Team GB at Paris 2024 Olympics: Helen Glover, Keely Hodgkinson, Adam Peaty and more – the stars competing for medals | Olympics News

Team GB are expected to secure another sizable medal haul at the Paris 2024 Olympics, continuing their spell of sustained success since London 2012.

At those home games, Team GB secured 29 gold medals from a total of 65, with the total haul achieved in Rio four years later slightly improved to 67 (with 27 gold), while Tokyo saw standards maintained – 64 total medals, 22 of them gold.

Here, we’ve picked out 12 of the travelling Team GB party who are in contention to medal, who you may not yet know about yet but surely will do over the next fortnight, and some, simply, because they’ve got super compelling stories.

Here are our Team GB ones to watch:

Helen Glover

No better place to start than with one of Team GB’s flagbearers, along with diver Tom Daley, at Friday’s opening ceremony. Glover has described it as “the biggest honour of my life” as the 38-year-old, two-time Olympic champion rower gets set to compete at her fourth games.

Glover’s 2012 success was Team GB’s first gold of their dream haul of 29 at their home games and also a first-ever triumph for British women’s rowing. She and Heather Stanning then repeated the trick in Rio four years later, before Glover announced her retirement.

After having started a family, she returned to competitive rowing in time for the Japan Olympics, where she sadly did not medal, but much is expected of her again here on a ‘women’s four’ team – alongside Rebecca Shorten, Esme Booth and Sam Redgrave – that has so far gone 2024 unbeaten. Can they maintain that sort of dominance come Thursday, August 1?

Keely Hodgkinson

Hodgkinson is fast becoming the face of the Paris Games from a British perspective, with the 800m runner widely tipped for gold.

Having secured silver at Tokyo in 2021 at just 19 years of age, she proved it was no fluke when twice claiming European gold since (2022, 2024), as well as carding two further second placings at the last two World Championships (2022, 2023).

At the Diamond League meeting in London on 20 July, Hodgkinson set a new British 800m record of 1:54:61 to become the sixth fastest woman in history over the distance.

Gold is very much the target come the women’s 800m final on Monday, August 5.

Louie Hinchliffe

Staying on the track, Hinchliffe is a name that might not yet be familiar… but I’m sure that of nine-time Olympic gold medallist Carl Lewis does, who is serving as the 22-year-old’s coach.

Having transferred to the University of Houston to be coached by the American sprinting legend, Hinchliffe truly burst onto the track and field scene in May of this year when qualifying for the NCAA finals (the USA’s university athletics championships), with a wind-assisted time of 9.84 seconds.

The Sheffield-born youngster, who once had trials at Man City and whose childhood hero was Wayne Rooney, then became the first European to win the title with a legal time of 9.95 seconds, placing him as the sixth-fastest Brit of all time.

Could Britain be about to boast their first 100m medallist since Linford Christie took gold in Barcelona 1992? Find out on Sunday, August 4.

Emma Finucane

Britain has a rich recent history in track cycling, with Sir Jason Kenny, Sir Chris Hoy, Sir Bradley Wiggins and Dame Laura Kenny our four most-decorated Olympians.

Could Finucane’s name soon be added to that list? The 21-year-old is certainly giving herself a chance to by tripling up at Paris, looking to complete a clean sweep of the women’s sprint, keirin and team sprint – a feat only previously achieved by Jason Kenny and Hoy.

Finucane’s quest begins with the women’s team sprint, which kicks off the track cycling programme on Monday, August 5.

Matt Richards

Aged just 18 when part of the men’s 4×200 metres freestyle relay team that romped to gold in Tokyo three years ago, Richards was somewhat overlooked compared to his more experienced and decorated team-mates.

James Guy also won gold as part of the 4×100 m mixed medley at Tokyo, while Tom Dean too clinched a second win in his individual 200 m freestyle, edging out Duncan Scott into silver in a thrilling finish.

But Richards is set to be the dominant one of the bunch this time out, having left both Dean and Scott in his wake in the 100m and 200m freestyle at the British trials, while he is also set to compete in the 50m discipline and up to four relay events. The swimming starts on day one in Paris, from Saturday, July 27 running through to Sunday, August 4.

Adam Peaty

Staying in the pool, Peaty comes into Paris a three-time Olympic champion after triumphing twice in the 100m breaststroke at Rio and Tokyo, as well as winning the 4x100m mixed medley at the latter games. He also has two Olympic silver medals to his name, is an eight-time world champion, a 16-time European champion and he has broken world records 14 times!

Yet, that run of unrivalled success came at a cost, with Peaty taking a break from the pool last year as he battled with depression, alcohol abuse and burnout.

Having since turned a corner in time to qualify for Paris, Peaty has said: “As soon as you stop running from yourself, I think that’s when you start living your true self and your true life. And in sport terms, I think that’s when you’re most dangerous for everyone else because you’re just so at peace.”

With another gold in the 100m breaststroke – the final taking place on Sunday, July 28 – Peaty would join US great Michael Phelps as the only male swimmers to win gold in the same event at three Olympic Games.

Molly Caudery

No Brit has ever won the pole vault at the Olympics… step forward, Caudery.

The 24-year-old was a silver medallist at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, won gold at the World Indoor Championships earlier this year and then secured bronze at the Europeans in June when clearing 4.73 metres.

Fast forward a fortnight though and she upped her personal best from 4.75m to 4.92m at the Toulouse Capitole Perche meet, securing the British record in the process and the seventh-best mark of all time.

Could she top the 5m mark? Qualification takes place on the morning of Monday, August 5, before the final on Wednesday, August 7.

Amber Rutter

Rutter’s Olympic story hasn’t been what you’d exactly call conventional.

Having qualified for Rio 2016 as a teenager – at 18, the youngest member of the Team GB shooting squad, in fact – she would then miss out on a decent chance of medalling at Tokyo in 2021 after a positive Covid test prevented her from travelling.

Now, back in the squad for Paris, Rutter’s navigating her quest for an Olympic medal alongside the early days of motherhood, having given birth only three months ago!

“It’s definitely chaos and that really does describe my life,” she told Sky Sports ahead of the women’s skeet competition on Sunday, August 4.

Sky Brown

Brown is already a history-maker, having become Team GB’s youngest ever medallist when claiming skateboarding bronze at the Tokyo Games aged just 13.

Skateboarding was one of four new sports added to the Olympics in 2020, with events held in both ‘park’ and ‘street’ categories, Brown medalling in the former… and she now has her eyes firmly set on gold.

“I want that gold medal,” she told Sky Sports. “It’s a big goal but I think I can do it.”

Another big goal of Brown’s is to one day represent Team GB in both skateboarding and surfing. Though she failed to qualify in the latter for Paris, she certainly has time on her side and Los Angeles 2028 could be a possibility. First though, she’ll be going for gold on her board on Tuesday, August 6.

Delicious Orie

Born in Moscow and fluent in Russian, this super-heavyweight boxer called Delicious quite literally made a name for himself when winning gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

Seen as a future star of the sport, a successful games could see the 27-year-old turn pro and follow a similar pathway to the one forged by Anthony Joshua following his London 2012 triumph.

“GB Boxing, we have a track record of winning medals and consistently as well,” Orie said. “I think we thrive on that… I particularly do, I thrive under that pressure. I’ve done it in the Commonwealth Games, I’ve done it in the European games and I know that I’m more than capable of doing it in the Olympics with the whole world watching.”

And the whole world will indeed be watching when the boxing runs from Saturday, July 27 to Saturday, August 10.

Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix

Perhaps a familiar name to many already, Spendolini-Sirieix is the daughter of Fred Sirieix from First Dates fame.

This is her second Olympic Games, having earned a spot as the youngest member of the Team GB diving team at Tokyo three years ago, when just 16.

There, she reached the final in the women’s 10m platform, ultimately finishing seventh, but she is tipped for far greater things in Paris after a terrific few years which has seen her become the first English woman to win Commonwealth gold in the event since 1966, as well as win the synchro event at the 2022 games. Spendolini-Sirieix also doubled up at the Europeans that year and claimed gold and two bronzes at the Worlds earlier in 2024.

She first dives into the pool on Wednesday, July 31 in the synchro event alongside Lois Toulson.

Beth Shriever

Shriever followed up her stunning BMX gold at the Tokyo Games by also claiming a first world title only a few weeks later.

Adding European gold in 2022 meant that Shriever became the first BMX cyclist in history to hold all three titles at the same time.

There have been injury setbacks since and anything can happen in the frantic world of BMX, but the 25-year-old, who has a track named after her in Kent, certainly has the pedigree to claim gold once again come Monday, August 2 (with qualification the day before).

How to follow the Olympics on Sky

Keep up to date with the action from the Paris 2024 Olympics across Sky Sports’ digital platforms and Sky Sports News every day between now and Sunday August 11.

Alongside live news blogs and updates as records are broken and medals won on skysports.com and the Sky Sports app, Sky Sports News will also have dedicated reporters on the scene in Paris during the Games to gather the latest news both inside and outside the arenas in France as well as reaction to the big moments from medal winners, coaches, relatives and pundits.

Launching this August, Sky Sports+ will be integrated into Sky TV, streaming service NOW and the Sky Sports app – giving Sky Sports customers access to over 50 per cent more live sport this year at no extra cost. Stream The new EFL season, Test cricket and more top sport with NOW.