2024 Olympics: What you need to know about the women’s golf competition in Paris
With golf’s return to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games after a yawning 112-year absence, the tournament at the 2024 Paris Olympics will mark its third appearance at the Games. The men’s golf event, which took place from August 1 to 4, saw world No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler clinching the gold medal. Next up on the 2024 Olympics schedule is the women’s golf competition, scheduled to take place from August 7 to 10.
With golf’s return to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games after a yawning 112-year absence, the tournament at the 2024 Paris Olympics will mark its third appearance at the Games. The men’s golf event, which took place from August 1 to 4, saw world No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler clinching the gold medal. Next up on the 2024 Olympics schedule is the women’s golf competition, scheduled to take place from August 7 to 10.
Inbee Park of South Korea took home the first gold on golf’s return at Rio, while American Nelly Korda, who won in Tokyo, will tee off at the Le Golf National starting Thursday, August 7, as defending champion.
Here are the key details of the Olympic women’s golf tournament, including recap of the action from the delayed 2020 Summer Olympics, venue, schedule, field, and players to look out for. And in case you missed it, click here to read all about the recently concluded men’s golf tournament.
All about the women’s golf event at the 2024 Olympics in Paris
A piece of history
Golf was not regarded an official Olympic event when it was initially added to the calendar in 1900 at Paris and St Louis 1904. A dearth of entries resulted in the sport being taken off the roster in 1908 and 1920. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) voted to bring golf back for the 2016 Summer Olympics during its meeting at Copenhagen in October 2009.
In 2016, several of the best male players withdrew due to Zika fever worries, and a few women players followed suit. There were 34 participating nations, 32 of which were on debut.
Inbee Park won gold after shooting 268, and was followed by Kiwi Lydia Ko (silver) at 273, and China’s Shanshan Feng (bronze) a shot back.
Triumph of Olympic spirit
The global COVID-19 outbreak before the Tokyo edition, which was originally set from July 24 to August 9, 2020, forced a rescheduling for August 2021.
In the lead-up to the Games, newspapers throughout the world ran headlines like, “Tokyo Olympics could be a COVID-19 super-spreader”, “Experts say Olympics unprepared for COVID-19”, and “Is there a chance ‘Olympic’ variant could emerge from the Tokyo Games?”
But the Tokyo organisers showed in a momentous way that a pandemic could be kept at bay by adhering to World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, fundamental public health practices and a stringent testing programme.
The Games proved safe for both the competitors and Japanese population with just 33 positive cases among 11,300 athletes, and 464 overall among tens of thousands of authorised stakeholders.
Headline makers at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics
Even in the most trying circumstances, the Olympic spirit triumphed. Nelly Korda (267), the current World No 1, took the women’s individual gold. The American secured the top spot at the Kasumigaseki Country Club with a 4-foot par putt on the 72nd hole.
She overcame 72 holes of blazing heat, an hour of storm delay on the final day, and 59 world-class opponents to win, flanked on the last green by sister Jessica and US teammates.
