Two years to go until Paris 2024! Five of the hottest prospects hoping to shine at the Games

On 26 July 2024, the world will come together for the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games Paris 2024. To mark the occasion of two years to go, Olympics.com looks at five of the top prospects who are hoping to make waves at the next edition of the Games.

5 min

(2022 Getty Images)

With the next Olympics just two years away, excitement is building for the first Games to be held in the city of Paris in 100 years.

While some Olympic legends are vacating the stage a new set of champions will be crowned, and many young stars are beginning to show their immense potential with performances that belie their age.

From an Under-20 200m world record holder who is hot on the heels of Usain Bolt to a French swimming phenomenon who has been compared to Michael Phelps, here are five hot prospects who could make their mark at Paris 2024.

Leon Marchand, France, swimming

Not many young swimmers have been compared to all-time Olympic great Michael Phelps, and even fewer by Phelps’ former coach Bob Bowman.

Yet the talent displayed by 20-year-old French swimmer Leon Marchand has been so staggering that those comparisons don’t seem in any way out of place.

In June’s World Championships in Budapest, Marchand swept the men’s Individual Medley events, winning both the 200m and 400m races. The victories came less than a year after he competed in his first Olympic final where he placed sixth in the 400m individual medley at age 19.

“I feel capable of fighting with the best in the world,” Marchand told Olympics.com prior to his Budapest heroics. “Before then I saw them as living gods. Now I belong in this class of swimmers.”

Marchand has the talent to put himself in a class above when he takes to the pools in his home country at Paris 2024.

Hana Goda, Egypt, table tennis

At just 14 years old, precocious Egyptian table tennis talent Hana Goda stunned the world by becoming the youngest ever player to win an African senior continental event when she clinched gold at the ITTF-Africa Cup in May.

After a run to the final that saw her end the hopes of Nigerian legends Olufunke Oshonaike and six-time African senior champion Dina Meshref, Goda beat Fatimo Bello 4-0 in straight games to win the title in impressive fashion.

Goda missed out on last year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo after Egypt opted to use her as the fourth reserve player.

However, with Paris 2024 set to take place when she is 16, the African champion has time on her hands as she sets her sights on medals in Paris.

Erriyon Knighton, USA, athletics

Team USA’s Erriyon Knighton has been a revelation since he burst onto the international track and field scene and broke Jamaican sprint legend Usain Bolt’s Under-18 200m record with a time of 20.11 in June 2021.

The then 17-year-old went on to earn selection for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, becoming the youngest male to achieve the feat in 57 years. And when the competition began in Tokyo, Knighton put in a stellar performance for someone so young, finishing fourth in the 200m.

Just a year later, Knighton has cemented his position as one of the fastest 200m runners on the planet, setting an Under-20 world record of 19.49 in April’s LSU Invitational, which broke yet another of Bolt’s world bests in the process.

Confident, tenacious and incredibly fast, Knighton has become the talk of the athletics community, with some suggesting he may soon go on to do what many once deemed impossible - break Usain Bolt’s senior 200m world record of 19.19 set in 2009.

He picked up a bronze medal in the men's 200m at the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, at the age of 18.

Knighton will be 20 by the time the Paris Olympics begin in 2024, and is well on his way to becoming one of the Games’ brightest stars.

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Jessica and Jennifer Gadirova, Great Britain, artistic gymnastics

To find one talent this big in artistic gymnastics is exciting. To have two come along at the same time - well that’s just special.

Such is the case of the Gadirova twins, Jessica and Jennifer, who starred at last year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo and are seen by many as the future of artistic gymnastics.

At just 17 years old, these Dublin-born British twins won bronze in the team event at Tokyo 2020 and will be aiming for more honours when they compete in Paris at age 19.

Jessica already has a European Championships gold medal to her name, won in the floor exercise event in Basel in 2021. Jennifer, for her part, won silver in the vault at the Junior Worlds in 2019.

This August both will compete - as favourites - in the European Championships in Munich. It will act as an excellent test on the road to the Olympics that take place in two years' time in France.

Shigekix, Japan, breaking

Already a Youth Olympic Games breaking bronze medallist, Japan's Shigekix (real name Nakarai Shigeyuki) will be aiming for the top at Paris 2024.

Just 22 years old, Shigekix comes from a family of celebrated breakers, led by older sister B-girl Ayane.

In 2017, Shigekix became the youngest breaker to compete in the Red Bull BC One World Finals, making it all the way to the semis at age 15.

He followed it up with a historic bronze at the YOG in Buenos Aires and victory at the Red Bull BC One World Final in Austria in 2020, where he became - at the time - the youngest-ever winner of that event.

Most recently, Shigekix placed third in the breaking competition at this year's World Games. He is sure to be one of the favourites when breaking makes its Olympic debut at Paris 2024.