The global superstars you must set an alarm for…

SIMONE BILES (Gymnastics)

Events: Women’s team, all-round, vault, floor, vault, beam, uneven bars First event: Women’s team qualifying — Sunday from 2am.

The greatest gymnast of all-time already has four Olympic gold medals to her name from Rio and won gold in five of the six events in which she competed at the most recent World Championships, in 2019. Should Biles (below)

repeat that tally, she would match Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina as the most successful female Olympian of all-time, with nine career golds.

ARMAND DUPLANTIS (Athletics) Event: Men’s pole vault

First event: Men’s pole vault qualifying — July 31 from 1.40am

With Usain Bolt having left the building, there are a host of athletes who could fill the mantle as the track and field star of the Games. ‘Mondo’ is at the front of the queue. Just 21, the US-born Swede had to settle for silver at the World Championships in 2019 but has dominated the pole vault since.

CAELEB DRESSEL (Swimming) Events: Men’s 50m freestyle, 100m freestyle, 100m butterfly, Men’s 4x100m freestyle relay, Men’s 4x100m medley relay, Mixed 4x100m medley relay, Men’s 4x200m freestyle relay

First event: Men’s 4x100m freestyle relay heats — July 25 from 12.30pm Just as these are athletics’ first post-Bolt Olympics, so they are swimming’s first since Michael Phelps retired.

At one stage it looked as if Dressel might try to emulate his countryman’s record-breaking eight gold medals from Beijing 2008 but in the end the sprint star has decided to target ‘only’ six or seven events. The 24-year-old won two relay golds in Rio but has claimed 13 world titles since and looks set to emerge as one of the stars of the Games in his own right.

ARIARNE TITMUS (Swimming) Events: Women’s 200m freestyle, 400m freestyle, 800m freestyle, Women’s 4x200m freestyle relay

First event: Women’s 400m freestyle heats — July 25 from 12.05pm. America’s Katie Ledecky has never lost an individual event at the Olympic Games, but she faces perhaps the biggest fight of her career to maintain that record against Australia’s new swimming sensation, who recorded the second-fastest times in history in both the 200m and 400m freestyle at her country’s trials earlier this year. While Ledecky is expected to dominate the longer distances, Titmus beat the American by more than a second over 400m at the 2019 World

Championships.

TEDDY RINER (Judo) Events: Men’s +100kg, mixed team

First event: Men’s +100kg Elimination round of 32 —

July 30 from 3am

In the country that invented Judo, one of sport’s most dominant figures is certain to be a star attraction. The Frenchman has won 10 world titles since his first in 2007, as well as Olympic golds in London and Rio, and defeat to Japan’s Kokoro Kageura in 2020 brought to an end a 154fight unbeaten run.