Meet The Telegraph’s Tokyo Eight in our supplement marking one year to the 2020 Games

Over the next year, The Telegraph will track the progress of our Tokyo Eight – athletes with a vast range of backgrounds and ages, but united by the dream of glory in Japan. Here, they reveal what inspired them on their sporting journey

SKY BROWN Skateboarding Age 11

I want to be in the Olympics because I want to show kids, especially girls, that they can pursue their dreams. If I’m the youngest person to have competed for Team GB in an Olympic Games, doing these crazy tricks on a skateboard, they will think they can do anything too. It doesn’t have to be skateboarding, it can be any sport they want to do.

You just need to believe you can do it, work hard and, most important, have fun while you do it. The Olympics are definitely the biggest, most important sports event of them all, so just to be part of it would be amazing and that is what I’m trying so hard to do.

I don’t know too much about the Olympic Village, but it sounds fantastic, to be with all those amazing athletes in my own apartment with my family. I will be so proud if I can do that.

And to know I am representing all of Great Britain and that there are so many people wishing me to do well is really special.

JOE TOWNSEND Paratriathlon 31

I’m a former Royal Marine and lost both my legs in an explosion in Afghanistan in 2008. Before becoming a paratriathlete I didn’t have a clue what it meant to be competing at the Olympics, even less so the Paralympics.

I didn’t have a clue of the standards or what the men and women were doing to get to that level. I didn’t even have any concept of disability. But it’s amazing when you find yourself in that situation how quickly you learn.

Getting to Rio in 2016 was a dream, a goal I’d set myself early on after my injury, before my triathlon career had taken off. I liked the idea of being surrounded by athletes who are the masters of what they do.

To see the scale of it – the sheer numbers of athletes, the infrastructure of a Paralympic Games – is pretty phenomenal and a surreal place to be.

You’re in the most inspirational and motivational place – trying to keep tabs on your excitement is pretty tough.

FRAZER CLARKE Boxing 27

The Olympics have been amazing for British boxing – success has been institutionalised by winning medals. Since 2008 the programme has gone from strength to strength and I’ve seen some unbelievable fighters come through those doors – Nicola Adams, Anthony Joshua, Luke Campbell, Anthony Ogogo, people like that. And there are a lot of great fighters who didn’t even medal.

To go to Tokyo with the squad we’ve got is exciting. I’ve been with three different squads and I’d say this one is the best.

Going to the Games is big in terms of responsibility. If we don’t do well, the next group won’t get the funding. I thank Joshua Buatsi, Joe Joyce and Nicola Adams, who got the medals in Rio. Without them we’d be nowhere.

We’ve been to Australia and all the training camps. We’ve had all the funding. We have the best people, the best sparring, the best doctors. Now it’s down to us.

MORGAN LAKE High jump 22

My first memory of the Olympics was as a seven-year-old watching Kelly Holmes winning the 800m and 1500m double in Athens. That was when I decided I wanted to be an Olympian. Seeing her win and what it meant to everyone, it just felt like such a big deal.

Actually even before that, pretty much from the moment I was born, my dad was like: “Morgan will be an Olympian.” He was proved right in Rio, and what an experience that was. Even just the kitting out was probably one of the best days of my life. Receiving the briefings, seeing the rings, all the freebies – it was all so exciting.

Once there, everything lived up to expectations. We had bikes to go around the Olympic Village, Nike had a big house about half an hour away, and there was a massive golf course.

Tokyo will be incredible and I definitely want to be a part of it. Because I want it so badly, it’s always on my mind. It’s the pinnacle for any athlete.

ETHAN HAYTER Cycling 20

The Olympics is the pinnacle of sport for most people. But for me it still feels weird talking about the possibility of Tokyo because it’s only in the last 12 months or so that I’ve broken through and now I’ve got an opportunity to go and win medals.

There’s a film of me on holiday when I was around five and I’m having fun running around the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, which was used during the early Olympics. But I also clearly remember Beijing 2008, watching on TV with my grandad and seeing the British cyclists doing well. I got into cycling late but started doing well as a junior and when I got on to the British programme I realised I could be working towards the Olympics.

This is my first Olympic cycle but you can definitely notice changes now. It’s not that the pressure is building but everyone is getting more focused. We’ve got a plan for the next 12 months – that’s exciting, but also daunting.

ALICE TAI Paraswimming 20

It was actually my babysitter’s parents who suggested me and my brother join a swimming club at the age of 10 or 11. And then a couple of years later I was racing, and it snowballed and I ended up in Rio at 17.

Looking back, I was in awe all trip, and the medals were just a bonus. It was quite overwhelming – nothing can prepare you for it.

I remember in school, in year five maybe, Darren Campbell came in and he had won Olympic gold in the relay in athletics. I was going crazy, saying: “He’s so cool, he’s got an Olympic medal.” Now, having the ability to go back to schools – even my old junior school – and to be able to say I was sat in that hall at their age, that some of their teachers literally taught me, it makes it relatable.

After competitions I get messages from random people saying they’ve watched me swim, that I inspired their son or daughter. If even one of those kids acts to me like I did to Campbell, that’s crazy.

SHAUNA COXSEY Climbing 26

A year to go – what a thought. The thing is, I’m trying not to think about it too much. My focus is on qualification because if I don’t qualify there’s no Olympics.

This will be the first time climbing has featured on the Olympic programme. I’ve noticed our sport has been growing for a while, with more and more people participating. The hope is the Olympics is going to have a big impact.

But I have to get there first. There will only be 20 spaces available for women and 20 for men. Two is the maximum number of competitors per country. So it is going to be the most difficult selection process.

The top seven will qualify from a competition which will be held in August, then six more in November, the rest next year. My aim is to have done it by November. But it is a brutal format, a combined event tagged on to the end of our individual world championship.

Still, it’s the same for everybody. And the prize of getting to Tokyo will be more than worth the pain.

NILE WILSON Gymnastics 23

I started gymnastics when I was four. I would climb on everything and had loads of energy, but I was clumsy and used to crack my head open all the time. So my parents got me into the sport to teach me how to stay on my feet. As a kid, all I thought about was gymnastics and all I did was gymnastics. I remember watching Alexei Nemov’s high-bar routine in Athens and thinking: “Wow, that’s what I want to do.”

I started doing Youtube videos of my gymnastics when I was 10 or 11 with just a backflip on the trampoline. I documented my journey to Rio and got a buzz from inspiring people to get active and it has just snowballed. Today I have got 1.2 million subscribers.

This year I underwent spinal surgery. It was daunting and could have ended my career. I experienced some dark times and it put things in huge perspective. Now there is light at the end of the tunnel and training is going brilliantly.