The Olympic flame will ignite once again on Friday as the all the greatest athletes on Earth will unite in Paris for the 2024 Olympics Games.
To commemorate the moment, and also shine the spotlight on some of the world’s best and brightest American sports stars, DailyMail.com has gathered a complete list of athletes from all corners of the country to watch before this summer’s spectacle.
The roster is built around households names, rising stars and all-time greats chasing gold in France and will likely provide some of the most memorable highlights of the Games.
It includes athletes who had little-to-no trouble in securing their places in Paris, as well as those who took the longer road to get there.
Some athletes are already well-known worldwide. For others, it will be the first time their names are said on a global broadcast before they become the talk of the world during the Paris Olympics.
DailyMail.com takes a look at the exciting American athletes ready to set Paris alight
Return of Simone Biles
Often known as the best gymnast in the world, Biles still has room to make history in her sport, believe it or not.
With just one more medal, the 27-year-old will become the most decorated American gymnast in Olympics history, overtaking surpassing Shannon Miller who won seven medals between Barcelona 1992 and Atlanta 1996.
Biles also has a shot at climbing as high as second on the list of leaders of Olympic medal leaders in women’s gymnastics.
However, it’s nearly impossible that she can match the Soviet great Laris Latynina, who won 18 medals across three games (1956, 1960, 1964) but with five events in Paris, which she can all certainly win, Biles can bring her Olympic medal tally to 12.
Paris also marks Biles’ Olympic return following her Tokyo ‘twisties’ which she suffered during the pandemic-delayed games in 2021.
Katie Ledecky
Considering that she already has seven Olympic gold medals to her name, many would think that Katie Ledecky has nothing left to accomplish.
But, the 27-year-old has an incredible shot at leaving Paris as the most decorated female Olympic swimmer in history – a fitting record to pursue for someone with little-to-no records to beat.
The Bethesda, Maryland native has been the leading icon of women’s swimming since she made her Olympic debut at London 2012 at just 15 years old.
Still in her prime, Ledecky is expected to compete in nearly all distance freestyle events at the Paris Games, and is still a favorite to win multiple gold medals.
Simone Biles will look to make a triumphant Olympic return after suffering the twisties in 2021
Remarkably, the gymnastic icon still has potential to make history within the sport
USA swimmer Katie Ledecky also has the opportunity to carve out her own spot in history
Noah Lyles and co to tear up the track
Known for his dig at NBA players last year, Noah Lyles is the leading face of the USA’s track and field contingent at these upcoming Olympics and has shared his intent to win ‘all of the medals’.
At the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, the 27-year-old, Gainesville, Florida native became the first man since Usain Bolt to win gold in the 100m, 200m, and 4x100m relay.
Now, he’ll look to make history by winning his first ever gold medal at the Olympics, where he brought bronze home from Tokyo in the 200m, three years ago.
But, he faces stiff competition from Canada’s Andre De Grasse and Aaron Brown. The former finished on the podium in Japan.
Other names to look out for on the track include (but are not limited to) Sha’carri Richardson, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Gabrielle Thomas and Tara Davis-Woodhall.
Noah Lyles is the leading face of the USA’s track and field contingent in the French capital
Team USA set to take breaking’s debut by storm
Victor Montalvo is heading to the Paris Games as the men’s gold medal favorite in the Olympics’ newest sport of breaking.
The 29-year-old, whose father was a successful b-boy in Mexico, won gold at the 2023 World Championships to secure his spot in Paris.
Breaking found its beginnings on the streets of New York City in the 1970s but has evolved into a proper dance sport, with a fixed set of rules for fair competition.
While breakdancing is now ready to make the leap to the grand stage of the Olympics, Montalvo hopes the sport remembers its origins and that the IOC brings the cultural elements of hip hop – the emceeing, the DJing, the graffiti, the breaking – to the Parisian block party.
At the Games, the athletes will compete in individual male and female events with the breakers going head to head in spectacular solo battles to impress the judges with each breaker taking two or three alternate turns – or ‘throw downs.’
LeBron James
Selected as the one of the flag bearers for Team USA at the opening ceremony on July 26, the 39-year-old LeBron James hasn’t played for the Star and Stripes at the Olympics since London 2012.
But, over the last few NBA seasons, he’s reportedly been working behind the scenes to recruit other top American stars to commit to the Olympics for what will probably be the last international competition of his career.
James already has two Olympic gold medals (and a 2004 bronze) to brag about with his four NBA championships and NBA MVP Awards.
Coming off his 21st NBA season, the LA Lakers forward continues to prove that age is just a number after averaging 25.7 points, 8.3 assists and 7.3 rebounds per game in the last 12 months.
Victor Montalvo is set to lead the USA in the Olympics’ newest event – breaking
LeBron James was unveiled as Team USA’s flagbearer for Olympic opening ceremony
Nelly Korda
Nelly, who comes from a hyper athletic family, is heading to Paris to defend her gold medal won by a single stroke in Tokyo.
And although the No. 1 in women’s golf struggled in 2022 and 2023, she has been spectacular ahead of the Paris Games, winning four of her first five tournaments of the season on the LPGA Tour.
Her second major victory at the Chevron Championship in April was her fifth straight win and tied streaks set by Nancy Lopez in 1978 and Annika Sorenstam in 2004-05.
In 2021, after the COVID-hit Olympic Games, Korda made the Forbes ’30 under 30 list’ for earners under the age of 30, placed 23.
She is widely tipped to repeat as Olympic champion in Paris.
Snoop Dogg on NBC’s broadcast
An unexpected name to feature in Paris this summer, Snoop Dogg, whose real name is Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr., is set to be a correspondent for NBC.
How he got the job? No one knows. But, surely, people will giggle after seeing his commentary on Animal Planet.
Snoop has already gone to work by having casual on-video interviews with several Olympians about their respective sports, including women’s basketball player A’ja Wilson, gymnast Sunisa Lee, skateboarder Jagger Eaton and beach volleyball players Sara Hughes and Kelly Cheng.
‘We have different perspectives and different views,’ Snoop Dogg said of the recruited entertainers.
‘The world that we live in right now, it is appropriate for me to give our side of the story, because we’ve always been a great voice and a great instrument. But we’ve never been the conductor. Now I get to play the role of conductor.’
After the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Games in 2021, NBC created a new playbook to increase excitement for this summer’s coverage. Network researchers found that people between the ages of 26-40 wanted an Olympics that infuses more pop culture into the everyday conversation.
Singer Kelly Clarkson and NFL legend Peyton Manning will join sportscaster Mike Tirico in Paris as hosts of the opening ceremony.
Snoop Dogg is set to be an unexpected feature at the Olympics as a NBC correspondent
US women’s national soccer team
With Megan Rapinoe out of the picture after her retirement in 2023, the Star and Stripes have a real shot at redeeming themselves – a year on from their fiasco at the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
Led by a new generation of players, including Trinity Rodman, the daughter of the Chicago Bulls legend, the Americans will be eyeing for a better finish than third at the 2021 Tokyo Games.
A player to keep an eye out for is Alex Morgan, 34. She made her Olympic debut as one of the youngest starts on the team at the 2012 London Games. Fast forward 12 years later, she is now one of the leaders of the US.
Her experience of being one of the best strikers in the women’s game for the past decade will certainly help with her team’s main objective: bring home gold.
Nick Itkin
At the 2021 Olympics Games in Tokyo, Nick Itkin was the youngest American fencer when the US men’s foil team won bronze.
However, between then and now, Itkin has turned into one of the greatest fencers in the world, as he leapfrogged everyone to the No. 1 spot.
He is now favorite to win the individual men’s foil gold in Paris, the spiritual home of fencing.
At the tender age of 24, it’s fair to say that the world is Itkin’s oyster.
The Olympics will mark a fresh start for the USWNT after World Cup embarrassment last year
Legendary former Chelsea coach will take charge as head coach for her first major tournament
Coco Gauff
Coco Gauff is heading to Paris after being left disappointed in what was supposed to be her Olympic debut at the 2021 Tokyo Games.
The then-17-year-old announced that she had contract COVID with just five days before the Opening Ceremony, forcing her withdraw from the Games.
But since then, Gauff has been hungry for success.
She was the runner-up at the 2022 French Open in both singles and doubles, and, in 2023 won her first Grand Slam at the US Open.
