83
Eliud Kipchoge
MARATHON, KENYA
“Personally, I don’t believe in limits,” Eliud
Kipchoge, the Kenyan marathoner, once said.
As the only person in history to run the mara-
thon’s 26.2 miles in under two hours, why should
he? That 2019 feat in Vienna might not count
as an offi cial world record, as Kipchoge did
not run in race conditions. The event
was engineered for maximum speed:
the course was fl at, and a team of
pacesetters surrounded Kipchoge
to reduce drag. But Kipchoge does
hold the world record: he ran it in
2 hr. 1 min. 39 sec. in Berlin
in 2018. In April, he won his
fi nal marathon—in a Neth-
erlands airport—before
the Olympics, where
Kipchoge will defend
the gold he won in Rio.
The smart money is
on him to do it. —S.G.
Shi TingmaoDIVING, CHINA
Shi Tingmao has won
so often in springboard
diving that Chinese state
media has nicknamed
her “the ever victorious
general.” Indeed,
she’s won all but fi ve
major international
competitions in the event
since 2015, including two
gold medals at the 2016
Rio Games. Shi started
in gymnastics as a young
girl and didn’t join China’s
national diving team until
she was 21. Tokyo will be
Shi’s second Olympics
but likely her last, and she
is determined to end on
a high note. “Persevere,
self-discipline, focus,
fi nal sprint, come
on!” Shi wrote on the
Twitter-like social media
platform Weibo ahead of
the Games. Those are
words in line with her
name, Tingmao, which
translates to “working
hard for the country.”
Shi looks likely to
continue her domination
and help maintain China’s
Olympic winning streak
in individual women’s
springboard diving, which
stretches back to 1988.
—Aria ChenSaurabh
ChaudharySHOOTING, INDIA
Marksman Saurabh Chaudhary, 19,
is one of India’s best shots at gold in
Tokyo. Having only taken up shooting
in 2015, he has accumulated an im-
pressive haul of medals: 14 gold and
six silver in international competitions.
In 2018, he became India’s youngest
gold medalist at the Asian Games.
A year later, Chaudhary set a new ju-
nior and senior world record in the
10-m air-pistol category at the Inter-
national Shooting Sport Federation
World Cup, securing his spot on India’s
15-member shooting team in Tokyo.
There, he’ll also pair with Manu Bhaker
to form a top contender in the mixed
team competition. “He’s extremely fo-
cused,” teammate Apurvi Chandela
said. “I see great things happening for
him in the future.” —Madeline RoacheSky Brown
SKATEBOARDING, BRITAIN
Sky Brown has already earned a Nike contract, appeared
on Dancing With the Stars: Juniors, recorded a pop song
and has a Barbie doll in her likeness—and she only
turned 13 on July 7. Brown, whose father is from the
U.K. and whose mother is from Japan, will compete for
Team Britain in park skateboarding in Tokyo, thanks to
a precocious arsenal of moves including a 720—two full
rotations in the air. Her skills have inspired female skat-
ers of all ages. “She’s hella cool,” says Jocelyn Writer, 18,
who skates in Venice, Calif., where Brown sometimes
trains. “To see a little girl be better than, like, half the
guy skaters out there, it’s very empowering.” The Games
come just over a year since Brown suffered skull frac-
tures and broke her left wrist and hand in a horrifying fall
while skating. “It’s O.K. to fall sometimes,” she said in a
YouTube message from her hospital bed. “I’m just going
to get back up and push even harder.” ÑS.G.
Noah
LylesTRACK AND FIELD, U.S.
Noah Lyles has run the four fastest
200-m times in the world since 2016,
but you wouldn’t have known it at the
start of the Olympic trials in June.
After the 23-year-old from Florida
failed to win his heat or the semifi nals,
some wondered about his form—and
whether the hype that he could be the
next Usain Bolt was overblown. But in
the fi nal, he roared to the head of the
pack to make his fi rst Olympic team
and establish himself as the favorite to
win gold in the 200 m—something no
U.S. man has done since 2004. Lyles
has been open about his struggles with
mental health and the pressures of
competition. Last summer, he shared
that he had started antidepressant
medication and called it “one of
the best decisions I have made in a
while.” Going into Tokyo, he says he’s
found clarity. “I don’t have anything to
prove,” Lyles says. “When I put the
race together, y’all are going to be
in trouble.” —S.G.