Olympic Games: Eight Welsh athletes to watch as Paris 2024 countdown continues

Emma Finucane won gold in the women's elite sprint final race at last summer's World Championships in Glasgow

Just two and a half years after the Tokyo Games, the countdown is on to the next Olympics and Paralympics in Paris.

The postponed event in Tokyo has led to a shorter wait for the next Games, as it returns to Europe for the first time since London 2012 later this year.

In 2021, 11 Welsh athletes came home from the Olympic Games with medals.

With 200 days to go to the Paris Olympics, BBC Sport Wales looks at eight Welsh competitors to watch this summer.

Matt Richards

Matt Richards will aim to win gold at a second successive Olympic Games

The swimmer made history in Tokyo as the then 18-year-old - alongside fellow Welshman Calum Jarvis - helped Great Britain to gold in the men's 4x200m freestyle relay.

They became the first Olympic swimming champions from Wales since Irene Steer's women's 4x100m freestyle relay gold in 1912.

Jarvis retired after the Tokyo Games, but Matt Richards has gone from strength to strength. Last year he won the men's 200m freestyle world title, ahead of Olympic champion Tom Dean.

Now 21, Richards is ready to make his mark at an Olympics again - this time on an individual level too.

Emma Finucane

Track cyclist Emma Finucane enjoyed a breakthrough year in 2023. After starting the year with four national titles, the then 20-year-old from Carmarthen went on to win medals at the European Championships before taking her first world title in August.

In doing so she became Britain's first women's sprint world champion since Becky James in 2013. James went on to win two medals at the next Olympics and Paris is high on the agenda for Finucane now.

The recently crowned BBC Cymru Wales Sports Personality of the Year is hoping to compete in three events - women's sprint, team sprint and keirin - and she would be among the favourites for gold in each.

Josh Tarling

Josh Tarling celebrates after winning the second stage of the Renewi cycling tour last August

We knew the teenage Tarling was a talent. But few could have predicted the success he would have in his first season on the World Tour.

The 19-year-old is already one of the world's best time trialists. He won the British and European titles and took bronze at the World Championships in Glasgow. Only cycling royalty Remco Evenepoel and Filippo Ganna finished ahead of him.

This year the Aberaeron athlete will be dreaming of even more success in both his team colours of INEOS and the red, white and blue of Great Britain.

Jeremiah Azu

Jeremiah Azu twice broke the Welsh 100m record at the 2023 U23 European Championships

This 22-year-old from Cardiff is Wales' fastest man of all time.

Azu broke Christian Malcolm's iconic men's 100m record in 2023. He ran 10.04 on his way to winning gold at the U23 European Championships, a title he also won in 2021.

Yet having taken the UK men's 100m title the previous year, Azu will have been disappointed to have only managed fourth in 2023 - and miss out on the individual event at the World Championships.

But he has proved himself to be one of Britain's best and will be hopeful of running in Paris this summer, both in the men's 4x100m relay and the individual event.

Jade Jones

Jade Jones suffered a shock defeat against Kimia Alizadeh at the last Olympics

Before Tokyo, Jade Jones could do no wrong at the Olympic Games.

She had won Britain's first taekwondo gold as a teenager at London 2012 and defended her women's -57kg title at Rio 2016.

All the talk before Tokyo was her going for an historic third, but she was stopped in her tracks with a shock opening-round defeat by Refugee Team competitor Kimia Alizadeh.

Jones has since moved to Croatia to work under a new coach and won five major titles in 2023 to secure a quota spot for Paris.

The dream of a third Olympic gold lives on.

Michael Beckett

Michael Beckett is heading for his first Olympic Games

The Solva sailor was the first Welsh athlete to be officially selected for the Paris Olympics.

The 28-year-old has established himself as one of the world's top ILCA 7 sailors after a European title in 2021 and world silver in 2023. He also has twice won the renowned Trofeo Princesa Sofia regatta.

After failing to qualify for Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, it will be third time lucky for Beckett in Marseille and aims to not only make up the numbers.

Anna Hursey

Anna Hursey (R) and Charlotte Carey celebrate winning bronze at the 2022 Commonwealth Games

Hursey made global headlines in 2018 when she was selected by Team Wales for the Commonwealth Games aged just 11.

In 2022 she won bronze at her second Commonwealths, in the women's doubles alongside Charlotte Carey.

Hursey is still only 17, but continues to climb the senior world rankings and has broken into the world's top 100.

Paris is now a realistic target and, given she is still so young, Hursey has 200 days to get even better.

Rosie Eccles

Rosie Eccles won gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games

Trying to qualify for Tokyo 2020 proved an agonising experience for the Caldicot boxer. A mysterious virus caused nerve damage in her arm and left her fearing for her career.

She lost her opening bout of the Olympic qualifiers and the Covid pandemic put an end to any second chances.

It took months to return to full fitness, but when she got there, Eccles came back with a bang by winning gold for Wales at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

She secured her spot in Paris at the earliest opportunity and will now aim to follow in the footsteps of compatriot Lauren Price, after her historic Olympic title in Tokyo.