the best USMNT players are still age-eligible for the Olympics, it's hard to get clubs to let their stars go to a tournament where they might get hurt and almost certainly would miss some of the preseason.

But the Olympics could provide some invaluable experience for some of the USMNT's stars-in-the-making. Gianluca Busio and Tanner Tessmann, who led Venezia to promotion to Serie A in Italy, are on the roster. So is Kevin Paredes, U.S. Soccer's Young Male Player of the Year last year, and goalkeeper-of-the-future, Gaga Slonina.

The smaller roster sizes – there are only 18 players at the Olympics rather than the 23 at a World Cup – meant some tough choices for new USWNT coach Emma Hayes, including the exclusion of Alex Morgan from the roster. Captain Lindsey Horan, goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher and defender Naomi Girma will anchor this team, and Hayes has multiples of first-class options at almost every other position.

What's the international landscape in Olympic soccer?

France will be the heavy favorite in the men’s tournament. Spain would figure to be the favorite in the women’s tournament, but no reigning World Cup champion has also won the Olympic title. France, Germany and Japan also look formidable. But do not count out the USWNT, who have something to prove after their embarrassing performance at last summer’s World Cup, where they made their earliest exit ever at a major international tournament.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Soccer at 2024 Paris Olympics: How it works, what to know