Photo by Christian Liewig – Corbis/Getty Images
These Olympic athletes aren’t household names yet — but they will be after the 2024 Paris games.
The 2024 Paris Summer Olympics are almost here.
Over the next few weeks athletes from all over the planet will compete for Olympic glory, and in the process the world will get to know some of the greatest athletes in the world. Many will become household names in the process, whether in their home country or all over the globe.
Here are 11 such athletes who are set to become legends over the next few weeks. Some are redemption stories, others are potential breakout stars, and a few are already established athletes who can cement their status as legends in Paris.
Léon Marchand, France
Swimming
With the 2024 Summer Olympics taking place in Paris, Léon Marchand has a chance to become perhaps the breakout star of the summer. Marchand enters the summer games as the prohibitive favorite in the 400m individual medley, having broken Michael Phelps’ 20-year-old record in the event at the 2023 World Aquatics Championship.
Marchand, who swam at Arizona State, was a three-time Pac-12 Male Swimmer of the Year and earned ten NCAA titles while on campus. He will swim in four events at the Paris games — the 200m individual medley, 400m individual medley, 200m butterfly, and 200m breaststroke — and could become the first-ever French swimmer to win three career Olympic medals, as well as the first-ever French swimmer to win multiple individual Olympic medals.
All at home.
Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images
Victor Montalvo, United States
Breaking
Breaking is one of the newest sports debuting at the 2024 Summer Olympics, and Victor Montalvo — who competes as Victor — is considered the favorite to win gold on the men’s side of the competition.
The newest Olympic sport is a family affair for Montalvo, as his father and uncle were both professional breakers in Mexico. Montalvo began breaking when he was just six years old and has earned several accolades throughout his career, including winning the Red Bull BC One event in both 2015 and 2022. He won gold at the 2023 WDSF World Breaking Championship in Leuven, Belgium, securing a spot on the United States Olympic Team.
Dominika Banevic, Lithuania
Breaking
Dominika Banevic, who competes as Nicka, shocked the breaking world when she captured gold at the 2023 WDSF World Breaking Championship to clinch a spot in the Olympics.
At just 16 years of age.
The Lithuanian athlete enters the 2024 Paris Games as one of the favorites to bring home gold in the debut of breaking at the Olympics. And to hear her tell it, age is just a number:
Kaylia Nemour, Algeria
Women’s Gymnastics
17-year-old Kaylia Nemour began her gymnastics career competing for the host nation, but a French team doctor would not clear her to compete due to osteochondritis in her knees which required surgery and extensive rehabilitation. Nemour then switched to compete for Algeria, as she had dual citizenship between the two nations.
She is one of the best in the world at the uneven bars, having won a silver medal at last year’s World Championships in the discipline. She improved on that performance at the 2024 Cottbus World Cup with a routine that included a staggering 7.0 difficulty score – one of the most difficult routines being done in the world regardless of discipline:
If she nails this routine in Paris she will absolutely become a household name.
Fred Richard, United States
Men’s Gymnastics
The United States Men’s Gymnastics Team did not bring any medals home from the 2021 Tokyo Games.
Fred Richard could change all that.
Richard is set to make his Olympic debut and is coming off a 2023 season that saw him take home bronze in the All Around at the World Championships. He also played a huge role in the team taking bronze as well, the first team medal for the US Men’s Gymnastics Team in almost a decade. Richard’s bronze in the individual all-around made him the youngest USA gymnast to win an individual world medal in the men’s competition, while also making him the USA’s first men’s all-around medalist since Jonathan Horton won bronze in 2010.
Richard joined Horton, Paul Hamm (gold, 2003), and Kurt Thomas (silver, 1979) as just the fourth American to win an individual medal at Worlds in history.
Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images
Summer McIntosh, Canada
Women’s Swimming
This could be the Summer of Summer.
Summer McIntosh heads to Paris on the heels of a tremendous buildup to the Summer Olympics, including a performance at the Southern Zone South Sectional Championships in Orlando, Florida. In the 800-meter freestyle at that event she went up against Katie Ledecky — a swim cap of whose whose McIntosh had tacked to her bedroom wall growing up — and bested the American by six seconds.
It was the first time Ledecky lost at that distance in over a decade.
McIntosh then broke her own world record in the 400-meter individual medley at Canada’s Olympic Swimming Trials back on May 16, touching the wall at 4 minutes and 24.38 seconds.
Rowdy Gaines, the NBC swimming analyst, predicted that McIntosh will become a household name by the time the Games are over. “Summer McIntosh is the single best overall swimmer in the world today. There really isn’t anybody better,” said Gaines last month. “A lot of people will know that name by the end of summer.”
McIntosh is set for a busy time in Paris as she is expected to contend in these events — the 200-meter individual medley, the 400-meter individual medley, the 200-meter butterfly, the 200-meter freestyle, and the 400-meter freestyle — as well as various relays for Team Canada. In fact, that schedule leads Gains to believe that she might be held out of the 800-meter individual medley, to conserve her for events where she enters as the favorite.
“She’ll be the heavy favorite in the 400 IM (and 200 IM), nobody is going to beat her in those two events,” Gaines said.
Either way, she’s likely to be one of the stars of the upcoming Games.
CJ Nickolas, United States
Taekwondo
At the Tokyo Games, Team USA did not take home a single medal on the men’s side of the taekwondo competition. It was the first time the United States men’s taekwondo team was shut out of the medals at the Olympics since taekwondo debuted as a medal sport at the 2000 Sydney Games.
The last time a male on Team USA took home a medal in Olympic taekwondo? Terrence Jennings, who won bronze in the 68 kg weight class at the London games in 2012.
CJ Nickolas can change that in Paris.
Ranked No. 2 in the 80kg division, Nickolas took home silver at the World Championships in May, becoming the first American male to medal in the sport at Worlds since 2009. That year Steven López won gold at Worlds in the 80kg division, while Mark López — Steven’s younger brother — took home bronze in the 74kg class.
“I genuinely in my heart feel like I’m the best in the world, but it’s just a matter of me putting it together on the day,” he told NBC Bay Area back in 2023.
Nickolas lost to Italian Simone Alessio, the top-ranked athlete in his weight class, in the gold-medal match at Worlds. But if he comes out on top in Paris, he will certainly be one of the stars of the games.
Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images
Anna Hall, United States
Track and Field
During the Trials for the 2020 Summer Olympics Anna Hall crashed in the 100-meter hurdles portion of the heptathlon, ending her dreams of chasing Olympic gold. The foot injury she endured in that crash required surgery, and a screw being placed in her foot.
Since then she has returned to the heights of the sport, and has her eyes back on a gold in Paris. Hall took home bronze at the 2022 World Championships, and then silver at the 2023 World Championships.
Hyleas Fountain is the last member of Team USA to medal in the heptathlon, as she won silver at the 2008 Beijing Games. But the last gold medalist from Team USA in the heptathlon? The legendary Jackie Joyner-Kersee, who still holds the World and American Records in the event, which she set when taking home gold in 1988.
Hall’s personal best is one spot behind Joyner-Kersee on the American list, and the two have become close over the past few years. “It’s meant the world,” said Hall recently regarding Joyner-Kersee’s guidance. “She’s been here for everything. She called me last week and she was like, ‘I’m going to call you every two days until trials [to] make sure your head’s right. You can do this. I’m behind you. You just have to believe.’”
Noah Lyles, United States
Track and Field
Noah Lyles has an ambitious set of goals for the Paris Games.
That starts with winning gold in both the 100-meters, and the 200-meters.
But Lyles heads to Paris as perhaps the favorite in both events, having won the 200-meters in the last two World Championships, and the 100 in the 2023 Worlds. At the U.S. Olympic Trials Lyles won both events, setting a new Olympic Trials record in the 200:
Should Lyles complete his quest, and win gold in both events, he would become the first American to pull off the 100/200 double since Carl Lewis back in 1984.
Olivia Reeves, United States
Women’s Weightlifting
Expectations are high when it comes to weightlifting for Team USA, as there are hopes that the squad can bring two or more medals home for Paris for the first time since 1960.
Olivia Reeves is a big reason why.
Set to make her Olympic debut, Reeves burst onto the stage over the past two years, earning two bronze medals (2023 Pan American Championships, 2023 World Championships) and two gold medals (2023 Pan American Games, 2024 IWF World Cup) on the international stage. Her performance at the IWF World Cup in the 71kg weight class earned her three gold medals, as well as three American records. She posted a 118kg (260lbs) snatch and a 150kg (331lbs) clean and jerk for a total of 268kg (591lbs).
It was enough for Kate Vibert, a world champion and Olympic silver medalist in that weight class, to move up to the 81kg class over the winter ahead of the Paris Games.
Reeves enters the Summer Olympics as the top-ranked female in her weight class, and has a tremendous shot at becoming the first U.S. weightlifting gold medalist since Tara Nott in 2000.
Lasha Talakhadze, Georgia
Men’s Weightlifting
Many of the athletes already mentioned are hoping for a breakout performance in Paris.
Lasha Talakhadze, on the other hand, is on the verge of solidifying his legendary status.
Talakhadze is already considered one of the greatest weightlifters in history, as he holds all-time world records (regardless of weight category) in the snatch, the clean and jerk, and the total. He has held those records since 2021, and over his career the Georgian has won gold at the last two Olympic Games. Talakhadze has also won gold at the last seven World Championships, and the last seven European Championships.
A third gold medal would make him just the sixth weightlifter in Olympic history to win gold a three-straight Games.
