From Shilese Jones to Sophia Smith, 24 women to watch ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics
The Paris Olympics are 100 days away and there are many female athletes to keep an eye on.
Simone Biles is expected to make her return to the Olympic stage, Sha'Carri Richardson looks to make her Olympic debut in the sprints for the U.S. track and field team and Katie Ledecky hopes to further cement her status as history's greatest female distance swimmer.
These three highlight a talented cast of women expected to represent the U.S. in Paris. While the Games will features thousands of female athletes contending for medals and Olympic history, we’re calling out just a handful of key names to know (24, to be exact) as the countdown to the 2024 Paris Olympics heats up.
Qualification for many major sports will happen later this summer, but in the meantime here’s a look at some of the biggest names we expect to see in action in Paris.
1. Simone Biles (Spring, Texas) – Gymnastics
Known as the GOAT, Simone Biles is widely considered the greatest female gymnast of all time. The 2016 Olympic all-around champion has won seven Olympic medals, including four gold, and holds the record for most medals in world championships history with 30. After withdrawing from most of her events at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Biles is expected to make her highly anticipated return to the Olympic stage in Paris.
2. Shilese Jones (Seattle, Washington) – Gymnastics
Shilese Jones is one of the key contenders for the U.S. Olympic team in Paris. She is the 2023 world all-around bronze medalist and is particularly impressive on the uneven bars. Her father passed away in December of 2021 and Jones has dedicated this Olympic journey to him.
3. Rebeca Andrade (Guarulhos, Brazil) - Gymnastics
Rebeca Andrade is expected to be Biles' toughest competition at the Paris Games. She is a two-time Olympian and two-time Olympic medalist, with all-around silver and vault gold medals from the Tokyo Olympics. Andrade also made history at worlds last year when she became the first Brazilian woman to win the world all-around title.
4. U.S. Women’s Basketball
If you are already missing the excitement of the women's NCAA tournament, get ready for Olympic dominance. This summer, the U.S. women’s basketball team is expected to pursue its eighth consecutive Olympic gold medal. The Americans have won 55 straight games in Olympic play and are favored to continue that streak in Paris. While the official roster has not yet been announced, Diana Taurasi (Chino, California), who will be 42 years old when the 2024 Games begin, has said that Paris is “on my radar.”
5. U.S. Women’s Soccer
The U.S. women are favorites to win gold in Paris but they haven’t done so since the 2012 Olympics in London. Because players Megan Rapinoe, Julie Ertz and Ali Krieger have retired, you can expect to see up-and-coming stars such as Naomi Girma (San Jose, California), Sophia Smith (Windsor, Colorado) and Alyssa Thompson (Studio City, California) step up as the U.S. looks to bounce back from the team’s worst-ever showing at the World Cup in 2023 (eliminated in Round of 16).
6. Sha’Carri Richardson (Dallas, Texas) – Track & Field
Sha’Carri Richardson is poised to bring her signature style and flair to Paris this summer. She’d enter the Paris Olympics as the reigning 100m world champion after her win in Budapest, Hungary in 2023, where she also took home bronze in the 200m and gold in the 4x100m, anchoring the U.S. to the world title. A common refrain for Richardson over the last several years: “I’m not back. I’m better.” Paris would mark the Dallas native’s Olympic debut.
7. Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (Dunellen, New Jersey) – Track & Field
At just 24 years old (she will turn 25 during the Olympics), Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone has made a habit of breaking records. When she was 17, McLaughlin-Levrone made her Olympic debut in Rio, becoming the youngest member of the U.S. Track and Field team to compete at the Olympics since 1972. Since then, she has made history in her signature event, the 400m hurdles, in which she broke the world record four times in a span of 13 months. The track star might shift focus to the flat 400m in Paris, or look to continue her dominance in the 400m hurdles (or, perhaps, attempt an audacious double).
8. Anna Hall (Greenwood Village, Colorado) – Track & Field
Anna Hall is expected to make her long-awaited debut on the Olympic stage this summer in Paris. Hall crashed out of the 100m hurdles event of the heptathlon at the U.S. Olympic Trials for Tokyo, which led to a foot injury that required surgery, forcing her to miss the Games. In Paris, Hall has the chance to join Jackie Joyner-Kersee as the only American woman to win Olympic gold in the heptathlon.
9. Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (Kingston, Jamaica) – Track & Field
Track star Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce is expected to appear in her fifth Olympic games in Paris. She made history in Beijing in 2008 as the first woman from the Caribbean to win gold in the 100m. Throughout her Olympic journey, Fraser-Pryce became the first 100-meter sprinter to win individual medals in four consecutive Olympic games and has won eight medals total on the Olympic stage. Paris is expected to be her final run at the Olympics before she retires from the sport that she has dominated for so long.
10. Faith Kipyegon (Bomet, Kenya) – Track & Field
Faith Kipyegon first turned heads when she pulled off a major upset against Ethiopia’s Genzebe Dibaba to win 1500m gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Since then, she has established herself as the best 1500m runner in the world and she is the current world record holder in both the 1500m and mile, as well as the former world record holder in the 5000m. In pursuit of more history, Kipyegon has said that she hopes to become the first Kenyan athlete to earn Olympic gold in three consecutive Games when she competes in Paris this summer.
11. Katie Ledecky (Bethesda, Maryland) – Swimming
History’s greatest female distance swimmer will look to continue her dominance at her fourth Olympics in Paris. Katie Ledecky enters Paris a gold medal favorite in multiple events, including the 800m and 1500m freestyle. The Bethesda, Maryland native needs just three more gold medals to bring her total up to 10 on the Olympic stage. With 10 career Olympic gold medals, Ledecky would be second all-time in any sport only to Michael Phelps. Winning three more medals of any color would make her the most decorated U.S. woman in Olympic history.
12. Ariarne Titmus (Launceston, Tasmania, Australia) - Swimming
Ariarne Titmus is one of Ledecky’s fiercest challengers. She is the defending Olympic champion in the 200m free and 400m free, and set a new world record in the 400m freestyle at the 2023 World Championships. Titmus and Ledecky are expected to go head-to-head once again on the Paris stage.
13. Summer McIntosh (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) – Swimming
At just 17 years old, Summer McIntosh has quickly taken the swimming world by storm. As the daughter of former Canadian Olympic team swimmer Jill Horstead, McIntosh has certainly followed in her mother’s footsteps. She is a four-time world champion and currently holds the word record in the women’s 400m individual medley. Be prepared for her to contend for multiple gold medals and be competitive against Ledecky and Titmus, especially in the 400m free.
14. Kate Douglass (Pelham, New York) – Swimming
Kate Douglass was a force to be reckoned with at the collegiate level, graduating from the University of Virginia in 2023 with 15 NCAA titles. Douglass made her Olympic debut in Tokyo, winning bronze in the 200m IM. She is now the favorite in that event and is expected to be competitive in other races in Paris, including the 100m freestyle and 200m breaststroke. Douglass is a part of a deep contingent of UVA swimmers who made an impact in Tokyo and likely will again in Paris.
15. Coco Gauff (Delray Beach, Florida) – Tennis
Coco Gauff is the first U.S. tennis player to secure an Olympic spot this year and she has big plans for Paris. Gauff made the Olympic team for Tokyo in 2021 but had to withdraw after testing positive for COVID-19, so the tennis phenom would be making her Olympic debut this summer. Gauff won her first Grand Slam singles title at the U.S. Open in September 2023, and she has said that she wants to complete in singles, doubles and mixed doubles at the Paris Games.
16. Jennifer Lozano (Laredo, Texas) - Boxing
Jennifer Lozano is Mexican American, and her nickname is La Traviesa – The Troublemaker. The nickname comes from her grandmother, who died in 2019 after violence broke out close to her home in Mexico. Lozano says she aims to honor her grandmother by making trouble for her opponents in the ring. She reached the semifinals at two international tournaments in 2023 and qualified for Paris by reaching the final bout at the 2023 Pan American Games. She is expected to become the first Olympian from Laredo, Texas.
17. U.S. Women’s Golf
The U.S. is likely to qualify the maximum four athletes at the 2024 Paris Olympics, and all of them could contend for medals. Lilia Vu (Fountain Valley, California), who won two majors in 2023, and defending Olympic gold medalist Nelly Korda (Bradenton, Florida) are the strongest U.S. contenders to watch, while international contenders Jin Young Ko (Seoul, South Korea), Celine Boutier (Clamart, France) and Lydia Ko (Seoul, South Korea) should all also challenge for medals.
18. U.S. Women’s Beach Volleyball: Kelly Cheng/Sara Hughes and Taryn Kloth/Kristen Nuss
Kelly Cheng (Fullerton, California) and Sara Hughes (Costa Mesa, California) mathematically secured a spot in the 2024 Paris Olympics based on their results since the start of 2023. The two reunited about 18 months ago as beach volleyball partners and they will enter Paris as the reigning world champions.
Tayrn Kloth (Sioux Falls, South Dakota) and Kristen Nuss (New Orleans, Louisiana) are expected to represent the U.S. in Paris. There is a significant size difference between the two as Kloth is 6’4”, while Nuss is 5’6”. The two have the least combined tour-level experience of any U.S. Olympic team in 24 years and they will be the first U.S. Olympic women’s beach volleyball team that doesn’t train primarily in California.
U.S. women have won four of the last five Olympic gold medals in this event, and both U.S. pairs are contenders to add another gold medal to that list in Paris.
19. U.S. Women of Surfing
Carissa Moore (Honolulu, Hawaii) will headline a strong contingent of U.S. women’s surfers competing at the 2024 Olympics. Moore is the defending Olympic champion and has announced that she will be stepping away from competitive surfing after the Games. Eyes should also be on Caroline Marks (Melbourne Beach, Florida), who in 2023 won the WSL Tour event in Tahiti and the world title, as well as teenager Caitlin Simmers (Oceanside, California), who should also be a medal contender. Athletes will compete at the legendary Teahupo’o wave in Tahiti for the surfing competition, nearly 10,000 miles from Paris.
20. Hannah Roberts (Buchanan, Michigan) – BMX freestyle
Hannah Roberts is one of BMX’s winningest riders who first began riding at just 9 years old, and then competing at age 12. Roberts won a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics and, after winning her fifth world title in 2023, Roberts is the favorite to win gold on the Paris stage.
21. Nevin Harrison (Seattle, Washington) – Canoe Sprint
Nevin Harrison was the only athlete to represent the U.S. in canoe sprint at the Tokyo Games, where she won gold. The women’s C-1 200m field remains relatively open leading up to Paris following the retirement of two-time Olympic medalist Laurence Vincent-Lapointe. Harrison did not compete much in 2023 due to injury. Depending on how she recovers, Harrison has the potential to be a gold medal contender in Paris.
22. U.S. Women’s Water Polo
The women’s water polo team looks to continue its dominance in Paris after winning gold in Tokyo, Rio and London, though an early quarterfinal exit at the 2023 World Championships has raised some concerns. If Maggie Steffens (Danville, California) remains on the roster as expected, she could become the most decorated athlete in Olympic water polo history with four consecutive wins; four straight wins by one team would also be a first in the sport’s Olympic history.
23. Lee Kiefer (Lexington, KY) – Fencing
Defending women’s Olympic foil champion Lee Kiefer is expected to contend for a medal again at the Paris Olympics after recently claiming bronze at the 2023 World Championships. She will try to defend her historic Olympic title and join Mariel Zagunis as only the third American fencer to win two gold medals.
24. Daniela Moroz (Lafayette, California) – Kite Sailing
Daniela Moroz has sailing in her blood as her parents, both immigrants from Czechoslovakia, met while wind surfing in California. Her mother finished the San Francisco Classic while pregnant with Daniela. Moroz is already a six-time world champion in the new Olympic sailing event, kite. Moroz was the first U.S. sailor to qualify for the Paris Olympics and she is the gold medal favorite in kite.
For all the latest news and updates on the road to the Paris Olympics and Paralympics, follow NBC Sports and NBC Olympics.
