As many as 10,500 athletes will compete at the upcoming Summer Olympics in Paris.
Al Jazeera picks out 10 superstars to watch at the Games:
Simone Biles (United States)
Considered one of the greatest gymnasts of all time, Biles booked her third straight appearance at the Games with her all-around victory at the US Olympic team trials in June.
The four-time Olympic gold medallist pulled out of multiple events at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 due to the “twisties”, a temporary loss of spatial awareness in mid-air. But the 27-year-old will return to the Olympic stage in Paris looking stronger than ever.
Rafael Nadal (Spain)
The 22-time tennis major champion and “king of clay” will team up with youngster Carlos Alcaraz to play doubles on the Parisian clay, and it is believed he will also go for gold in the singles competition.
The 38-year-old skipped the grass-court major at Wimbledon earlier this month to prepare for the tennis event at the Olympics, which will be held on the clay courts at Roland Garros where Nadal is a record 14-time French Open winner.
The Spaniard missed almost all of 2023 with a hip problem and his comeback earlier this year was stalled by a muscle tear before small niggles affected his preparation for the French Open.
Nadal won an Olympic singles gold medal in 2008 and a doubles gold in 2016.
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (Jamaica)
Jamaican sprinting queen Fraser-Pryce will compete at her fifth and final Games in the women’s 100m.
The 37-year-old, who has eight Olympic medals including three gold, will retire after Paris 2024, bowing out as one of the greatest sprinters of all time and an inspiration for the next generation.
“You have to think about the next generation that’s coming after you, and give them the opportunity to also dream – and dream big,” she told Eurosport in February.
Victor Wembanyama (France)
France’s hometown hero Wembanyama, the NBA rookie of the year, stole the show with spectacular one-handed dunks as his nation opened preparations for its men’s basketball gold medal bid at the Paris Olympics.
France lost to the United States in the gold medal match at the Tokyo Olympics, but hopes are high that coach Vincent Collet’s team can win at home this time with this lethal weapon on their side.
Standing a towering – even by basketball standards – 2.24 metres (7 feet 4 inches), Wembanyama is the tallest competitor at the Paris 2024 Olympics with a dynamic skill set of a much smaller player.
Thanks to Wembanyama, France are now considered among the strongest teams alongside the US, Canada, Serbia and world champions Germany.
The 20-year-old is excited about the prospect of another France-US final, where he would get to face off against the likes of American basketball superstars LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry.
“I can’t wait to face them. It will be a very interesting matchup,” said Wembanyama. “As a basketball player, it’s also a dream to play against Team USA and even against all those players, all those legends.”
Caeleb Dressel (United States)
Dressel is the sport’s most intriguing high-profile athlete heading into the Paris Olympics.
Sprint star Dressel won five gold medals at the 2021 Tokyo Games then shocked the swimming world in 2022 by abruptly stepping away from the sport to tend to his mental health.
In his comeback, the 27-year-old didn’t qualify to defend his 100m freestyle gold, but he won the 50m freestyle and 100m butterfly, meaning he will get a chance to defend two of his three individual gold medals at the 2024 Games.
Eliud Kipchoge (Kenya)
Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge confidently expects to make history with his third consecutive Olympic marathon gold medal at this year’s Games in Paris.
The 39-year-old told Reuters in an interview in April that his disappointing 10th-place result in the 2024 Tokyo Marathon, and his relatively advanced age, has not made him doubt his chances in Paris.
In 2019, Kipchoge became the first person to cover the 42.2km (26-mile) marathon distance in under two hours, though the record was unofficial as he was accompanied by multiple teams of pacers and the time was not set in an open competition.
LeBron James (United States)
A few months from turning 40, James, the US National Basketball Association’s (NBA) all-time leading scorer, is back for his fourth appearance at the Olympics – but his first since 2012.
In Paris, the four-time NBA champion will become the first US men’s basketball player to compete at the Olympics in three different decades.
A three-time Olympic gold medallist, James said earlier this month that he is “still playing at a high level”.
“I still love the game of basketball. And Team USA has done well by me, so I felt like it was important for this summer to be able to go out there and play with the rest of the guys,” he said.
Katie Ledecky (United States)
The ever-impressive Ledecky will aim to maintain US supremacy in the Olympic pool in Paris, where a formidable Australian team awaits.
Ledecky qualified in the 200m, 400m, 800m and 1,500m freestyle – although she expects to drop the individual 200m to focus not only on winning a fourth straight 800m freestyle gold and another 1500m crown, but also on regaining her 400m free crown.
Australia’s Ariarne Titmus, who stunned Ledecky in the 400m freestyle in Tokyo, owns the world record and clocked the second-fastest time last month.
With seven Olympic gold medals and 21 World Championship titles, Ledecky is already one of the swimming’s all-time greats and is widely expected to add to her medal tally in Paris.
Naomi Osaka (Japan)
After a second-round exit at Wimbledon, Japanese superstar Naomi Osaka switched her focus to the Paris Olympics. Osaka returned to competition this year after taking a 15-month hiatus from the sport due to the birth of her first child.
It will be the second Olympics for the 26-year-old, four-time Grand Slam winner, who finished ninth in the singles at her home Tokyo Games in 2021, where she was also the final torchbearer in the opening ceremony.
Sky Brown (Great Britain)
Sky Brown became Britain’s youngest Olympic medallist at 13 years old when she won a bronze medal with a sensational performance in the women’s park skateboarding event in Tokyo.
Post-Tokyo, Brown has built on her breakout Olympic medal performance, becoming Britain’s first skateboarding world champion with victory in the United Arab Emirates last year.
The now-16-year-old, who has earned celebrity status with 1.3 million followers on Instagram, has set herself an unprecedented goal of competing in two disciplines at Paris 2024 – skateboarding and surfing.
Though she didn’t secure an automatic entry into the surfing competition, Brown is the first alternate for Britain’s women’s team and hopes to bag two golds in Paris.
⚽ Keep up to date:
You can follow the action on Al Jazeera’s dedicated Paris 2024 Olympics tournament page with all the news and features, as well as event build-up and live text commentary on selected football, basketball, tennis and boxing fixtures.
