The Olympic Games is finally on our doorsteps, with the greatest athletes from across the world all gathering in Paris.
The Australians have plenty of reasons to feel very hopeful they will excel across this quadrennial festival of sporting excellence.
But they are also set to come up against some of the greatest athletes the world has ever seen in their bid to achieve their goals.
Here’s who to watch out for apart from Australia’s stars at this year’s Paris Games.
In the pool
Australia has been one of the top nations in the pool at every Games, and this year is shaping up to be no different.
But key rival USA has plenty of star power of its own to counter the Dolphins.
Gretchen Walsh (100m butterfly) and Regan Smith (100m back) both broke world records at the gargantuan spectacle that was the US Trials in Indianapolis last month, with Torri Huske and Katharine Berkoff also laying down impressive times in those two events respectively.
Ariarne Titmus may have Katie Ledecky‘s number in the 400m at the moment, but Ledecky is still the woman to beat in the 1500m and 800m, the latter of which she is looking to win for the fourth consecutive Olympics.
That 400m, by the way, could still be the race of the Games, with Canada’s star turn Summer McIntosh a contender, as is the only woman aside from the big three names to swim a time under 4 minutes in the event, 20-year-old New Zealander Erika Fairweather.
As well as the 400m free, McIntosh is down to swim the 200m fly, 200 and 400m medley and 200m free in a packed program for the 17-year-old from Toronto.
The USA’s list of world-class swimmers doesn’t stop there though. There’s all-rounder Katharine Berkoff, who swam impressive times in both the 200m medley and the 200m breaststroke, and 100m breaststroke specialist Lilly King.
As good as the Americans are though, the Chinese team will be a serious test for everyone in the pool despite the cloud of suspicion that hovers over the squad.
Breaststroke swimmer Tang Qianting has four of the five fastest times in the world this year over 100m, while men’s 200m breaststroke world record holder Qin Haiyang is also expected to star.
Zhang Yufei, who won two silvers and a gold in the 200m butterfly — and also claimed the top prize in the women’s 4×200 freestyle relay in Tokyo — also returns.
China also boasts 200m individual medley Olympic gold medallist Wang Shun, who swam the third-fastest time of his career to win the trials title aged 30.
Teenage star Pan Zhanle though, is one of the most exciting swimmers in the world at the moment, winning seven gold medals at the Chinese trials in April and is a threat across multiple events — he is the world record holder in the 100m free.
Then there’s Romania’s star David Popovici, the “Chlorine Daddy” himself, who cites Michael Phelps and Ian Thorpe as his idols and could yet emulate them with victory in the 200m.
All home eyes, though, will be on 22-year-old Leon Marchand. France has not won a gold medal in swimming since claiming four golds at London 2012 — Florent Manaudou’s 50m freestyle silvers in Tokyo and Rio, plus a men’s 4x100m free relay silver in Rio the closest they have come.
In Marchand though the French have a bona fide star, world record holder in the 400m medley and the host’s best chance of breaking their golden drought.
On the track
The battle of the fast men and women in the sprints seems set to be between the USA and Jamaica.
Rambunctious American sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson leads the charge for the Stars and Stripes on the track with her in-your-face style sure to ruffle more than a handful of feathers in the shortest sprint, although she won’t be able to double up after missing out on a spot in the 200m.
She will be up against Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson, the latter of whom is unlikely to make the same mistake as she did in Tokyo, when she took things too easy in the 200m heats and was eliminated.
Noah Lyles is track’s biggest showman in a field of monstrously large personalities and is hunting a double in the two shortest sprints, but could Jamaican Kishane Thompson, who ran a staggering 9.77 to win the Jamaican Trials, challenge the American superstar?
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone is back, injury free and absolutely flying over the 400m hurdles. Her battle with Dutch superstar Femke Bol will be one to savour.
In the middle distance events, defending 1,500m champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen fancies himself as the man to beat whenever he walks onto a track — perhaps a bit too much.
Having said he would need to be blindfolded to be beaten over the metric mile, the brash Norwegian has lost consecutive World Championships finals to two different Scotsmen in Josh Kerr and Jake Wightman.
The women’s 1,500m could explode, but Jess Hull and friends will need something seriously special to beat world record holder Faith Kipyegon.
The 800m is just as tight, with Britain’s Keeley Hodgkinson perhaps the favourite, especially as defending champion Athing Mu will miss the Games after falling during the USA trials, although Kenyan world champion Mary Moora will have plenty to say about that.
In the field, pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis is certain to soar and attempt to break his own world record, which stands at a whopping 6.24m.
The marathon offers what could be one of the last chances to see one of the greatest rivalries in distance running history be played out.
Eliud Kipchoge is the greatest marathon runner the world has ever seen, the Kenyan legend looking for a third-straight Olympic marathon crown to go with his 11 major wins. Up against him though is arguably the greatest distance runner of all time, Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia.
The pair first met at an Olympics in 2004, when Bekele got the better of Kipchoge in both the 5,000m (they won silver and bronze behind Hicham El Guerrouj) and 10,000m (gold and silver). Bekele won the 5,000/10,000m double in 2008.
Women’s only world record holder Peres Jepchirchir is looking to make history by winning back-to-back gold medals.
Everywhere else
France is the home of cycling and, shorn of its usual Tour de France finish down the Champs-Élysées, the Parisiennes will enjoy the treat that is the men’s and women’s road races, which feature some of the greatest talents in cycling history.
However, cycling’s biggest star Tadej Pogačar will sadly no longer chase a second Olympic medal, after he was ruled out of the Games with fatigue following his historic Tour de France victory.
However six of the last eight riders who have worn the rainbow jersey as road race world champion will be there: Rui Costa, Michał Kwiatkowski, Mads Pedersen, Julian Alaphilippe, Remco Evenepoel and reigning champ Mathieu van der Poel.
On the women’s side, Demi Vollering has won almost everything that matters in women’s cycling, except the world championships. She will face stiff opposition even from within her own team in three-time world champ and 2012 Olympic gold medallist Marianne Vos and reigning world champion Lotte Kopecky.
Tennis, another sport where the main characters earn their crust outside of the Olympic format, two-time French Open champion Iga Świątek will look to continue her impressive superiority on clay by winning the women’s title for Poland.
On the men’s side, Carlos Alcaraz is defending champion at Roland Garros, but the clay-court king Rafael Nadal cannot be discounted despite his woeful injury run on account of his 14 titles, with Novak Djokovic desperate to complete his career haul with an Olympic gold.
It’s not a stretch to say Simone Biles may be the biggest gymnastics star in history and, after the drama of the Tokyo twisties, she appears back to her best and ready to plunder more gold.
There are fewer places in the world where judo is bigger than France, and there are fewer judokas bigger than home favourite Teddy Riner.
The 11-time world champion, which is a record, has a record-equalling five Olympic medals in judo, three gold, two bronze, so all eyes will be on the men’s heavyweight tournament to see if he can break the record.
At le Golf National, Ireland’s Rory McIlroy and America’s Scottie Scheffler lead the way on the men’s side, with US star Nellie Korda headlining the women’s competition.
In terms of big-name teams, look no further than the basketball competition, which features a who’s who of the NBA’s biggest stars — and not just the USA, either.
Sure, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Jason Tatum, Joel Embiid, Steph Curry et al are the big-ticket players in the USA squad, but Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Canada), Victor Wembanyama (France), Nikola Jokić (Serbia) and Giannis Antetokounmpo (Greece) will all line up outside the USA powerhouse squad.
In French rugby there are few bigger names than 2021 World Rugby player of the year, Six Nations winning scrum half Antoine Dupont, who has turned his hand to sevens for his home Games.
But look, this is the Olympics, where more than 10,000 of the world’s greatest athletes come together with a dream to win gold.
There are star performers everywhere you look.
ABC Sport will be live blogging all the action at the Paris Olympics from the opening ceremony. Keep across all the news at abc.net.au/sport.
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