SCOTLAND
JOSH KERR
A Scot hasn’t won Olympic gold on the track since Allan Wells became 100m champion in 1980.
That could all change, with Josh Kerr Scotland’s best chance of a track and field Olympic gold medal in over four decades.
As reigning 1500m world champion, Kerr is the one to beat in Paris this summer and his bitter rivalry with the defending Olympic champion, Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen, has added another dimension to the gold medal battle.
Kerr has been in excellent form this year and, as someone’s who’s renowned for being at his best at the major championships, the 26-year-old could well add Olympic gold to his world title.
DUNCAN SCOTT
At Tokyo 2020, Duncan Scott became Britain’s most-decorated athlete at a single Olympic Games by winning four medals, including one gold, in the pool in Tokyo.
That took his overall tally to six Olympic medals and he’ll be aiming to add further to that number in Paris.
Still only 27-years-old, Scott has been on the international stage for a decade and the strength-in-depth of the British swimming team, and specifically the men’s sprint events in which Scott contests, means he was forced to draw on every ounce of his experience to even make it to Paris.
However, having found his form again after a dip in 2022, Scott is a strong contender for both individual and relay silverware.
BETH POTTER
Just two Olympic Games’ ago, Beth Potter had never done a triathlon so it’s remarkable to consider that she heads into Paris 2024 as favourite to win triathlon gold.
Potter already has Olympic experience – she contested the 10,000m at Rio 2016 – but after switching from athletics to triathlon in 2017, the 32-year-old’s ascent has been astonishing, with the highlight coming last year when she became world champion.
Potter is comfortable on the Paris course – she won the Olympic test event last year – and so, if everything goes to plan on the day, Potter will be in contention for a spot on the podium.
She also has an opportunity for silverware in the team event, in which GB has an extremely strong squad.
NEAH EVANS
Scotland has a proud tradition of success in the Olympic velodrome and that will be no different at Paris 2024.
In the absence of two-time Olympic champion, Katie Archibald, who broke her ankle in a freak accident last month, Neah Evans is the Scot most-fancied to win gold on two wheels in Paris this summer.
Evans came to the sport relatively late having been a vet before focusing on cycling but in the past few years, the Aberdeenshire native, who will turn 34 during the Games, has become one of the world’s very best track endurance riders.
Evans has been a valued member of GB’s highly-successful team pursuit squad for a number of years but it was in the points race in which her first world title came in 2022.
That was followed up by another world title last year, this time in the madison, ensuring Evans heads to Paris with a distinct possibility of Olympic gold.
ANDY MURRAY
Andy Murray’s participation at Paris 2024 was far from a certainty given his recent back surgery but the Scot will indeed make his fifth Olympic appearance in Paris.
The Olympic Games has a special place in Murray’s heart with the Scot having won singles gold medals in 2012 and 2016 and Paris 2024 will be a particularly significant event for Murray given it will be his last-ever competitive appearance.
Murray won't contest the singles in Paris but in the doubles, alongside Dan Evans, the pair could potentially challenge for silverware, and few would dispute a podium place would be a fitting end to Murray's stellar career.
GREAT BRITAIN
KATARINA JOHNSON-THOMPSON
Katarina Johnson-Thompson is one of a select group of Brits who go into this summer’s Olympics as reigning world champion and the 31-year-old heptathlete goes into Paris 2024 aiming to continue GB’s proud Olympic tradition in this event which has seen both Denise Lewis and Jessica Ennis become Olympic heptathlon champion since 2000.
Johnson-Thompson’s most dangerous threat to gold is her great rival and two-time Olympic champion, Nafissatou Thiam from Belgium and while an injury scare caused the Brit to withdraw midway through the European Championships heptathlon last month, she’s confident she’s now back to full fitness.
MAX WHITLOCK
With three Olympic and three world titles, Max Whitlock is GB’s most successful gymnast ever and, with the 31-year-old having revealed he’s going to retire following Paris 2024, he’ll be desperate to go out on a high.
Two gold medals in Rio in 2016 was then followed up by a successful defence of his pommel horse title at Tokyo 2020 but having taken two years away from the sport between 2021 and 2023, the Englishman has had just 17 months to prepare for this summer’s Games.
However, he’s said he wouldn’t have returned to the sport if he didn’t believe he could win yet another Olympic title in Paris.
TOM DALEY
Paris 2024 will be Tom Daley’s fifth Olympic Games, with Britain’s most recognisible diver finally having won gold at Tokyo 2020 in the 10m synchro event.
Despite having been on the international scene for a decade-and-a-half, Daley has only just turned 30 years old and after taking two years out following Tokyo 2020, he returned to win World Championship silver last December and World Cup gold in March, proving that he is back to the form required to compete with the best in the world.
In Paris, LA-based Daley will contest the 10m synchro event alongside Noah Williams as he attempts to successfully defend his title.
SKY BROWN
Three years ago at Tokyo 2020, Sky Brown became GB’s youngest-ever athlete at the age of just 13 and the skateboarder went on to become Britain’s youngest-ever summer Games medallist when she won bronze in the park event.
US-based Brown, whose mother is Japanese and father is English, tried to qualify for Paris 2024 in two different sports – skateboarding and surfing – but after failing in her attempt to make the surfing squad, she is now focused solely on the skateboarding event.
Having amassed a wealth of experience since her Olympic debut, including becoming world champion in the park event last year, Brown, who turned 16 earlier this month, has an excellent opportunity to add to her Olympic medal tally over the coming two weeks.
ADAM PEATY
Adam Peaty is, without question, the greatest male sprint breaststroker the world has ever seen.
The Englishman already has two Olympic 100m breaststroke titles to his name having won gold at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 and he’s aiming to join an select group of athletes who have won gold at three consecutive Olympics.
Peaty’s lead-in to these Olympics has been far from smooth – he took a break from the sport to tackle bouts of depression and alcohol problems - but the 29-year-old is now back in the pool and given his track record at the Olympic Games, it’d take a brave person to bet against him adding yet more silverware to his collection.
INTERNATIONAL
NOVAK DJOKOVIC
Novak Djokovic has won everything there is to win in tennis bar one thing, and that’s an Olympic gold medal.
The Serbian has 24 grand slam titles to his name but despite winning bronze on his Olympic debut in 2008, he has failed to win the Olympic title despite being so dominant elsewhere.
Paris is likely to be the 37-year-old’s last attempt at an Olympic title and so winning gold this summer is a priority for the Serb.
SIMONE BILES
Simone Biles is the greatest gymnast of all-time.
Seven Olympic medals, four of which are gold, plus 23 world titles are figures that cannot be argued with.
But after the American got “the yips”, or the twisties as they’re called in gymnastics, at Tokyo 2020 rendering her unable to perform any moves in the air and prompting her withdrawal fro the event, the signs were her career was at an end.
However, after a prolonged post-Tokyo hiatus from the sport, Biles returned to competition last year and is now on the verge of competing in her third Olympic Games.
LEBRON JAMES
Basketball is a funny one at the Olympic Games, with the NBA’s best players often choosing not to participate.
But at Paris 2024 almost all of the sport’s biggest names of all-time are out in force.
Spearheading the USA’s side will be LeBron James, who hasn’t played the Olympics since 2012 when he won his second Olympic gold medal.
Also in the USA’s line-up is another all-time great, Steph Curry, and if the USA face hosts France, who boast one of the brightest prospects in world basketball, Victor Wembanyama, it could be one of the spectacles of the Games.
SHELLY-ANN FRASER-PRYCE
The Jamaican is one of the greatest sprinters of all-time with eight Olympic medals to her name including three gold.
Having won the 100m title in 2008 and 2012, she was pipped to silver at Tokyo 2020 by her countrywoman, Elaine Thompson-Herah.
However, Thompson-Herah, who is the defending 100m and 200m Olympic champion, will miss this Paris 2024 through injury, meaning the battle for gold is likely to between the veteran Fraser-Pryce and the young gun, Sha’Carri Richardson of the USA, with Fraser-Pryce’s compatriots, Shericka Jackson and Tia Clayton also likely to be in the mix.
Were Fraser-Pryce to regain her Olympic 100m title, it would cement her standing as the greatest female sprinter of all-time.
RORY MCILROY
Both within the sport and outwith, golf received a mixed reception when it was reintroduced to the Olympics in 2016 but McIlroy is one of the players who has been most positive about it being an Olympic sport.
The 35-year-old from Northern Ireland elects to compete for Ireland rather than GB and having lost a seven-man play-off for bronze at Tokyo 2020, he’ll be desperate to get onto the podium this time around.
