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15 Female Athletes To Watch Out For At The Tokyo Olympics
From a 13-year-old skateboarder to a rower who has come out of retirement
After a long road, the 2021 2020 Olympics are finally underway.
The opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics took place on Friday, 23 July with a much more pared back ceremony than in previous decades, acknowledging the Coronavirus pandemic that has changed the world over the past two years, delayed the Olympics by a year and has meant that thousands of tourists and crowds are unable to attend.
Despite how different the games may look in the era of Covid-19, one thing that won't change is the talent on display. While the world went into lockdowns and the Olympics were put to the back of many people's minds, this wasn't the case for the athletes who have had representing their country as their main goal ever since the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Among the cohort of athletes who have made the journey to Tokyo are some incredible female Olympians who are breaking boundaries, making history and expected to smash records at this year's Olympics. In fact, the 2020 Olympics are the first where Team GB has had more female athletes representing them than male ones, with 200 females and 175 males signed up to represent the country.
You might be familiar with some, and less familiar with others. Here are the women we'll be watching take part in the most important competition of their life:
Jade Jones
Country: GB
Sport: Taekwondo
Jones is already a double Olympian having won gold at both London (where she became Britain's first ever athlete to win gold for the sport) and Rio. With Tokyo, she's attempting to make history by securing a third gold medal, which has never been done before by a takewondo athlete.
Allyson Felix
Country: USA
Sport: 4oom sprint and 4x400m relay.
The five-time Olympian first won an Olympic medal in 2004 (silver), won gold in London in 2012 and so far holds nine medals in total from sprints and relays.
If Felix gets any two medals at the Tokyo games, she will become the most decorated US athlete - male or female - in track and field history.
It's also Felix's first Olympics since she became a mother, to daughter Camryn, in 2018.
Letesenbet Gidey
Country: Ethiopia
Sport: 5,000m and 10,000m
Earlier this year, Gidey broke the world record for the 10,000m two days after it had been set by fellow competitor Sifan Hassan. She is also the first woman to have held both world records for 5,000m and 10,000m since the early 1990s, according to the Guardian.
Helen Glover
Country: GB
Sport: Rowing
Having won the womens coxless pair rowing Olympics event in both 2012 and 2016, Glover retired and had three children, a boy and then twins (a boy and girl). However, when the Olympics were postponed due to Coronavirus, she resumed training, came out of retirement and later qualified for the Olympics at 35.
Dina Asher-Smith
Country: GB
Sport: 100m and 200m sprints and 4x100m relay
One of the closest races to watch this competition will be when Asher-Smith takes to the track against sprint heavyweights like Shelly-Ann Fraser-Price.
Since 2016 - when Asher-Smith won a bronze medal with the women's relay team - she has become the fastest woman in British history, setting national records in the 100m and 200m. At the 2019 World Championships in Doha, Asher-Smith took gold in the 200m and silver in the 100m.
Naomi Osaka
Country: Japan
Sport: Tennis
Raised in the US to a Japanese mother (she was also born in Japan) and a Haitian father, Osaka is representing her birth country in this year's games and is one of the faces of the Olympics too.
Currently ranked world number two (behind Australian Ashleigh Barty) this will be Osaka's first Olympics, but it's worth noting that she currently has four grand slam titles to her name, beating off tennis greats like Serena Williams in the process.
Katerina Johnson-Thompson
Country: GB
Sport: Heptathlon
This will be the third Olympics for Liverpool-born Team GB athlete Johnson-Thompson, aka KJT. Two years ago, in Doha, the athlete won gold for the heptathlon and surpassed the previous record previously held by London 2012 gold medallist Jessica Ennis.
Ramla Ali
Country: Somalia
Sport: Boxing
Somali-born, London-raised Ali is competing for her country of Somalia at Tokyo and carried the flag at the opening ceremony. Ali had to set up a boxing federation for the east African country to ensure she could compete for them.
Laura Kenny
Country: GB
Sport: Cycling
Already Team GB's most decorated female Olympian (and married to the most decorated male, Jason Kenny, who ties with Sir Chris Hoy for that honour), Kenny is hoping to increase her medal count in Tokyo.
Alice Dearing
Country: GB
Sport: Swimming
The 10km open water swimmer has already made history upon qualifying for the Olympic games, becoming the first Black swimmer to represent Team GB at the Olympics. A former world junior champion, the 24-year-old is also the founder of the UK's Black Swimming Association.
Seonaid McIntosh
Country: GB
Sport: Shooting
All eyes will be on McIntosh this weekend as she competes in one of the first Olympic events of shooting. As the Guardian points out, she's already GB's best female shooter ever and will be going for gold in Tokyo.
Rikako Ikee
Country: Japan
Sport: Swimming
The athlete was on her path to the 2020 Olympics when she found out the devastating news that she had been diagnosed with Leukaemia in 2018. Three years later, and after long periods of hospitalisations, she is representing her country, in the city she was raised, having returned to the pool in 2020.
Laurel Hubbard
Country: New Zealand
Sport: Weightlifting
Hubbard is another athlete making history, as she becomes the first trans athlete to be selected for the Olympics following a decision from the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Simone Biles
Country: USA
Sport: Gymnastics
Biles rose to fame after competing in Rio in 2016 with her four gold medals won at the tournament. Now, she's hoping to make history by competing in five events where, if she wins them all, she will become the first American woman to win five gold medals at a Games. She would also be the first woman to earn back-to-back wins since the 1960s, according to USA Today.
Sky Brown
Country: GB
Sport: Skateboarding
Team GB's youngest athlete at the 2020 games is 13-year-old Brown, who will take part in the first ever skateboarding event at the Olympics. The star is currently ranked third in the world for the sport and won bronze at the World Championships in 2019.
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