Meet USA TODAY's Olympics team 🏅

A duel in front of a palace from the 18th century might seem like a scene from the history books.

But it's actually an image you can expect to see soon when world-class fencers compete in front of the Palace of Versailles in the 2024 Olympic Games. Paris is the host of this year's Olympics, and the City of Love is certain to deliver a spectacular backdrop for this global moment.

As the city prepares for the world's best athletes to descend upon its famed streets (ahem, no poo in the Seine !), Team USA TODAY is doing its own pre-competition preparation. We aren't sprinters, but we do excel at how fast we type. We can't do flips off a high-dive, but we can craft a page-turning newsletter. And we can't dismount a beam, but we are balanced in our reporting.

👋 Nicole Fallert here and welcome to Your Week, our newsletter exclusively for USA TODAY subscribers (that's you!). This week, we talk with Team USA TODAY Paris 2024 − Sandy Hooper, Sydney Bergan and Rachel G. Bowers − all about their prep to cover the Olympic Games.

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Returning Olympians and first-timers

Sandy Hooper is an experienced Olympian. Well, Olympic reporter. As deputy manager editor of visuals, Hooper has captured six Games in her career. But she says Paris 2024 has a different energy.

"The city is as much of a character as the athletes and the sports," Hooper said.

This year marks a true return to in-person Olympic competition, with plenty of excitement every day, no matter your interests or experience with the Games, Hooper said. She's most excited for the role Paris will play as a venue: Events will be dispersed across the city at iconic sights. Think beach volleyball under the Eiffel Tower and skateboarding at Place de la Concorde.

This is a marked difference from the 2016 Rio Games, she said, which were largely isolated in an Olympic area, and the 2020 Tokyo Games, when the COVID-19 pandemic muted the competition.

USA TODAY is bringing Paris to you. Hooper is taking off for Paris this weekend with USA TODAY audience editor and video creator Sydney Bergan and senior sports editor Rachel G. Bowers. This dream team is going all over the map of France (including the Champagne region to report on the history of bubbly) to chat with locals, explore French culture and, of course, keep track of every win and loss during the Games.

"My goal is to show people what it's like to exist in Paris during this monumental time," said Bergan, who is headed to the Games for the first time. Follow @usatodaysports on Instagram to watch Bergan explore Parisian food, fashion and daily life during the Games, including any potential political fallout.

Croissants aside, there's of course the competition across 32 sports. That's a lot to keep up with over the next few weeks, but don't worry. Bowers will be answering questions on Reddit , delivering live feeds via USA TODAY's Olympic WhatsApp group , and writing a daily Olympic newsletter, Chasing Gold (subscribe here ). And, if you want hot takes and in-depth analysis of the competition, sign up for emails from USA TODAY sports columnist Nancy Armour ( check out Nancy's latest story on what it's like to train with Simone Biles ).

"I want to make people feel as connected as possible to their favorite athletes," Bowers said. "When you share an athlete's journey, you root for them. Some have only 60 seconds to show for something they've been working for years on."

USA TODAY is ready at their marks.

Read the latest Olympic coverage from Team USA TODAY

• Meet all 592 members of Team USA in our Meet the Team hub .
• How to watch the 2024 Paris Olympics: Stream the Games with these tips .
• Allyson Felix , the most decorated female track and field Olympian ever, teamed up with Pampers to create the first Pampers Nursery in the Athletes Village.
• These pro-war Russian athletes will be allowed to compete in Paris .
• Here’s a closer look at the U.S. Olympic women’s gymnastics team leotards for the Paris Games.

Thank you

I'll be heading to Paris to catch some of the competition and see these incredibly talented colleagues do gold-medal journalism. Thank you for supporting our work now and always. We wouldn't be able to foster this global presence without you.

Best wishes,

Nicole Fallert

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Meet USA TODAY's Olympics team 🏅