Between Friday, July 26, and Sunday, August 11, athletes from 206 nations will compete for 987 assorted medals across 45 disciplines in Paris. A Brit’s participation in any one of these events – be them in contention for a medal or not – will of course raise interest among the sports-watching public in the UK. And with Old Blighty’s medal tally rising by 196 since London 2012, bringing home gold feels more likely than ever.
 
Qualified athletes from track and field, cycling, swimming, and sailing fill the roster. But with more than 450 English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish competitors set to cross the channel it can be a nightmare knowing who to watch outside of the seasoned ‘regulars’.

With the torch well-lit, and on its way to the French capital from ancient Olympia, here’s a breakdown of some otherwise normal folk yet to write their names on the back pages.

 

Emily Campbell – Weightlifting 
Silver in Tokyo made Emily Campbell the first-ever British female to medal in weightlifting. Producing a piece of Olympic theatre – with her hair in two Team GB-themed buns – the then-27-year-old ripped the 161kg barbell from the wooden platform, rested the weight on her scarred shoulders and hoisted the bar – weighing the equivalent of two medium-sized fridges – above her head.

 

 

 

 

From there was a steadying of the knees. An acknowledging smile. Then a long-awaited beep marked her achievement. Completing the clean and jerk – the second of her two Olympic lifts – she dropped the weight and fell to her knees letting out a joyous scream that filled the Tokyo International Forum. 

 

"With my nails, lashes, and a new barnet on point, I'll be ready to take over the world"

 

An earlier snatch of 122kg had Campbell in fourth place. Then two clean and jerks, of 156kg and 161kg respectively, pushed her into bronze, and then silver, thanks to that final lift, reaching a combined tally of 283kg.

And, just like that, Britain had its most powerful, heart-warming and potentially life-changing story of those Games. It was Team GB’s first weightlifting medal since 1984 (David Mercer won bronze on that occasion in Los Angeles during the Eastern Bloc Boycott). 

Some medals hold more metaphorical (and physical) weight than others. And unlike almost every lottery-funded Team GB medallist in Japan, Campbell had arrived in Tokyo still splitting her time between weightlifting and self-funding her career as a receptionist. 

Following up on her remarkable performance, still self-funded, the Nottingham-based lifter also won gold at the European Championships in Moscow that same year. And the year after that, and then again in 2023. Until most recently making it four European gold medals in a row in Sofia, Bulgaria. 

 

 

 

Since Tokyo, life has changed for the 29-year-old and now, as a full-time athlete with lottery funding, her being able to devote everything to her craft will have more than a small impact on her performance in Paris.

Born of a Jamaican father, Trevor, her weightlifting belt features both the Union Jack and the black, green, and gold Cross. But it was the English flag she paraded around Birmingham Community Centre at the Commonwealth Games in 2022. Winning gold, again, on that occasion. 

The British record holder is still training out of Nottingham University gym and says “Every time I go to the local market they give me free fruit and veg. The cobblers used to sort out my boots and raise money for me. And, now this kid, who was raised in Bulwell, Nottingham, is an Olympic medallist.”

From relative obscurity, her unmissable blue and red bob hairstyle is now plastered on NatWest ad campaigns you’ve no doubt stumbled across. Or seen on TV. She ‘lifts’ a Toyota Prius (1500kg) above her head with ease in the campaign and stands 30 feet tall on shopping-centre facades. Nothing short of how she’ll feel with gold around her neck in Paris. 

The Commonwealth champion’s rapidly expanding medal collection and national popularity bear testament to the realisation of a “crazy and bonkers” dream. Once shared only with her family and a few traders in her market town.

Standing, like a 10-foot brick wall, in her way of gold is China’s Li Wenwen. The softly-spoken 23-year-old has routinely broken both Olympic and World records and in 2020 claimed gold with a combined overall lift of 320kg. An amount our Bulwellian is yet to lift in competition.  
 
The showdown on the Seine promises to crown the strongest woman on Earth. For Campbell: “With nails, lashes, and a new barnet on point, I’ll be ready to take over the world.”

 

 

Kimberley Woods – Canoe Slalom
Introduced to kayaking by her aunt Dianne – who won world junior silver in 1994 – Woods heads to Paris as the reigning world champion in the brand-new white-water Olympic discipline of kayak-cross. 

 

"I'll print off a replica of the Paris medals to look at. It'd be nice to replace them with the real thing"

 
Her sport sees four competitors hurtling down the same set of rapids simultaneously. Launching from a two-meter-high ramp, it’s a fury of flying elbows and paddles from there on out. Competitors battling, almost fighting (especially the French), their way down a 300-metre course featuring floating bollards, boat roll zones, and just generally anything organisers can put in their way to spice things up a bit. Hitting the green and red gates brings a two-second penalty, if you miss a gate, it’s 50 seconds. Think border-cross but with melted snow. The first one to the bottom wins. 
 
Despite the discipline's inherent unpredictability, the 28-year-old from Rugby won the World Cup title in 2023 and has proved a cut above her closest rivals in just about every other competition. 

 

 

 

 
Crossing the channel as world number one, Woods isn’t the only medal chance in the GB canoeing team. She heads to Paris with two Olympic gold medallists, Mallory Franklin and Joe Clarke. 
 
As for past Olympic experiences, ‘Kimbo’ impressed on debut in Tokyo. Making the final 10, she suffered 56 seconds of time penalties to finish in ‘last’. 

Seen in a burst of tears on TV last time out, her now competing for two medals offers somewhat of a safety blanket should she suffer the same fate. 

On a run of form that saw her win nine medals across the 2023 season, Paris offers a perfect opportunity for Woods to go one better and add at least one Olympic gold to her already 73-strong career medal tally. 

 

Bradly Sinden – Taekwondo
Roughly translated to ‘the art of kicking and punching’, taekwondo has been an Olympic sport since the Seoul 1988 Games. In those 36 years, there have been two male British medallists. Both lost their respective finals as second-best on the day. 

Taekwondoin (taekwondo athletes) – especially those that have any chance of winning – are traditionally of Asian heritage. Of the 48 gold medals awarded, 12 have gone to South Korea and seven to China. Just 23 have left the world’s largest continent. 

Budding to make that 24 is Doncaster-born taekwondo star Bradly Sinden, who lost his grip on gold in Tokyo with only eight seconds to go. On that occasion, it was Uzbekistan’s Ulugbek Rashitov who snatched the medal away with a late head kick to turn the match around and win 34-29.

 

 

 

And despite sailing through the rounds at the Makuhari Messe Hall on Tokyo Bay, and winning Team GB’s second medal of the games; he was clear on one thing. Silver was not enough. It marked an unsuccessful first quest for gold. Despite his best efforts.

In his words “Taekwondo is a Korean martial art where you basically kick each other in the head. And my speciality from the clinch is doing exactly that.” It’s a move that catches opponents unaware, arching his foot over and around flailing limbs. A point of difference that separates him from his peers. Five points at a time.

Now aged 25, and able to beat anyone in the world when clad in his all-white Dobok, Sinden fights in the men’s 68kg category and will return to competition with two world titles under his (black) belt. 

Strong favourite to make good his lifelong ambition of turning silver into gold. The art nouveau Grand Palais will host both his and his girlfriend’s efforts. Rebecca McGowan competes in the women’s middleweight category. And can comfortably keep up with her other half in the octagon. 

 

Toby Roberts – Climbing
When climbing made its Tokyo 2020 debut, Surrey’s Toby Roberts was too young to compete. But that didn’t stop the 16-year-old from sticking to a seven-year plan – hatched by his 12-year-old self – targeting the 2024 Games. 

Roberts is now 19 and continues to collect medals and record-breaking rock climbs with his dad Tristan in tow. 

During his breakout senior year in 2023, he placed third in a Lead (roped climbing) World Cup in Edinburgh. Toby ‘the Terminator’ then won gold in a Boulder World Cup in Italy. Securing the win during the closing seconds he told journalists “It was a fairy-tale ending” at the time. This all arrived, he said, before his first pint of beer. 

Rising expectations would catch up to the young pretender, Roberts failing at the first opportunity to qualify for Paris in ‘Boulder and Lead’ combined. He placed fifth in the world championships in August, missed the podium, and felt “pretty gutted” by all accounts. His disappointment existing as a clear reflection of how high he had set the bar just months before. 

When the World Cup returned to France in October 2023, only the winner could qualify for the games. Roberts did so before he had even finished the final route to the top of the temporary bouldering wall in Chamonix. 
Weeks later, again in Italy, the then 18-year-old won his first Lead World Cup. Becoming the first Brit to win gold in two disciplines.

Already appearing on the BBC’s Great British Menu, whisperings of a medal of any colour are beginning to take traction. For him, “the aim is to win gold, I’m not just here to climb”.

Ben Llewellin – Shooting

Not fulfilling the stereotypical mould of your Barber-jacket-wearing be-Labradored gunman, Ben Llewellin watched the Tokyo 2020 Olympics from his semi-detached home in Haverfordwest last time out. Having failed to qualify for the Games he was expected to medal at (by just one shot) the Welshman was unable to even look at a gun until well beyond the tournament’s close.

Considering retirement aged 26, in a sport that featured the oldest ever Olympian (Oscar Swahn won silver aged 72 at the 1920 Summer Games), Llewellin said he “was absolutely devastated at the time. When I missed the target, everything just sank. I knew my opportunity had gone down the pan.”

Having used the same gun for ten years, an off-season swap to Italian manufacturer Perazzi has brought with it a new technical set-up and a break from the painful recent past. The move has contributed to changing his fortunes ahead of Paris.

Now a Commonwealth silver and European bronze medallist, the 29-year-old heads to the French capital hoping to complete the set. His best chance undoubtedly comes in the form of the skeet team event alongside Amber Rutter (previously Hill).

Her two World Championships, four European Championships and one Commonwealth gold make her the most successful British shooter of all time. And the pair were crowned world champions of the event in 2022, each taking it in turns to shoot 50 clay pigeons on the bounce. 

Rutter was selected for Tokyo but also missed out on the Games after testing positive for Covid-19 just days before she was due to travel to Japan. The pair, Llewellin says, have “made a pact to right all of our wrongs in Paris.”

Standing in the Welshman’s way of gold will be the World number one and two, Italian’s Tammaro Cassandro and Gabriele Rossetti. The latter won gold in Rio, but both missed out on the podium in Tokyo and find themselves on a not-too-dissimilar arc of redemption. 

Never suffering from a lack of sporting heritage, his dad David won the British Rally Championship in 1989 and 1990. Both times at the wheel of a Toyota Celica GT-Four. 

Admittedly a slower watch, shooting presents similar challenges of precision to flying through hedges at what looks like a million miles an hour. But adding to his family’s petrol-fuelled trophy cabinet at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre exists as no less of a test. By any means.