2024 Summer Olympics

■ Janja Garnbret, Slovenia: Theeight-time world champion and reigning Olympic champion has been the most dominant climber in the sport.

■ Sam Watson, United States: The 18-year-old speed-climbing specialist qualified for Paris by winning the gold medal at the Pan American Games.

■ Aleksandra Miroslaw, Poland: She set the women’s speed-climbing world record at the final in the Tokyo Games and lowered that mark seven other times since then.

■ Sorato Anraku, Japan: The 17-year-old Anraku is the top-ranked athlete in lead and boulder.

■ Jakob Schubert, Austria: The six-time world champion won the bronze at the Tokyo Olympics.

■ The 25-year-old Janja Garnbret has been one of the sport’s greatest stars and will try to repeat her Olympic gold from Tokyo. She has attracted attention for speaking out about how eating disorders have hurt athletes who believe staying skinny is the only way to succeed.

■ The speed climbing world records have been lowered at a rapid pace recently and are expected to go down during the Games as well.

■ There will be changes to sport climbing after its debut in the Tokyo Games, when only one gold medal was awarded for men and women after each athlete competed in all three disciplines and the final scores reflected the combined results. In Paris, two gold medals will be awarded for the men and women — one will be a combined competition of bouldering and lead events, and the second will only feature a speed event.

■ Chloe Dygert, United States: The reigning time trial world champion also will compete in the road race and the team pursuit.

■ Hannah Roberts, United States: The five-time and reigning BMX freestyle world champion finished second at the Tokyo Games.

■ Wout van Aert, Belgium, and Mathieu van der Poel, Netherlands: They are the favorites for the road race.

■ After cycling was largely an afterthought in Rio and Tokyo, where the sport is not as popular, it should take center stage in Paris coming on the heels of the Tour de France. The iconic Grand Tour will end in Nice, rather than its customary finish on the Champs Elysee, because of the Summer Games.

■ Britain and the Netherlands have been the dominant nations in cycling, but the U.S. will have one of its strongest teams in several Summer Games.

■ Laura Collett, Britain: Collett almost died in a fall while competing in 2013. She was resuscitated five times and suffered a fractured shoulder, two broken ribs, a punctured lung, a lacerated liver, and kidney damage. Eight years after being placed in an induced coma, Collett rode to glory as an Olympic champion in team eventing.

■ Kent Farrington, United States: Farrington is a former world No. 1 in jumping and looks to clinch his first Olympic gold medal after winning silver in team jumping at the Rio Games in 2016.

■ Ben Maher, Britain: Maher is looking to defend his gold medal in individual jumping and secure a third Olympic title overall, having won gold in team jumping in London. Maher is currently second in the jumping rankings behind Sweden’s Henrik von Eckermann.

■ Jessica von Bredow-Werndl, Germany: The defending champion and top-ranked competitor in individual dressage. A double Olympic champion at the Tokyo Games, the 38-year-old Von Bredow-Werndl hopes to repeat that feat with another gold in team dressage, likely once again riding with seven-time Olympic gold medalist Isabell Werth.

■ Who can challenge the dominance of Germany and Britain after they won a combined nine medals, including five golds, in Tokyo? Can Australia, Sweden or the United States step up after combining for six medals but only one gold? Boyd Martin is ranked third in eventing and could prove crucial to American hopes for gold.

■ Equestrian is unique in that it’s a mixed sport where men and women compete against each other. Julia Krajewski beat two men in Tokyo to win the individual evening. Also, the average age is higher than other competitive sports. Werth is turning 55 but is still going strong after winning her first Olympic gold in 1992. So keep an eye on the older competitors and compare them with the younger riders.

■ Yibbi Jansen, Netherlands: With three-time gold medal-winning Lidewij Welten gone, the favored Dutch are relying on the next generation of talent for their pursuit of back-to-back Olympic titles. Jansen leads that group, having already scored 60 goals for the national team at age 24.

■ Harmanpreet Singh, India: The 28-year-old captain of the world’s sixthranked team is tasked with helping hiscountry medal in field hockey again after taking home bronze in Tokyo.

■ Amanda Golini, United States: A key performer on an American team that lacks Olympic experience, the 29-year-old midfielder from Randolph, New Jersey, has played internationally at other competitions, and she should be one of the leaders as a co-captain.

■ Ranked No. 1 in the world on either side, the Netherlands is looking to become the first country to sweep the men’s and women’s competitions since 1980, when women’s field hockey entered the Olympics. Nearby Belgium presents the biggest threat on the men’s side after winning gold at the pandemic-delayed 2021 Tokyo Games in a penalty shootout against Australia. Traditionally strong Argentina and Germany are two of the top contenders for the women’s tournament.

■ The U.S. women — back after missing Tokyo, while the men did not qualify — are aiming for a long-shot bid at the country’s third Olympic medal and first since bronze in 1984.

■ Mikkel Hansen, Denmark: With his shoulder-length hair and headband, the powerful left back is one of the most familiar faces in Danish sports. A threetime men’s world player of the year, a record he shares with longtime rival Nikola Karabatić, Hansen enters the tournament as a world champion. Hansen’s only Olympic gold came eight years ago in Rio de Janeiro. Paris will be the last chance for the 36-year-old five-time Olympian to add a second. He is retiring after the Games.

■ Nikola Karabatić, France: The elder of the Karabatić brothers — Luka is the younger one — the 40-year-old Nikola is one of the greatest players in handball history. His trophy cabinet reflects that, with three Olympic golds and four world titles. He has scored nearly 1,300 international goals, and this will be his sixth Games.

■ Léna Grandveau, France: The fresh-faced Grandveau took the handball world by storm with a stunning performance in last year’s world championship final when, as an unheralded 20-year-old, she scored France’s last four goals in a dramatic victory against Norway. Now that defenders are aware of her speed and finishing, she will be watched closely.

■ Can the French do the Olympicdouble-double? France’s men’s team has won three of the past four gold medals, including three years ago in Tokyo. The women’s team is the reigning Olympic and world champion. Will playing at home in Paris be galvanizing for the players, or will the pressure of expectations be too much?

■ Egypt surprised many observers by reaching the semifinals in Tokyo, knocking out Germany and then giving France a tough match. A multiple-time African champion, Egypt is hopeful about earning a first Olympic medal. However, Egypt is in the same group as Denmark, France and Norway, and has less strengthin depth than the favorites.

■ Teddy Riner, France: The world’smost famous active judoka attempts to cap his incredible career with a record-tying third individual Olympic gold medal in front of his home fans. Now 35, Riner took a shocking quarterfinal loss in Tokyo, but the 11-time world champion heavyweight still won gold in the mixed team event.

■ UTA Abe and Hifumi Abe, Ja-pan: The siblings will attempt to win gold medals on the same day in the second consecutive Olympics. They accomplished the unprecedented feat three years ago in Tokyo, and both have won world championships in both of the two years since then.

■ Clarisse Agbegnenou, France: The six-time world champion is the favorite to win her second straight Olympic gold. She’s trying to do it at home and less than two years after giving birth to her daughter.

■ This tournament will feature repeated clashes between the two titans of the sport: Japan and France. Both nations have qualified judokas in all 14 weight classes. After the Japanese team won nine gold medals in Tokyo, the French team is loaded with goldmedal contenders for its own home Games. Everything builds to a scintillating possible matchup in the mixed team final between defending Olympic champion France and Japan, which beat France in the final at last year’s world championships.

■ Riner’s pursuit of history will be the biggest day of the competition, but with the French star on the back half of his career and Japan’s fearsome Shohei Ono in retirement, the stage is set for contenders to assert themselves as the world’s top judoka. The men’s half-heavyweight division looks particularly stacked, with Olympic gold medalist Aaron Wolf of Japan and two-time world champ Nikoloz Sherazadishvili of Spain looming.

■ Joe Choong, Britain: Modern pentathlon’s star athlete won gold at the last Olympics in Tokyo in 2021 and followed it up with two world titles. Last year, he won the world championship title in his home city of Bath, England.

■ Elena Micheli, Italy: After winning the last two women’s world championship gold medals, the 25-year-old Micheli is looking for her first Olympic medal after placing just 33rd last time in Tokyo.

■ A chance to watch the ultimate all-round athletes in Paris. Probably the quirkiest sport at the Olympics, modern pentathlon challenges athletes to swim, run, fence, ride an unfamiliar horse and shoot a laser pistol.

■ After 112 years on the Olympic program, modern pentathlon is saying goodbye to its horses in Paris. The equestrian event will be cut after the Games following a scandal in Tokyo three years ago when a German coach struck a horse that wasn’t cooperating with her athlete. Modern pentathlon is bringing in an “American Ninja Warrior”-style obstacle course for Los Angeles in 2028. Many top athletes are fiercely opposed.

■ Meghan Mus Nicki, United States: The 41-year-old two-time gold medalist is set to become the oldest American woman to row at the Olympics. Lisa Schlenker was 39 when she competed in Athens in 2004. Mus Nicki is the last active link to the U.S. women’s eight dynasty that won every Olympic and world title from 2006 to 2016.

■ Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy, Ireland: The defending world and Olympic champions in lightweight double sculls. O’Donovan and his brother, Gary O’Donovan, gave the Irish their first Olympic medal in rowing at the Rio de Janeiro Games in 2016, and then gave a memorable ” podium pants ” interview to RTE Sport.

■ Brooke Francis and Lucy Spoors, New Zealand: They qualified for Paris in the women’s double sculls not long after each gave birth and returned to competition.

■ The United States can become the nation with the most rowing gold medals at the Olympics. It will arrive in France tied with former East Germany with 33 gold medals. Great Britain is next, with 31 gold medals.

■ The rowing events will take place at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium, outside the city and not far from Disneyland Paris. The venue was specifically built for the Olympics and opened in 2010, one of the first new Olympic facilities to be delivered for the Games. It is home to the French federations for rowing and canoeing.

■ Antoine Dupont, France: The27-year-old scrumhalf is one of the world’s best rugby players. He has been turning his attention to the condensed sevens format of the sport this year with the aim of winning an Olympic gold medal on home soil.

■ Michael Hooper, Australia: He was the longest-serving captain of Australia’s Wallabies before converting to sevens after failing to make the cut for the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France. The 32-year-old forward has been taking a crash course in the finer arts of sevens in the world series.

■ Portia Woodman-Wickliffe, New Zealand: An Olympic champion and the all-time leading scorer in the women’s world sevens series — scoring a 250th career try during the Singapore Sevens in May. She won a gold medal in Tokyo, offsetting the bitter disappointment of a loss to Australia in 2016 when rugby sevens made its Olympic debut at Rio de Janeiro.

■ Ilona Maher, United States: She was one of TikTok’s breakout stars of the Tokyo Olympics, where she posted while wearing a red, white and blue bucket hat. Maher uses a #beastbeautybrains campaign and hopes her videos spread body image positivity and bring more attention to the sport.

■ Antoine Dupont says he “got in-volved in this Olympic project” to win a medal. In his first two tournaments playing in the sevens world series he helped France to a bronze and a gold. The victory in Carson, California in March was a first title in 19 years on the men’s sevens world circuit for the French. Then he helped France to its first world series championship in Madrid on June 2. Can he repeat in Paris?

■ Fiji’s first-ever Olympic gold medal was delivered by the men’s rugby sevens team at Rio in 2016, when the sport made its debut at the Summer Games. It was a just reward for a nation where the game is entwined in the social fabric. Not surprisingly, the men’s team delivered another gold in Tokyo. A third straight Olympic title is more of a long shot, with Fiji failing to win a stop on this season’s world series tour.

■ Australia and New Zealand have split the first two Olympic titles in women’s rugby sevens and have tussled for the top spot in the world sevens series this year. The Australians won the 2024 world series title with a victory in Madrid. But the gap is closing between the two longtime leaders and a chasing group that includes a French squad that will be playing on home soil and the U.S. women’s team that took a silver in the prestigious Hong Kong Sevens in April.

■ Olga Kharlan, Ukraine: One of Ukraine’s best hopes for Olympic success against the backdrop of war, Kharlan had a unique route to the Paris Games. Kharlan was drawn against Russian fencer Anna Smirnova at last year’s world championships. Smirnova protested after Kharlan refused to shake her hand, and the Ukrainian was disqualified. The International Olympic Committee awarded Kharlan a spot in Paris anyway.

■ Lee Kiefer and Gerek Meinhardt, United States: Kiefer is the reigning women’s foil gold medalist, Meinhardt is a two-time bronze medalist in men’s team foil, and together they are fencing’s power couple. Married since 2019, Kiefer and Meinhardt both put medical school at the University of Kentucky on hold to train for the Olympics but will go back next year.