Katarina Johnson-Thompson, Heptathlon, Great Britain It was at the 2012 London Olympics that British heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson, then just 19, cemented her one-to-watch status, when she made her debut in the slipstream. In the 12 years since, the Liverpudlian protégé (and best friend and former schoolmate of actor Jodie Comer) has become the master, overcoming career-threatening injuries and naysayers to take two world titles. Through it all, KJT, as fans call her, has worn her heart on her sleeve while leading a new generation of athletes for whom honesty and vulnerability are bringing new kinds of strength.
An Olympic medal is all that eludes her—as she puts it, she has “unfinished business” in Paris.— Shino Matsuda, Surfing, Japan “I started surfing when I was around six years old,” Shino Matsuda says. “I stood up on my first try.
” The rest, as they say, is history: Fourteen years later, Matsuda—who comes from Chigasaki, a coastal city some 30 miles south of Tokyo—qualified for the Paris Games after finishing the 2023 ISA World Surfing Games in El Salvador with the best score of Asia’s female competitors. What’s she most looking forward to at her maiden Olympics, which will send Matsuda and her peers out to distant (and beautiful) Teahupo’o, Tahiti? That’s an easy one. “Riding the best waves,” she says with a smile.
— Sara Balzer, Fencing, France Strasbourg-born Sara Balzer, a member of France’s silver-medal-winning women�.
