Here’s a look at some of the most anticipated first-timers starting July 24, when Olympic action begins.
VICTOR WEMBANYAMA
The 7-foot-4 prodigal son of French basketball is back on the big stage, now as the Rookie of the Year. NBA.
Wembanyama left the host city of the Olympic Games last June after being selected first overall in the draft by the San Antonio Spurs.
His towering potential was on display during a standout season, even with the Spurs going 22-60. He averaged 21.4 points and 10.6 rebounds, while leading the league with 3.6 blocks per game.
Wembanyama’s last competitive match in France was a defeat for his club, Metropolitans 92, which completed a sweep of the domestic playoffs.
The next one is due to be on July 27, when France opens its group stage at the Games with three matches in Lille, about 230 kilometers (140 miles) from Paris. Wembanyama and Co. will face Brazil, which just sealed its Olympic ticket. France also faces Japan and world champion Germany.
Paris awaits Wemby’s return to the capital on August 6 for the quarter-finals.
The US team is packed with NBA stars who have been idols for 10 or more seasons. Led by LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant, it also features up-and-coming stars such as Anthony Edwards.
SUNNY CHOI
At 35, Choi and breakdancing will make their Olympic debut this summer.
It was an unusual route to Paris for the first-time Olympian, who will face rivals less than half her age in the Place de la Concorde on Aug. 9, the final Friday of the Games.
An Ivy League graduate, Choi left an executive position in New York at global cosmetics firm Estée Lauder to focus full-time on her dancing as the Paris Games approached.
As a B-Girl, Sunny, born and raised in Kentucky, qualified by winning the Pan American Games last year.
The 16-dancer female lineup in Paris will include Dominika Banevi of Lithuania, who was 16 in 2023 when she became world champion.
It could be Choi’s only chance at the Olympics. Organizers of the 2028 Los Angeles Games have removed the sport from the program.
SHA’CARRI RICHARDSON
Richardson’s tour to prove she’s not just back but better now will stop in Paris, and the reigning 100m world champion has big plans for her first time at the Olympics.
Richardson looked set to be one of the breakout stars of the Tokyo Games, but her 100m victory at the 2021 U.S. track trials came to nothing after testing positive for a chemical found in marijuana. She admitted on television that she used marijuana as a way of coping with the recent death of her mother.
Richardson, 24, won the 100m at the trials again this year, clocking 10.71 seconds. She enters what is sure to be one of the biggest events in Paris.
THANK YOU
The men’s junior world record for the 100 metres is held by another young athletics star from the 2023 World Championships, Letsile Tebogo of Botswana.
Tebogo, who will turn 21 in Paris, was too young for the Tokyo Olympics after winning his first world junior title earlier that month.
She set a junior record of 9.94 seconds when she first ran at the senior worlds in Eugene, Oregon, in July 2022. She then lowered her time to 9.91 to retain her junior title.
At the 2023 world championships, Tebogo has his sights set on two-time individual sprint champion Noah Lyles. He stopped the clock at 9.88 for silver in the 100m and took bronze in the 200m.
There was something equally impressive, weeks earlier in London. Tebogo set a time of 19.50 in the 200 meters. Lyles was almost 22 years old in 2019, when he first ran 19.50.
A rivalry between Lyles and Tebogo could flare up in Paris, beyond the Stade de France court.
THE WORLD OF ABU TALEB
Donya Abu Taleb is representing Saudi Arabia at the Olympics. She earned her spot in the taekwondo competition in Paris after winning her semi-final bout at an Asian qualifying event in March.
Saudi Arabia had never sent female athletes to the Olympics before Wojdan Ali, Seraj Abdulrahim Shahrkhani and Sarah Attar went to London 2012. Shahrkhani competed in judo and Attar ran the 800 metres in athletics.
Abu Taleb, 27, took bronze at the 2022 world championships and is a legitimate medal contender in the 49kg category. She was ranked 12th in June.
Originally from the coastal city of Jeddah, she grew up training with boys and competes in a hijab.
The event, with 16 athletes registered, is scheduled for August 7 at the elegant Grand Palais.
Source: AP
