The sporting event of the year is finally here.
As crowds descend on Paris to witness sporting greatness at the 2024 Olympics, the excitement is rising, the stakes are high, and the world is ready to witness history in the making.
In this milestone year which sees, for the first time in history, the same number of male and female athletes competing, our eyes are on the incredible female athletes who are part of this history-making Olympic Games.
We’ve compiled a list of the GB women to watch over the next fortnight. Alongside competing for a place on the podium, these women are also inspiring a generation of women and girls with their extraordinary talent. We can’t wait to see what they can achieve!
GB Medal predictions*
Athletics: Katarina Johnson-Thompson (Heptathlon), Georgia Taylor-Brown (Triathlon), Dina Asher-Smith (200m), Keely Hodgkinson (800m), Laura Muir (1500m), Beth Potter (Triathlon), 4x100m Relay, Triathlon Team Relay.
Canoeing: Kimberley Woods (Canoe Slalom, Kayak Cross), Mallory Franklin (Canoe Slalom)
Cycling: Beth Shriever (BMX), Emma Finucane (Sprint), Katy Marchant, Sophie Capewell, Emma Finucane, Lowri Richards (reserve) (Team Sprint), Elinor Barker, Neah Evans (Madison team), Anna Morris, Elinor Barker, Josie Knight, Jess Roberts (Team pursuit).
Diving: Andrea Spendolini Sirieix (10m Platform), Lois Toulson & Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix (10m Platform Synchro)
Equestrian: Laura Collett, Charlotte Fry, GB Eventing team, GB Dressage Team
Golf: Charley Hull
Judo: Chelsie Giles, Lucy Renshall
Rowing: Emily Craig and Imogen Grant (Lightweight double sculls), GB Rowing four Team, GB Quadruple Sculls.
Sailing: Vita Heathcote & Chris Grube (Sailing, 470), Eleanor Aldridge (Formula Kite), Emma Wilson (iQFOiL), John Gimson and Anna Burnet (Nacra 17)
Skateboarding: Sky Brown (Park)
Swimming: Freya Colbert (400m individual medley)
Taekwondo: Jade Jones (Featherweight), Rebecca McGowan (Heavyweight)
Trampolining: Bryony Page
Weightlifting: Emily Campbell
*some teams subject to change
Meet the athletes
You may not be familiar with these GB women, but you might want to get acquainted as these four are expected to do great things in Paris.
Beth Shriever, BMX
25-year-old Beth Shriever is a BMX racer from Essex who has been racing since the age of eight.
Beth has already won an Olympic Gold at the Tokyo 2020 Games, but it was by no means an easy ride (if you’ll pardon the pun).
In 2017, UK Sport said it would only fund male riders for Tokyo, forcing Shriever to find another way to fund herself. She got a part-time job as a teaching assistant and had to crowd-fund £50,000 to even get a foot in the door to qualify for the Games.
In 2019, British Cycling recognised Beth’s talent and achievements and persuaded UK Sport to re-allocate her funding.
BMX is still a relatively new Olympic sport; it was first introduced to the Games in 2008. On being able to showcase a new sport to a wide audience, Beth said: “I hope we get more girls involved, and boys as well. Everyone proved that if you commit to something and have fun doing it, you can be rewarded for it.”
Bryony Page, Trampolining
Bryony Page is a 33-year-old trampoline gymnast. She won a silver medal in the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics and a bronze in Tokyo five years later.
In the lead up to the Rio Games, Briony found herself facing difficulty in her training, struggling with a condition called yips, or “lost skills syndrome.” The condition affects some gymnasts and divers, giving them a mental block on being able to perform their usual skills.
Speaking on her experience with yips, Page told the Sunday Telegraph: “The sadness and depression that you go though – it’s almost grief, because you’ve lost something and you can’t do something that you love.”
Bryony is predicted to win gold in Paris, which would give her a full suite of Olympic medals.
Emily Craig and Imogen Grant, Lightweight Double Sculls
Meet the rowing duo who are touted to win gold in Paris 2024: Emily Craig and Imogen Grant.
The pair will compete in the Lightweight Double Sculls category and have been competing together since 2019, when they won bronze at the World Rowing Championships.
Since coming in in fourth place at Tokyo 2020, the pair are said to have “turned up the heat” and have won every race they’ve entered, as well as setting a new World Best Time at the 2023 World Rowing Cup II.
Speaking to their close-knit relationship which is an essential part of being a good team, Emily said: “We have a lot of trust and we have a lot of clarity in what we do and we go out and practise it every single day, so it becomes quite automatic. It makes everything very predictable for when people want to throw stuff at us, we can respond and overcome whatever challenges we get faced with.”
Kimberley Woods, Canoe Slalom
Kimberley Woods is a slalom canoeist and six-time World Champion, having already made her Olympic debut in Toky 2020.
Born in Rugby, Kimberley was inspired to join the world of canoeing after watching a video of her aunt Diane Woods winning silver at the 1994 World Junior Championships.
Kimberley has spoken candidly about her experience with bullying, depression and self-harm: “I was muscular because of sport and people would say horrible things because I had a six-pack and big shoulders. Things are changing but as a girl who was a bit of a ‘tom boy’ back then I had to deal with being pushed around and I spent most of the bus journey home in tears.”
She has always found a respite through sport, and says canoeing has got her through many difficult time “I felt I was just keeping going for canoeing.”
Throughout the Olympics, we’ll be sharing the medal tally by country and showcasing how many medals are won by female and male athletes so we can celebrate gender parity at the Olympics and see which countries are championing their female athletes.
To keep track of all the medallists in Paris 2024, visit our medal tables here.
