With that in mind, here are some Olympic records likely to be challenged in Paris.
Women’s 200m
21.34 seconds
One of the longest-standing marks on track was set in 1988 when American sprinter Florence Griffith-Joyner won gold at the Seoul Games.
Paris 2024 might see the end of Flo-Jo’s reign: Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson has come closer than anyone in history, only 0.07 seconds away in the World Athletics Championships 2023.
Jackson’s recent injury worried fans as she abruptly slowed down and grimaced at an event in Hungary, but has been backed by fellow athletes to deliver even if she was not at 100 per cent.
Her biggest challenger, Gabrielle Thomas, was another potential record-breaker. The 27-year-old American sprinter’s fastest time of 21.6 seconds came in July 2023. She also broke the London Diamond League meet record earlier this year, winning in 21.82.
Women’s 1500m
3 minutes, 53.11 seconds
World-record holder Faith Kipyegon will be looking to defend her gold medal and break the Olympic record she set in Tokyo.
The 30-year-old, who made her Olympic debut in 2016 in Rio, won her first gold medal there in a tactical battle with then world-record holder Genzebe Dibaba from Ethiopia, whom she overtook in the final 200m.
In 2023, she set a world record when she became the first woman to run the 1,500m in less three minutes and 50 seconds, clocking 3:49.11 to beat Dibaba’s time of 3:50.07 by almost an entire second at the Rome Diamond League in Florence.
But it was her second Olympic title time, which she set by breaking a 33-year-old record in Tokyo, that is on the line.
Earlier this year, she broke her own world record again when she clocked 3:49.04 – over four seconds quicker than her Olympic best – at the Meeting de Paris.
Furthermore, she could become the first person in Olympic history to win gold in the 1,500m at three consecutive Games.
Men’s pole vault
6.03 metres
Armand “Mondo” Duplantis has now broken the world record on eight occasions, with his best height of 6.24 metres (20 feet 5 1⁄2 inches) in China earlier this year.
However, despite his dominance, the Olympic record still belongs to Brazilian Thiago Braz, who set the mark at his home Games in 2016.
Swede Duplantis showed his potential from a young age when he became the first high school athlete to vault 5.49m at 16.
In February 2020, he became the world-record holder for the first time when his jump of 6.18m broke Renaud Lavillenie’s score of 6.17m, which had stood for almost six years.
“ I think there are still some higher heights in me,” he said after his latest world-record attempt.
And now he is looking to continue that form and become No 1 in the Olympics as well as the world.
Women’s 400m medley
4 minutes 26.36 seconds
Summer McIntosh is the definition of a “teen swimming sensation”, having broken more than 50 age-group national swimming records.
She became the youngest representative for Team Canada at the Olympics when she made her debut in Tokyo at the age of 14 and finished fourth in the 400m freestyle.
In April 2023 – aged just 16 – she broke the world record with a time of 4:25.87 and became the first swimmer to hold both the 400m freestyle and 400m individual medley world records.
At Canada’s Olympic swimming trials in May, she improved her 400m medley world record to 4:24.38 – more than a second faster than her previous mark.
And now she has her eye on Katinka Hosszu’s Olympic record, set at Rio 2016, as well as a new all-time best for a third time.
Men’s 100m freestyle
47.02 seconds
Olympic record holder Caeleb Dressel won five golds and set four records for the United States swim team in Tokyo three years ago.
He will defend two of his three individual titles, the 50m freestyle and 100m butterfly, in Paris – but not the 100m freestyle.
One potential challenger is David Popovici. The Romanian placed seventh in Tokyo with a time of 48.04 at the age of 16. A year later, he improved his time to 46.86 in the 2022 European Championships and set his first world record.
The record then was broken by a Chinese swimmer Pan Zhanle, who swam 46.8 in the lead leg of the 4x100m freestyle relay event at the World Championships in Doha, and will make his Olympic debut in Paris in three individual events.
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