10 potential breakout Team USA stars at the 2024 Olympics

The Paris 2024 Olympics are almost here. The best athletes in the world will head to France for the Opening Ceremony on July 26, followed by over two weeks of intense competition in 32 sports and 329 events.

There are many household names that will be going for gold in Paris, such as Simone Biles, Katie Ledecky, and pretty much the entire U.S. Men's Basketball team. One of the reasons people tune in to sports they've never watched before, though, is to see what fresh faces will emerge as the darlings of the Games. Who will capture the hearts and minds of the nation? Who might end up on a Wheaties box?

The United States will send over 500 athletes to Paris, but we've narrowed the list down to 10 that have the potential to steal the show. Here are our choices for the 10 breakout stars of the Paris 2024 Olympics.

10. CJ Nickolas (Taekwondo)

There are sports in the Olympics that are popular more than just once every four years, such as basketball, soccer, and tennis. The beauty of the Games, though, is that they give us a chance to get invested in sports that don't usually get any time in the spotlight.

Taekwondo is one of those sports, and you may not know it, but the U.S. has traditionally been one of the better taekwondo nations in the world, ranking third all-time in medals and gold medals since it was added as a full medal sport in 2000.

Anastasija Zolotic became the first U.S. woman to win Olympic taekwondo gold in 2021, but she didn't make the team this year after being upset in qualifying by Kristina Teachout. In addition to Teachout, the U.S. will be sending three others to Paris, but none are more exciting than CJ Nickolas.

Nickolas is ranked second in the world in his weight class, and he's no stranger to taking home the hardware on the biggest stage. He's won gold in the Pan American Games three times (including doing so after sustaining a broken arm in the finals this past May), and he took home silver in the World Championships last year. He's accomplished this despite enduring heart surgery in 2020 and moving up in weight classes.

Nickolas has the talent and the personality to be one of the big winners in Paris, and his potential clash with 6'6" Italian nemesis Simone Alessio could be one of the must-watch moments of the Games.

9. Sophia Smith (Soccer)

It's a new era of U.S. women's soccer, and these Olympics will be the first real chance to showcase that. Gone are the old guard, like Megan Rapinoe, Carli Lloyd, and Alex Morgan, and in their place are new stars, such as Trinity Rodman, Naomi Girma, and Sophia Smith.

Any of the eight first-time Olympians on this team have the potential to break out, but we're going with Smith as our choice. The 23-year-old forward won a national championship for the Stanford Cardinal in her college days, and she's only gotten better as a pro. She led the Portland Thorns to the NWSL league title in 2022, winning both the regular season MVP and Championship Game MVP. Here's a small glimpse of what she can do:

Smith is a goal-scorer, and the finishing ability that helped her win the NWSL Golden Boot last year will need to be on full display if the U.S. is to improve upon its past two Olympics appearances, which resulted in a disappointing quarterfinal loss to Sweden in Rio and a bronze medal in Tokyo. Before that, the U.S. won three straight Olympic golds. Can this new generation return the team to its former glory? If Sophia Smith does her thing, the answer could be yes.

8. Quincy Wilson (Track & Field)

Quincy Wilson's true coming out party will likely be the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, but viewers will get their first real chance to see the 16-year-old phenom when he runs the 4X400m as part of the U.S. men's relay race team.

Yes, that's right, I said 16 years old. Making the Olympics as a runner at 16 is truly mind-boggling stuff, and in fact, Wilson is the youngest American male in history to be a track & field Olympian. He holds both the indoor and outdoor under-18 world record in the 400, meaning he's only just scratching the surface of what he'll be able to do.

The U.S. is favored to bring home the gold for the third straight Olympics in the 4X400, which would make Wilson the youngest U.S. track & field athlete to win gold since Barbara Jones in 1952. We'll only get a short glimpse of him in these Games, but it will be more than enough to make him a star.

7. Caroline Marks (Surfing)

Let's go from the track to the water for our next potential breakout. Caroline Marks is in her second Olympics after finishing fourth in Tokyo in 2021, but as the reigning World Champion, she's now the favorite to win gold in Paris.

Like Wilson, Marks was a prodigy at a young age. She turned pro as a 13-year-old and won Rookie of the Year in her first full season on the WSL Championship Tour at 18. One year later she was the youngest Olympic surfer in the world in the sport's first year as a medal sport.

Marks is already one of the biggest stars in surfing, but she could raise her profile exponentially with a winning performance in these Olympics. Paris is not exactly known as a surfing hotbed, so the surfing events are being held in the French Polynesian village of Teahupo'o, Tahiti, nearly 10,000 miles away. That's the farthest from the host city that an Olympic medal event as ever been held, but Marks should feel right at home, as she won the World Surf League's SHISEIDO Tahiti Pro event held there last year.

6. Jahmal Harvey (Boxing)

The United States used to be an amateur boxing powerhouse. Some of the best boxers this country ever produced have Olympic glory on their resume. From Cassius Clay to Joe Frazier, George Foreman to Sugar Ray Leonard, and Pernell Whitaker to Oscar De La Hoya, the list goes on and on.

The U.S. hasn't won boxing gold since Andre Ward stood atop the podium in the 2004 Games in Athens, but that all may change with Jahmal Harvey. Harvey is a 21-year-old Maryland native who took home gold in the 2021 World Championships and the 2023 Pan American Games, and now he'll try to add Olympic gold to his resume.

Harvey fights in the featherweight division, a group that hasn't seen a U.S. Olympic champion since Meldrick Taylor in 1984. Even Floyd Mayweather only managed bronze after a controversial decision in 1996. Duke Ragans took home silver four years ago, but he has since turned pro.

Harvey is the real deal, as his 59-7 record can attest. If he can make a run to the podium in Paris, he could become one of the biggest breakout stars of these Games.

5. Katie Grimes (Swimming)

Everybody knows Katie Ledecky, but there's another American swimmer named Katie that's about to make a (literal) splash. Katie Grimes is competing in her second Olympics after swimming in Tokyo three years ago as a 15-year-old, and even Ledecky has said that she's the next big thing.

Grimes was the first American in any sport to clinch a spot in Paris. A long-distance specialist, she'll be going for three medals in these Games by swimming the 400-meter individual medley, open-water 10-kilometer, and 1500-meter. Nobody has ever attempted those first two events in the same Olympics before, let alone all three.

Grimes may be competing with her full schedule as much as with the other swimmers in the pool, but she has the talent to make the podium in multiple events. She won silver medals in the 2022 World Aquatics Championships in the 1500-meter and 400-meter individual medley, then won another silver the next year in the 400 and a bronze in the open-water 10-kilometer.

There's a rich history of American female swimmers kicking butt at the Olympics, from Dara Torres, Jenny Thompson, and Amy Van Dyken to Natalie Coughlin, Missy Franklin, and Ledecky. Grimes is the next big name to know.

4. Victor Montalvo (Breaking)

The Olympics are always evolving, with new sports being added all the time. One of the sports making its Olympic debut in Paris is breaking, and for open-minded viewers at home, it promises to be a highly entertaining event.

For the uninitiated, breaking is better known as breakdancing, and Victor Montalvo is the top-ranked American in the sport. Known as "B-Boy Victor," Montalvo will be competing with 15 other athletes in a series of one-on-one battles that consist of a one-minute choreographed routine that is judged on six elements: creativity, personality, technique, variety, performativity, and musicality.

At 30, Montalvo is the senior member of our list, but this will be his first proper introduction to the American public, at least on this large of a stage. He's the reigning world champion, so gold is a realistic possibility, and he has the moves and personality to be one of the Games' big winners.

3. Hezly Rivera (Gymnastics)

Women's gymnastics is always one of the flagship sports in the Summer Olympics, and that will be especially true this year as Simone Biles and Suni Lee try to lead a stacked American team to gold.

Biles is one of the most decorated Olympians in history, and her quest for redemption after catching a case of "the twisties" in Tokyo is arguably the top storyline of these Games. Lee stepped up in Biles' place to claim all-around gold three years ago, and their combined presence makes the U.S. a huge favorite to win the team event. Their performances on every apparatus will be "stop-what-you're-doing-and-watch" events.

Biles and Lee will deservedly get most of the fanfare, but America loves a gymnastics ingenue. Hezly Rivera is just 16 years old, but she earned her spot on the team with a fearless performance at the U.S. Olympic Trials, where she beat both Biles and Lee on the balance beam and finished fourth on the uneven bars.

Rivera trains at the same gym that produced past all-around champions Carly Patterson and Nastia Liukin, and before making the Olympic team, she reportedly had planned to spend her summer learning to drive. Her birthday is five months later than Quincy Wilson's, making her the youngest American Olympian to compete this year. There's no doubt that her appearance in Paris will be a star-making turn.

2. Noah Lyles (Track & Field)

You want a breakout star? How about the world's fastest man? Noah Lyles is the most exciting American male sprinter since Michael Johnson, and there's a good chance that we look back at these Games as the Noah Lyles Invitational when it's all said and done.

Lyles has an Olympic bronze on his resume, but since the Tokyo Games he's evolved into the top sprinter in the world. He'll be running three events in Paris: the 100-meter, the 200-meter, and the 4X100-meter relay.

The 100-meter is one of the most competitive events there is. Lyles and Jamaican sprinter Kishane Thompson are the favorites, but there are several others with realistic medal aspirations. In the 200, Lyles' personal best time of 19.31 seconds broke Michael Johnson's 26-year American record and is only .12 behind Usain Bolt's world record, a number he's been openly chasing. If he could somehow break it on the biggest stage, it would be the first clip shown in any highlight reel from these Olympics.

Lyles is hoping to become the first man since Bolt and the first American man since Carl Lewis to pull off the 100-meter / 200-meter double, and as the reigning world champ in both events, he has a great shot to do it. He's also the anchor of the U.S.'s world championship-winning 4X100 relay team, which means that three golds in Paris is well within the realm of possibility. That would put him in league with the greatest sprinters of all-time. No pressure!

1. Sha'Carri Richardson (Track & Field)

This list is full of athletes that America will fall in love with. The only choice for the top spot, though, has to be Sha'Carri Richardson. This country loves a redemption story, and after missing the Tokyo Olympics due to a positive marijuana test, Richardson is back and ready to finally announce herself.

Richardson will be competing in the 100-meter dash and the 4X100 relay in Paris. She took home gold in both events in the 2023 World Championships, and her time of 10.71 at the U.S. Olympic Trials in late June is the fastest time run by a woman this year, making her the favorite to become the first American woman since Gail Devers in 1996 to win 100-meter gold.

The United States has produced some of the greatest female sprinters of all time. From Wilma Rudolph, to Wyomia Tyus, to Florence Griffith-Joyner, to Devers, to Allyson Felix — the list reads like a who's who of American Olympic heroes.

Richardson has the talent to join that group. Throw in the redemption storyline and you have a ready-made case for her to be the biggest breakout star of these Games.