How this Paris superfan saw 24 Olympic and Paralympic events

My Paris cycling sojourn was temporarily sidelined by a newsworthy personal event. Somehow I got selected for the first round of LA28's locals-only presale, meaning I got to purchase 12 tickets to Olympic events for as low as $28 each before anyone else. And yes, that meant last night I had to wake my just-adjusted-to-the-time-change self up at 1 a.m. to snag them. I needed an extra large bowl of café au lait this morning.

As Torched readers know, I'm not here for the sports, so testing the Olympic ticketing system was an interesting exercise for me. I let my kids each pick an event they wanted to see and then I tried to zero in on a few venues I wanted to experience from the spectator perspective, thinking I'd focus on the temporary ones. But the checkout didn't work for me, so I lost two carts of $28 tickets. By the time I figured it out — I had to divide my purchases into two batches so the "checkout" button on the sidebar scrolling menu wasn't hidden off screen; here's some troubleshooting advice from LA28 — the $28 tickets I had were gone. The whole process was rather stressful, as was trying to coordinate a schedule for two weeks' worth of ticket purchases happening two years from now. (Helpfully, the system does send you a little alert when you've scheduled two events that are logistically impossible to attend in the same day — although do they know how fast I am on an electric bike?) Be prepared for the very surreal feeling of adding an event to your calendar 834 days away.

By chance, the same day I learned I won the LA28 lottery, I met up with Anne Stark Ditmeyer — follow her at @pretavoyager — a designer, creative coach, and author of the new book OVERRIDE!: What if there was another way? After a swim in one of Paris's refurbished pools — more on the region's Olympic-sized aquatic aspirations in a future newsletter — Ditmeyer and I settled in at Chez Prune where she watched my jaw drop when she told me she was able to snag tickets for 24 events during the summer of 2024. And since I'm seeing a lot Torched readers spiral after not getting selected for the first drop, I thought I'd share her immaculate advice for seeing so many Olympic and Paralympic events — and some tips for how LA fans can, too. I can't guarantee any of this will hold true for LA28 tickets, but the strategy seems sound. With the caveat, she says, that she was only one person — she wasn't trying to get tickets for a family of four.

Unlike me, Ditmeyer likes sports. During the summer of 2024, she happened to be swimming at her local pool during a time trial for the Olympiade des Arrondissements — a neighborhood Olympics, basically, put on by Paris 2024 — where she won a silver in a 50-meter race. She had been looking forward to seeing a few events — but suddenly, with that medal between her teeth, she caught Olympic fever.

Ditmeyer didn't enter any kind of presale lottery. She had a hard time envisioning what her schedule would be like that far ahead, and many of her friends were planning to leave town. "Don't be worried if you don't get the first drop," she says. "I didn't buy any of my tickets until three months in advance." When she finally decided to commit, she gave herself a 500€ budget, which got her two tickets for nine events. But as the games get closer, she says, a marketplace will emerge. "Little organic groups will pop up online for people to trade," either on Facebook or elsewhere. And there's always the official resale platform, which reportedly worked well during the Paris games. And as more tickets dropped, Ditmeyer spent time poking through the various tiers for deals, specifically seeking out obstructed view seats. Which were just fine!

But if you really want to go to something: put it out there in public. If you make it clear to your friends and followers that you want to attend certain events, she says, you'll get their invites and extras. In the end, most of her tickets came to her this way — including a last-minute invitation to the opening ceremony along the Seine. But the best gifted ticket experience was artistic gymnastics, where Ditmeyer ended up sitting in front of the parents of U.S. gold medalist Jordan Chiles, who NBC kept cutting to for reaction shots. Anne's forehead became internationally televised, to the delight of her friends who started texting her from all over the world.

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Ditmeyer's final piece of advice as a converted Olympic and Paralympic superfan is probably also the best way to attend the games economically: get a bunch of tickets to an event you have never seen before and enjoy the journey of learning everything you can about a sport you know nothing about. Ditmeyer, for example, has now found herself emotionally invested in table tennis. Her very favorite discovery was canoe slalom, which unfortunately Angelenos will have to travel to Oklahoma City??? to experience. "The Paralympics are also great for that," she says. "I had to do a ton of homework to understand the sports and classifications." She also was able to finagle a ticket to the closing ceremony for the Paralympics, which is recommended as it will be the very, very last event. And a reminder for Angelenos: LA28's Paralympics tickets still have yet to drop — they go on sale in 2027.

But also keep in mind some of the very best Olympic and Paralympic viewing is free, Anne says. It was easy for her to see the torch relay and road cycling, which traveled right through her own neighborhood. She also spent her unticketed time roaming fan zones and hospitality houses, the country-sponsored activations all over the city. Even though these are designed for athletes celebrating with their trainers and families, many are free to attend. (But not the Team USA one in Paris, which was 350€ to enter. Yikes!) Watching events alongside fans out in the city was an entirely separate enthralling experience, she says. "A lot of sports are just more fun to watch on television."

While Ditmeyer knew she'd eventually be in the Olympic and Paralympic stands, many of her fellow Parisians weren't so sure. Two years out, the vibes were very cynical. "All of Paris was poo-pooing it," she says. "Everybody was annoyed." Even Ditmeyer had her doubts. "I kept saying, France is very inefficient. There's no way they could pull this off."

But the moment the opening ceremony began, Ditmeyer says, a new sentiment took hold. "There's this different energy that makes the city feel electric, like we're all doing this together. It's really powerful." And that feeling was only partially due to the Olympic and Paralympic organizers — it was more about how the city itself performed, she says. "Paris really did a beautiful job." 🔥

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