The Devon athletes at the Paris Olympics
The event in France takes place from 26 July - 11 August
Last updated 26th Jul 2024
The Paris Olympics officially get underway from today and a number of athletes from Devon will be hoping to bring home a Gold medal from the games.
The event in France is scheduled to take place from 26 July - 11 August, with Plymouth's Tom Daley and Cornwall's Helen Glover leading Team GB out at the opening ceremony tonight.
Paris has already previously hosted the Summer Olympics, back in 1900 and 1924.
The Devon athletes taking part in the Paris Olympics
Tom Daley (Plymouth) - Diving
Having made his Olympic debut aged 14, Tom Daley had to wait till his fourth Games in Tokyo to get his hands on a gold medal.
Daley became Great Britainâs second youngest male Olympian in Beijing 2008, having become the youngest person to win gold at the European Championships earlier that year.
The Plymouth diver has since won a combined total of 11 World, Commonwealth and European Championship gold medals, establishing himself as one of the finest in the world.
Daley is the first Team GB diver to win four Olympic medals, having won gold in Tokyo 2020 in the 10m synchro with Matty Lee, and his third bronze medal in the 10m platform.
Previously, Daley won bronze at London 2012 in the individual discipline before adding another in the synchro with Dan Goodfellow at Rio 2016.
Daley teamed up with Goodfellow again to win gold in the same event at the Commonwealth Games in 2018 before taking a break from competing for the rest of the year.
But there can be no greater success than finally clinching that elusive gold medal, with victory in the men's 10m synchro in Tokyo, as well as making British diving history with his record-breaking four Olympic medals. He was made an OBE in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to diving, LGBTQ+ rights and charity.
In July 2023, Daley announced his plans to return to the sport and pursue Paris 2024. He qualified for the Games and was announced as a flagbearer for the opening ceremony.
Kerenza Bryson (Plymouth) - Modern Pentathlon
Kerenza Brysonâs love for pressure situations should make her ideally suited to the challenge at Paris 2024.
After the Games, Bryson will go to work in an NHS accident and emergency ward after she qualified as a doctor last year at the University of Plymouth. She has also trained as a Maritime Troop Commander Reserve Officer at Sandhurst.
It was after meeting Plymouthâs hometown hero and Beijing silver medallist Heather Fell in year 7 that competing at the Olympics became a bucket list ambition for Bryson.
She won World Championship silver in Bath in 2023 to earn Team GB a quota place and took World Cup gold in Ankara in April to round into the Games in fine form.
Jacob Dawson (Plymouth) - Rowing
Jacob Dawson will represent Team GB at Paris 2024 for his second Olympic Games, just two years after suffering a life-threatening pulmonary embolism (blood clot on the lung).
Caused by complications from Covid, the pulmonary embolism threatened to take everything away from Dawson, but after a round of blood thinners and three weeks of bed rest, the Plymouth man made a full recovery.
He had previously represented his country with honour at Tokyo 2020 and taking home bronze in the men's eight during those delayed Games.
Renowned within the camp for his DIY skills, the GB Rowing Team 'handyman' harbours ambitions of setting up a tree surgery business when his career comes to a close but not before adding a gold medal to what has been a successful career with Team GB thus far.
Ben Proud (Plymouth) - Swimming
Ben Proud responded to disappointment in Tokyo by becoming the fastest man in the world.
Proud narrowly missed out on a medal in the 50m freestyle at the 2020 Games but was world champion in swimmingâs ultimate sprint less than 12 months later and became the first man to be crowned world, European and Commonwealth champion in the same year.
It was Proudâs second world title over one length of the pool, following his 2017 butterfly triumph, but switch to freestyle has paid dividends. Proud has won two more world bronzes following his 2022 triumph.
It sets the 29-year-old up well for a tilt at the Olympic title a decade on from when he first burst onto the scene at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
In Glasgow, he won the first three of eight Commonwealth medals, including golds in the 50m freestyle and butterfly.
The London-born but Malaysia-bred swimmerâs medal haul is further bulged with an array of European medals, including 50m freestyle gold in 2023, but he heads to Paris aiming to add the missing piece to his collection
Proud knows plenty about near misses at the Games, finishing fourth at Rio and fifth in Tokyo in the 50m freestyle, but will hope to make the final step onto the podium this summer.
When he was 16, he joined Plymouth College as a swimming scholar. After finishing school, he attended Plymouth Marjon University.
Proud was coached by Jon Rudd at the Plymouth Leander Swimming Programme.
Laura Stephens (Plymouth) - Swimming
Laura Stephens broke a 13-year drought for Great Britain when she became Britainâs first female individual swimming world champion since 2011 this year.
The 200m butterfly specialist topped the podium in Doha before securing selection for a second Olympic Games.
Stephens made her Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020 at the age of 22 and narrowly missed the 200m butterfly final.
Bursting onto the scene in 2019, she put on an impressive showing at the British Swimming Championships, where she secured a silver medal in her favoured event.
Stephens, whose Olympic journey started out at Colchester Swimming Club, then went on to deliver an eighth-place finish in Gwangju at the 2019 World Championships.
In 2020, she helped Britain secure a stunning 4x100m medley relay gold at the European Aquatics Championships. The Loughborough-based swimmer earned her first individual senior medal on the international stage at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, claiming a silver in the women's 200m butterfly.
Stephens studied at Plymouth College and was also part of Plymouth Leander Swimming Programme.
Honey Osrin (Plymouth) - Swimming
Honey Osrin booked her place in Paris with a stunning swim at the 2024 Aquatics GB Swimming Championships.
The 21-year-old stormed to womenâs 200m backstroke gold - her first senior national title - with the Loughborough University criminology student now set for her Olympic debut this summer.
Osrin showed her potential in the pool from an early age, winning two European junior medals in 2019 and has since made the step-up to senior level with aplomb.
The South African-born swimmer swapped Cape Town for Plymouth aged 13 in order to further her career, and has gone from strength to strength ever since.
Chloe Brew (Plymouth) - Rowing
Chloe Brewâs father, Paul, swam for Team GB at Seoul 1988.
Chloe is now a two-time Olympian in rowing, having been part of the GB senior set-up since 2018.
The Devonian made her Games debut in the womenâs eight at Tokyo 2020 and will combine with Rebecca Edwards in the womenâs pair at Paris 2024.
Ben Lane (Exmouth) - Badminton
Ben Lane will carry on his family legacy and return to the Olympic scene for his second Games at Paris 2024.
Born in Kingston-upon-Thames and brought up in Exmouth, Devon, Lane started playing badminton at the age of two after being inspired by his mother, Suzanne Louis-Lane, who was a double national champion in the sport.
He made the England team by the age of nine and excelled as a junior before representing England at the Commonwealth Games in 2018, winning the mixed team bronze.
Lane has been playing doubles with Sean Vendy for a decade and the pair broke through in 2021, becoming the first English male pair to reach the last four at the World Tour Finals in Thailand in January and taking the Orleans Masters title in March.
Lane and Vendy went out in the group stage at Tokyo 2020 but gained valuable experience at their first Games.
Their progress has continued with medals at European and Commonwealth level and a landmark Swiss Open victory in March, their first tournament triumph in the upper echelons of the BWF World Tour.
Abigail Martin (Paignton) - Gymnastics Artistic
Artistic gymnast Abi Martin wonât have received her GCSE results by the time she takes to the mat in Paris.
Despite only recently becoming age-eligible for senior competition, she already boasts a silver medal from the 2024 European Championships in Rimini.
Born and raised in Paignton, sheâs sure to be the talk of the town as she becomes the latest British prodigy to burst onto the Olympic scene this summer.
Ollie Payne (Totnes) - Hockey
Prodigiously talented hockey goalkeeper Ollie Payne continues between the sticks for Team GB at Paris 2024.
Payne enjoyed a steep rise to the pinnacle of his sport, making his Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020 less than a year after earning his first international cap.
Originally from Totnes in Devon and also a keen cricketer, Payne had big shoes to fill in taking the reins from George Pinner, the 195-cap veteran.
Since Tokyo, he has continued to progress and grow into a leadership role, helping England reach the final of the 2023 EuroHockey Championships and qualify for Paris.
Giselle Ansley (Kingsbridge) - Hockey
Giselle Ansley was part of the history-making team at Rio 2016 that collected Team GBâs first-ever Olympic gold medal in womenâs hockey.
Five years later at Tokyo 2020, Ansley helped the GB women take bronze with a 4-3 victory over India.
The talented defender has also collected three Commonwealth Games and three European Championship medals on her journey to the top of British hockey.
Away from the hockey pitch, she is a talented cricketer, loves to kayak and also runs her own baking business.
Back for a third taste of Olympic action this summer, Ansley will be looking to add more medals to her collection at Paris 2024.