Olympics 2024: The Aussie athletes in the hunt for a medal in Paris

The Australian Olympic team for Paris is brimming with talent across a wide range of sports. Many of these athletes are not just participants, but genuine medal contenders, with some even favoured for gold.

SWIMMING

Ian Thorpe has made the call: This could be the greatest Australian swimming team in Olympic history.

It’s a bold forecast, but the facts back the Thorpedo — Australia could produce as many as eight individual gold medallists and more in the relays.

Australia’s best gold medal haul in the pool is nine, won in Tokyo three years ago.

Ariane Titmus showed at the recent Olympic trials she has fully recovered from a major health scare and will be aiming for back-to-back gold in the 200m and 400m freestyle.

Titmus swam a 3:55.44 in the 400m at the trials, 0.08 seconds off her world record, but much quicker than her main rivals, Canada’s Summer McIntosh and American Kate Ledecky have managed this year. At the US swim trials Ledecky clocked 3:58.3, almost three seconds slower than Titmus.

Titmus is also a medal chance in the 800m freestyle, in which Ledecky will be aiming for her fourth Olympic gold medal.

Kaylee McKeown is the fastest in the world this year in two of the three individual events she will contest in Paris: the 100m backstroke and 200m individual medley. American Regan Smith smashed McKeown’s world record in the 100m backstroke by 0.2 seconds at the US swim trials, setting up one of the match races of the Paris Games.

West Australian teen Iona Anderson is expected to swim in the 100m backstroke.

Mollie O’Callaghan should be the main challenger to Titmus in the 200m freestyle.

O’Callaghan beat her own world record in the 200m freestyle at the trials but still lost to Titmus. She put that disappointment behind her with an impressive victory in the 100m freestyle and is the reigning world champion over that distance.

The Australian women will start a favourite in the women’s 4x100m and 4x200m freestyle relays. They will chasing a fourth straight Olympic relay title in the 4x100m, but the US put them on notice at their trials.

Emma McKeon made it 11 Olympic medals overall in Tokyo to break the previous Australian record of nine held by Thorpe and Leisel Jones.

She has made the team and while she won’t be chasing individual gold, can add to her overall tally in the relays.

Bronte Campbell will become only the fifth Olympian to swim at four Olympics.

In the men’s, Cam McEvoy will become the first Australian male swimmer to make it to a fourth Games. He will focus on the 50m freestyle – Australia has never won an Olympic medal over the distance – as the reigning world champion.

Sam Short won gold (400m freestyle), silver (800m freestyle) and bronze (1500m freestyle) at last year’s world championships but was slowed by illness at the trials. He has put the world on notice he’ll be chasing record times over the 400m and 1500m. He’ll be pushed by Elijah Winnington who has the second-fastest times in the 400m and 800m this year.

From gold in Rio, to silver in Tokyo, Kyle Chalmers’ will resume his rivalry with American Caeleb Dressel and China’s Pan Zhanle in the 100m freestyle. Zhanle set a world record this year of 46.8 seconds. Chalmers’ best is 47.08 and he has plummeted to 11th in the world rankings but can’t be written off.

Zac Stubblety-Cook will defend his 200m breaststroke gold medal from Tokyo, although he is ranked third-fastest in the world this year.

WA’s Joshua Yong has qualified in the 100m and 200m breaststroke and is a short course world champion.

Other medal hopes in the pool will fall on Shayna Jack in the women’s 50m freestyle, Lizzy Dekkers in the women’s 200m butterfly, Max Giuliani in the men’s 200m freestyle and Matt Temple in the 100m butterfly.

WA’s Kyle Lee has qualified for the marathon open water swim.

TRACK AND FIELD

MEN’S 800M FINAL

It’s a big ask to top Tokyo, but WA’s Peter Bol is in the mix.

In Japan, Bol became the first Australian to make the men’s 800m Olympic final since Ralph Doubell won gold in 1968. He finished fourth in a race that didn’t suit his fast tempo and has since been wrongly accused, temporarily banned and ultimately exonerated of doping, as well as being sidelined by a hamstring injury.

POLE VAULT

WA’s Nina Kennedy shared the world title with American Katie Moon at last year’s world championships in Budapest.

On the way, Kennedy twice broke her own Australian record, clearing 4.85 and 4.90 metres, but Moon matched both vaults to set up a battle at 4.95, before they agreed to share gold when both failed to clear that height.

The Tokyo 2020 gold medal was won with a vault of 4.90m.

Kennedy has been battling stress fractures in her back but is jumping well in Europe and on track to push for gold in Paris.

WA’s Kurtis Marschall became the first Australian male athlete in eight years to win a world championships medal when he equalled his personal best to share bronze in Budapest alongside American Christopher Nilsen and behind Swede Armand Duplantis, regarded as the greatest of all time.

Marschall is on the comeback trail from a serious ankle injury and is slowly building back to full fitness in Europe.

WOMEN’S HIGH JUMP

Nicola Olyslagers and Eleanor Patterson are genuine Australian chances to make the Paris podium.

Olyslagers was a silver medallist in Tokyo Games and is now a world indoor champion with a personal best of 2.03 metres.

Patterson, the 2022 world champion, has a personal best of 2.02m.

The Tokyo gold medal was won with a jump of 2.04m.

SAILING

WA’s Matt Wearn backed up his Tokyo Olympic victory in the ILCA7 (Laser) class with successive world titles.

Wearn also added the Paris Olympic Test Event to his winner’s list, all after recovering from long COVID.

CANOE

Jess Fox provided one of the moments of drama in Tokyo when she faltered in her pet event, the K1, but then took out gold in C1.

She will be chasing back-to-back gold in the canoe and aiming for a first in kayak.

BMX

Gold Coast freestyle BMX rider Logan Martin will defend his Tokyo title, where he was the favourite and required just one run in the final to snare the gold.

In the women’s Saya Sakakibara had a horror crash in the semifinals in Tokyo and was carried from the course on a stretcher. She has since won successive BMX Racing World Cup titles.

RUGBY SEVENS

The women’s Rugby Sevens team are on course for a second gold medal, following their triumph at Rio 2016.

Led by captain Charlotte Caslick, the team was also a gold medallist at the 2022 Commonwealth Games and is a three-time world champion.

SURFING

WA’s Jack Robinson, the world No. 2, has been picked on a four-member surfing team for Paris, alongside Ethan Ewing, Tyler Wright and Molly Picklum.

Robinson is a former winner at Tahiti’s famous Teahupo’o break, where the Olympics will be contested, and the wave also suites Picklum.

ROWING

WA’s Annabelle McIntyre was a member of the four that won Olympic gold in Tokyo, but the pairs represents her best chance in Paris.

McIntyre will team up with Jessica Morrison and although they failed to reach the B final in the event in Tokyo, they have since become a world power and fell just short of world championship glory in Serbia last year.

CYCLING

WA’s Matt Richardson is a two-time Commonwealth Games sprint gold medallist and a sprint team world champion.

He competed in Tokyo in the keirin, sprint and team sprint and will again be chasing gold in Paris.

The teams event may be his best chance, but he is one of only two cyclists to beat dual Olympic champion, Harrie Lavreysen, of the Netherlands in the individual sprint over the past 18 months.

Grace Brown was fourth in the women’s individual time-trial in Tokyo and missed a spot on the podium by just seven seconds, but has since won Commonwealth Games gold, two world championship silver medals and three successive national titles .

BOXING

WA middleweight Caitlin Parker will captain a 12-strong boxing team to Paris.

After a disappointing early exit on Olympic debut in Tokyo, Parker has made it her mission to go deep in Paris.

GOLF

WA will provide three of the four members of the Australian team for Paris, siblings Min Woo and Minjee Lee and Hannah Green.

They will join Jason Day at Golf National in Paris, venue of the 2018 Ryder Cup.

HOCKEY

Led by WA’s Aran Zalewski (captain), James Collins, Jake Harvie and Tom Wickham, the Kookaburras will be chasing a second Olympic gold medal, following a maiden success in Athens 2004, and the heartbreak of Tokyo where they lost the final against Belgium in a penalty shootout.

The Hockeyroos will have two WA players, Aleisha Power and Karri Somerville. They finished sixth in Tokyo but have a rich Olympic history, winning gold in Seoul 1988, Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000.

SOCCER

There is no Sam Kerr, as the WA superstar recovers from major knee surgery, but the Matildas will still fancy their chances in Paris on the back of fourth places in Tokyo and at last year’s World Cup.

Mary Fowler, Ellie Carpenter, Hayley Raso, Steph Catley, Caitlin Foord and Mackenzie Arnold are already household names following their World Cup heroics.

Spain will start as favourites following their 2023 World Cup victory, with the US, Brazil and Tokyo gold medallist Canada all in the hunt.

AND THE INTERNATIONALS TO WATCH …

Jamaican sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, at 37, is seeking a fourth Olympic gold medal at her fifth Olympics.

Winner of the 100m in 2008 and 2012, she took silver in Tokyo.

She will have to overcome Sha’Carri Richardson of the US, who was considered one of the favourites heading into Tokyo but was disqualified after testing positive to marijuana. She fought back to win the 2023 world championship final in Budapest.

Five-time Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah won’t be defending her 100m and 200m titles after tearing an achilles and pulling out of the Jamaican trials.

Venezuela’s Yulimar Rojas, aka the Queen of the triple jump, pocketed the gold medal in Tokyo and set a world record of 15.74 metres (51.64 feet) in 2022. She wants to jump 16m (52.49 feet) in Paris.

Simone Biles needs only one more medal to become the most decorated American gymnast in history, usurping Shannon Miller who won seven between Barcelona and Atlanta.

But first she must stare down her Tokyo nightmare, when she withdrew from several events due to a bout of the “Twisties”, a mental block in which gymnasts lose their spatial orientation during aerial moves.

And finally …

The US Dream Team, otherwise known as the Redeem Team 2.0.

Basketball demi-gods Steph Curry and LeBron James are seeking revenge for the US team after it went medal-less at last year’s World Cup.

Serbian superstar Nikola Jokic and Frenchman Victor Wembanyama will be other drawcards.