By Pat Graham, AP Sports Writer

From Simone Biles to Sha’Carri Richardson and Diana Taurasi to Katie Ledecky, Team USA will provide some of the biggest star power at the 2024 Olympic Games.

And it will be the women leading the way as the U.S. looks to top the overall medal table for the eighth consecutive Summer Games.

FILE – Sha’Carri Richardson, of the United States, celebrates after winning the gold medal in the final of the Women’s 100-meters during the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, Aug. 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek, File)

The nearly 600 athletes going to the Paris Olympics include more than 250 returning Olympians and 122 Olympic medalists. Golfers Xander Schauffele and Nelly Korda, along with surfer Carissa Moore, are among the numerous Olympians set to defend their titles in France.

It’s a loaded U.S. roster where the women outnumber the men 314 to 278 — at last count — and ages range from 16 to 59. The most decorated member of Team USA in Paris will be Ledecky, who’s trying to add to her collection of 10 medals (seven golds).

Comebacks and redemption

Biles is back in action after pulling out of multiple gymnastics finals in Tokyo to protect her mental health and safety. There’s Richardson making her Olympic debut after a much-debated absence three years ago because of a positive marijuana test.

The 27-year-old Biles leads a U.S. women’s gymnastics team filled with familiar faces and looking for redemption in Paris. The team settled for silver three years ago behind the Russian athletes competing as the Russian Olympic Committee.

Simone Biles celebrates as she is announced as a member of the Olympic Team on Day Four of the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Gymnastics Trials at Target Center on June 30, 2024 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

Richardson has become a media sensation for her speed, charisma and perseverance. The 100-meter world champion earned a spot for Tokyo in 2021 but was banned following her positive test for marijuana. It sparked an intense debate about whether she was being unfairly singled out for taking a substance that doesn’t improve performance.

The 24-year-old Richardson, who graces the cover of Vogue magazine, said she was “overwhelmed with the emotions of just joy” after making the team.

Star power on the court

On the court, hoops royalty LeBron James and Taurasi lead their teams. And it’s no surprise that the men’s and women’s basketball squads brimming with talent are heavy favorites to bring home the gold.

United States forward LeBron James watches play from the bench during the second half of an exhibition basketball game against Canada, Wednesday, July 10, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Steve Marcus)

James, Joel Embiid, Kevin Durant and Steph Curry join forces to lead a U.S. contingent going for a fifth straight Olympic title. A’ja Wilson, Brittney Griner and Taurasi headline a women’s squad that has won seven consecutive Olympic gold medals. Taurasi has been a part of five of them.

FILE – Kevin Durant poses for a photo with his gold medal during the medal ceremony for basketball game at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Aug. 7, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

Who else is on the Team USA roster?

Decorated swimmers Ledecky and Caeleb Dressel are on deck to shine again in the pool, and majors winners and world No. 1 golfers Scottie Scheffler and Korda take to the links.

FILE – Katie Ledecky swims during a Women’s 800 freestyle preliminary heat, June 21, 2024, at the US Swimming Olympic Trials in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File)

“We’re telling these stories — we’re laughing, we’re crying, we’re cheering them on,” said Lyndsay Signor, senior vice president of consumer engagement at NBC Sports. “So that really warrants both the combination of the athletes themselves and the celebrities we’ve partnered with.”

NBC has been airing promotional Olympic material around the clock. There’s Biles being interviewed by singer SZA. Other athletes featured in spots include Richardson, sprinter Noah Lyles, 400-meter hurdles world-record holder Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Ledecky and reigning Olympic all-around gymnastics winner Suni Lee.

The U.S. women’s soccer team, led by new coach Emma Hayes, chases after its first Olympic gold since 2012 and Victor Montalvo — “B-Boy Victor” — will be a contender when breaking makes its Olympic debut in Paris. Coco Gauff is among the favorites to bring home a medal on the clay courts at Roland Garros, the site of the French Open.

Medal forecast

That abundance of star power is why Nielsen’s Gracenote forecasts the U.S. hauling in 123 medals. That’s ahead of China (87), Britain (62) and France (56). This could be the eighth straight Summer Games where the Americans have topped the medal table.

“If American athletes win, that drives ratings and endorsements, and makes it attractive for American corporations to invest in the Olympic movement,” said Dr. Yoav Dubinsky, an instructor of sports business from the Lundquist College of Business at the University of Oregon. “All part of the story of American lifestyle. Their successes, and at times failures or adversities, contribute to Brand America.”

Olympic entertainers

NBC brought in Academy Award-winning director Steven Spielberg to narrate a short film titled, “Land of Stories,” where the Olympics set a scene to tell tales.

Even more stars will participate in the network’s coverage as celebrities Snoop Dogg, Kelly Clarkson, Peyton Manning, Colin Jost, Leslie Jones and Jimmy Fallon make appearances.

Play entertainer, Snoop Dogg gets a pole vault lesson during the U.S. Track and Field Olympic Team Trials Sunday, June 23, 2024, in Eugene, Ore. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Snoop already is trotting out his tracksuits to get in some work. The 52-year-old hip-hop star ran a 200-meter race against Ato Boldon and Wallace Spearmon at the Olympic track trials in Eugene, Oregon, last month.

His time was 34.44 seconds. Usain Bolt’s world record of 19.19 remains safe.

“(Snoop) has really brought a perspective that’s not only fun and interesting,” Signor said, “it’s lovable as well.”

By Graham Dunbar, AP Sports Writer

GENEVA (AP) — The founder of the modern Olympics and former IOC president, Pierre de Coubertin, once said women competing in the Games would be “impractical, uninteresting, unaesthetic and improper.”

Over a century later, the 2024 Paris Olympic Games are targeting gender parity in the same city where women made their Olympic debut in 1900.

The IOC set a goal of a 50-50 split among the more than 11,000 men and women, including backups, registered to compete from July 26 to Aug. 11. However, the latest numbers from the IOC suggest organizers might fall just short of that target.

Slightly more medal events for men than women

There is still a slight edge toward men among the 329 medal events at the Paris Olympics. The IOC has said there are 157 men’s events, 152 women’s events and 20 mixed-gender events.

Of the 32 sports, 28 are “ fully gender equal,” the IOC said, including the new event of breaking to music. Rhythmic gymnastics is still for women only but men are allowed to compete in artistic swimming.

FILE – Faith Kipyegon, of Kenya leads 1500m Women Final, during the Kenya track and field Paris 2024 Olympics trials, at the Nyayo National Stadium Nairobi, Kenya Saturday, June 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

Mixed-gender team events were strongly pushed. In Tokyo three years ago, vivid images were created by debuts for 4×400 meters mixed relay on the track and 4×100 mixed medley relay in swimming.

“There is nothing more equal than a male and female competing as one team on the same field of play towards the same sports performance,” the IOC’s sports director, Kit McConnell, has said.

How many athletes entered to compete in Paris?

One week before the opening ceremony, the official IOC database for the Paris Olympics showed 11,215 athletes, including backups, registered to compete: 5,712 in men’s events and 5,503 in women’s events or a 51-49% split.

In track and field, which has qualifying standards the athletes much reach, there were 50 more registered for the men’s events than women’s: 1,091-1,041. In swimming, the difference was 464-393.

In soccer, with 16 teams in the men’s tournament and just 12 in the women’s, the athlete tally was 351-264. The wrestling entry has 193 men and 96 women, with a men-only category in Greco-Roman.

In equestrian, where men and women compete in the same events, entries were 154-96.

No men were registered in artistic swimming or rhythmic gymnastics, which have a total of 200 women. There’s no men’s category in rhythmic gymnastics.

Which teams have more athletes in women’s events?

As the biggest team at the Paris Olympics, the United States has the most competitors in women’s events with 338, or 53% of its 638-strong delegation, according to the IOC’s games database this week.

The 38 fewer men is partly because the U.S. qualified a squad of 19 in women’s field hockey but didn’t qualify in the men’s competition, and registered nine women in artistic swimming.

France, with invitations to compete in every team event, had 293 female athletes registered. Australia had 276, China 259 and Germany 239.

FILE – The Olympic rings are mounted on the Eiffel Tower Friday, June 7, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo//Thomas Padilla, File)

Other teams, albeit with many fewer athletes, have more women on their squads.

Guam, a U.S. island territory east of the Philippines, led the way with 87.5% women — seven in its team of eight athletes, according to the IOC database. Guam’s seven women are in six different sports. Nicaragua is set to arrive with 86% women — six of its seven athletes — and Sierra Leone with 80%.

Kosovo’s strength in women’s judo — four of its total team of nine athletes — lifts its percentage of women to 77%. North Korea, Laos and Vietnam each has 75% female athletes on their teams.

Which teams have the fewest women?

Six of the 205 official Olympic teams had no elite-level female athlete registered to compete: Belize, Guinea-Bissau, Iraq, Liechtenstein, Nauru and Somalia.

Qatar, which wants to host the 2036 Olympics, has just one woman in its 14-athlete team or 7%. Half the Qatari team represents men’s track and field, including the defending champion in high jump Mutaz Essa Barshim.

Mali and South Sudan are at 7%. Mali will send 22 male soccer players and South Sudan 12 athletes in men’s basketball.

El Salvador has one woman among eight athletes (12.5%).

Two nonbinary athletes competing

The registered entries to women’s events in Paris include two athletes who identify as nonbinary and transgender.

Nikki Hiltz won the 1,500 meters event at the U.S. track and field trials last month and will make their Olympic debut at Stade de France.

Nikki Hiltz wins the women’s 1500-meter final during the U.S. Track and Field Olympic Team Trials, Sunday, June 30, 2024, in Eugene, Ore. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Quinn won Olympic gold with the Canadian soccer team in Tokyo three years ago and returns to help defend the title.

When did women first compete in Olympics?

Paris hosted the first female athletes at the 1900 Olympics — in the second modern Games — with 22 of the 997 athletes in competition, or 2.2% of the total. The modern Olympics began in 1896 in Athens.

Women competed in tennis and golf, plus team events of sailing, croquet and equestrian in Paris.

Charlotte Cooper of Britain was the first female individual gold medalist in tennis singles.

Gender parity over the decades

Just 4.4% of the athletes were women when Paris again hosted the Olympics exactly 100 years ago. In 1924, the “Chariots of Fire” Olympics, there were 135 women competing among 3,089 athletes, according to the IOC’s research.

The number rose to 9.5% at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics, dropped to 8.4% in Berlin four years later, and got back to 9.5% when the Summer Games were held in London in 1948.

The Olympic rings are seen on the Eiffel Tower, Sunday, July 14, 2024, in Paris. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

The rise included a bump to 20.7% female athletes in Montreal in 1976 and got close to 23% when the Games returned to Los Angeles in 1984. That’s when rhythmic gymnastics and artistic swimming, then called synchronized, made their debuts.

The IOC put pressure on Olympic teams that traditionally sent only men to complete. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Brunei included women for the first time at the 2012 London Olympics. That’s where 44.2% of the athletes competed in women’s events at the Olympics. The number rose to 45% in Rio 2016 and reached 48% at the Tokyo Games, where teams were encouraged to select a man and a woman to be flag-bearers at the opening ceremony.

How did we get here?

The IOC formally committed to “foster gender quality” as part of a package of wide-ranging reforms pushed in December 2014 by the recently-elected president Thomas Bach.

The IOC’s sports department worked with the sports’ governing bodies to remove some men’s medal events and add more for women. The federations have since achieved more equity on the field of play for female athletes than for women in their own offices.

A 2020 review of the 31 sports governing bodies at the Tokyo Olympics found only one achieved 40% women on its board and 18 had female representation of 25% or less.

By GREG BEACHAM, AP Sports Writer

Boxing is already on the Olympic ropes after an epic fight between its banished governing body and the IOC. Although the sport has been a staple of Olympic programs for over a century, it could be dropped before the Los Angeles Games if big changes in governance don’t happen in the next year.

The fights are still on in Paris this month, but this Olympic tournament will look like nothing fans have seen in decades — for better in some ways, and probably for worse in others.

Twelve years after women’s boxing made its Olympic debut with just 36 fighters in three weight classes in London, the sport likely has achieved gender parity, reaching the overall Olympic movement’s goal. Give or take a few last-minute additions or dropouts, half of the 248 boxers in Paris will be women fighting in six weight classes.

FILE – Turkey’s Buse Naz Cakiroglu, right, exchanges punches with Bulgaria’s Stoyka Zhelyazkova Krasteva during their women’s flyweight 51-kg boxing gold medal match at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Saturday, Aug. 7, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan. A sport that has been a staple of Olympic programs for over a century, boxing could be dropped before the Los Angeles Games if big changes in governance don’t happen in the next year or two. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)

But this milestone was reached by sharply cutting the number of male boxers in an overall field that will be the smallest for Olympic boxing since 1956. While there will be 23 more women fighting in Paris than in Tokyo three years ago, there will also be a whopping 63 fewer men, and they’re fighting in only seven weight classes — the fewest since 1908.

In fact, Paris will have dozens fewer boxers than in every other Games in the 21st century. The 248 fighters in Paris are a shadow of the Olympic-record 432 who participated in Seoul in 1988, and it’s even down sharply from the 289 boxers who participated in Tokyo.

USA Boxing head coach Billy Walsh has been an ardent proponent of the women’s sport ever since he coached Katie Taylor of his native Ireland to a gold medal in London, and he says the addition of three women’s weight classes in Paris is “fantastic.”

FILE – USA Boxing head coach Billy Walsh takes part in drills during a media day for the team in a gym located in a converted Macy’s Department store Monday, June 7, 2021, in Colorado Springs, Colo. Walsh has been an ardent supporter of the women’s sport ever since he coached Katie Taylor of his native Ireland to a gold medal in the Olympic debut of women’s boxing in London, and he says the addition of three women’s weight classes in Paris is “fantastic.” (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)

Walsh still recognizes the drawbacks to the sport’s growth when it comes up against the IOC’s typically firm cap on total Olympic participants. It’s rare to add more athletes to a traditional Olympic sport, particularly while the IOC is adding trendy new sports to each Games.

“It is sad in a sense for the men,” said Walsh, who competed for Ireland in the Seoul Olympics in 1988. “Because when I boxed, they had 12 (men’s) weight divisions. They went down to 10, and then down to eight, and now we’re down to seven.”

In Rio de Janeiro eight years ago, 250 men had the career-defining honor of being Olympic boxers. That number has been halved just eight years later, with 124 men competing at three fewer weights than in Rio.

Men’s boxing in Paris will have its fewest weight classes since 1908 in London, where the second boxing tournament in the modern Olympics was contested at just five weights. Three years earlier in Tokyo, men’s boxing already dropped to eight weight classes for the first time since 1948.

That means there is no longer an Olympic weight class between 71 kilograms (156 pounds) and 80 kilograms (176 pounds). Professional middleweights fight at 160 pounds, and super middleweights weigh in at 168 pounds, but any fighter who couldn’t go down or up to the Olympic limits was out of luck.

FILE – Arlen Lopez, of Cuba, right, reacts after defeating Great Britain’s Benjamin Whittaker in the light heavy weight 75-81kg finals boxing match at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan. A sport that has been a staple of Olympic programs for over a century, boxing could be dropped before the Los Angeles Games if big changes in governance don’t happen in the next year or two. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)

That’s a concern to Walsh and many others around the sport. The elimination of weight classes encourages fighters to stretch the limits of their bodies to see if they can fit into a less-than-ideal weight class for qualification — and that can lead to mismatches up and down the scales.

“When we’ve narrowed down the numbers, it’s also put a big gap in the weight divisions,” Walsh said. “There’s so much gap now. There’s a reason why there are (weight classes). It’s because of the power of the punch. These guys are hurting you. There’s damage you can do. If some guy is barely making the welterweight division, he’s got 10 kilos he has to put on, and the other guy is coming down from four or five kilos above that, it’s a lot of power in the punch. It’s a combat sport, and people do get hurt, do get injured. I worry about that.”

Fewer overall fighters means smaller teams for many nations — and fewer chances to win gold, even for the traditional powers of the sport.

The U.S., which has won the most total medals and gold medals in Olympic history, qualified eight fighters for Paris under a challenging new qualification system administered by the IOC task force overseeing the tournament. The American team will have fewer fighters than Australia — which had an extraordinarily easy path to Paris under the new system — Brazil, Ireland or modern amateur boxing powers Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

Cuba, which ranks right behind the U.S. in Olympic achievements, improbably will have only five fighters in Paris after two men failed to clinch a spot during the final qualifying tournament. Cuba also has no women on its team for the fourth straight Olympics, even though the nation belatedly lifted its internal ban on the women’s sport in late 2022.

Yet the small Cuban delegation includes two-time gold medalists Arlen López and Julio César La Cruz. They’ll both try to join Hungary’s László Papp and fellow Cubans Teofilo Stevenson and Félix Savón as the only three-time Olympic boxing champions.

The smaller field will lead to a different kind of competition in Paris: Fewer bouts with higher stakes. That could be exciting, particularly when fresher fighters move into the medal rounds, which will be held at the famed Roland Garros tennis complex.

Many fighters only need to win two bouts to clinch an Olympic medal, including every man fighting at heavyweight and super heavyweight. Both of those divisions have only 16 competitors, and no weight class in Paris has more than 22 fighters.

The tournament won’t even run for the entire Olympiad: For the first time in decades, boxing competition will conclude one day before the closing ceremony.

“It’s going to be different, that’s for sure,” Walsh said. “But it will be exciting.”

By EDDIE PELLS, AP National Writer

There are big races, and then there are the Olympics.

When Sha’Carri Richardson, Noah Lyles and all the other fastest runners and best jumpers and throwers of 2024 line up for the Olympic track and field meet, little of what they’ve done on the road to Paris will mean much. What will matter is how they respond to pressure when the spotlight is on.

Will they end up shining as brightly as a Usain Bolt or Carl Lewis, whose knack for performing when Olympic gold medals were at stake turned them into larger-than-life icons?

Or will they be more like Jamaican sprinter Shericka Jackson and American hurdler Grant Holloway, among the best performers of their generation but still looking to parlay all that talent into a spot at the top of the Olympic podium?

“Right now, I do not hold a gold medal in the Olympics,” said Lyles, who counts the bronze medal he won in the 200 meters at the Tokyo Games among his biggest disappointments. “I have multiple world championships, and national championships, as well. The only one that’s missing from the list is an Olympic gold. And I’m planning on leaving with a lot of those.”

The dramas involving Richardson, Lyles and everyone else will play out in 48 events spread over 10 days, with most of the action taking place at the Stade de France, starting Aug. 2. As an added bonus, there will be a bonus: a first-of-its-kind $50,000 payout to all 48 gold medalists, courtesy of World Athletics, the organization that runs global track.

The near 2,200 athletes competing in the Olympics’ biggest sport are well aware that the money is great, but the gold medal brings an air of immortality that only an Olympic title can.

“The moment only comes once every four years,” Holloway said. “If you’re not training to be an Olympic gold medalist, then what the hell are you doing? That’s my mentality.”

Richardson’s first Olympics

Richardson makes her Olympic debut after her much-discussed absence from the last Olympics due to a positive marijuana test.

Her current form, her status as the reigning world champion, along with the absence of two-time defending champion Elaine Thompson-Herah, all make Richardson the sprinter to beat in the women’s 100. But it won’t be a gimme.

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce is heading to her fifth (and final) Olympics and has won this race twice. Jackson is a 200 specialist (see below) but also one of the fastest in the world at this distance.

FILE – Noah Lyles celebrates after winning the men’s 100-meter final during the U.S. Track and Field Olympic Team Trials Sunday, June 23, 2024, in Eugene, Ore. When Noah Lyles and all the other fastest runners and best jumpers and throwers of 2024 line up for the Olympic track and field meet, little of what they’ve done on the road to Paris will mean much. What will matter is how they respond to pressure when the spotlight is on.(AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)

Lyles tries to win the sprint double

Lyles attributes a lot of his bad finish in 2021 to depression that kept him from focusing . That race is the only 200-meter sprint he’s lost at a major championship.

By the time the 200 final comes around on Aug. 8, the 100 will be in the rearview mirror and we’ll know if Lyles has a chance to complete a sprint double, a la Bolt, and Lewis before him. Lyles is the reigning world champ at 100, but he’s less seasoned at that distance.

Just last month, another Jamaican, Kishane Thompson, ran 9.77 to head into his first Olympics with the world’s best time. Also, Jamaica’s Oblique Seville beat Lyles head-to-head at a meet in Kingston in June. But a tune-up in Kingston and the Olympics in Paris are two different animals.

Distance demons

In Tokyo, Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands pulled off one of the most amazing feat s in Olympic history by winning medals in the 1,500 (bronze), 5,000 (gold) and 10,000 meters (gold).

She’s coming back for more, and has even floated the idea that she might do those three, then add the marathon, which takes place on the last day of the Olympics, to her schedule.

“I will decide a week before,” Hassan said in a recent interview. “Maybe I’m gonna have great training somehow, somewhere.”

As always, Hassan, and her quest for medals, will face a stern challenge Faith Kipyegon of Kenya, who is the reigning world champion at 1,500 and 5,000 meters. Kipyegon broke her own world record at 1,500 in an Olympic tune-up this month, finishing in 3:49.04.

Holloway’s bad race

Holloway is a three-time world champion in the 110 hurdles, and a favorite to win on Aug. 8. He was a favorite three years ago in Tokyo too, but weakened down the stretch, and fell to Hansle Parchment of Jamaica.

Holloway is 9-3 in head-to-head matchups with Parchment, and even 2-1 against him at the Olympics. But the two victories came in preliminary rounds and that loss came with the gold medal on the line.

Jackson’s bad day

Jackson is the only woman other than the late Florence Griffith Joyner to run the 200 meters in 21.48 or faster. So, why hasn’t most of the world heard of her?

At the last Olympics, she put on the brakes too early in her opening heat, finished fourth and never even got to race in the final for the gold. It’s a mistake she called the most devastating of her career, and one that has fueled her run to Paris.

Now, more trouble. She failed to finish a July 9 tune-up race in Hungary, and it was unclear if she is healthy going into the Olympics. If Jackson isn’t in the lineup, American Gabby Thomas, who comes in with this year’s fastest time (21.78) and a bronze medal from Tokyo, would be the clear favorite.

Jumping for Ukraine

Anyone who says sports and politics do not intersect might want to tune in Aug. 4, when Ukrainian high jumper Yaroslava Mahuchikh takes the field.

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Mahuchikh is coming in just a few weeks after breaking a 37-year-old world record in her event, jumping 2.10 meters at an Olympic tune-up in Paris.

World Athletics has not allowed Russians in international meets since the war with Ukraine broke out. It means Maria Lasitskene will not be on hand to defend her Olympic title. Lasitskene also wasn’t present last year when Mahuchikh won the title on an emotional closing day at world championships.