Team Players

The athletes at this year's Olympic Games are as diverse in their physical talents as they are in their stories. Ahead of Paris 2024, competitors from around the world get on their marks

NIKHAT ZAREEN

TEAM INDIA BOXING

More than a decade of representing India in boxing has taught Nikhat Zareen, 28, to parry blows from both inside and outside the ring. Between being dismissed early on for wanting to pursue a traditionally male-dominated sport and her near career-ending shoulder dislocation in 2017, Zareen’s path to sporting success has had its fair share of knocks. But during a match, all of that fades into the background. “Whenever I enter the ring, my only thought is: Nikhat, you need to win this bout at any cost,” says the two-time world champion.

SHINO MATSUDA

TEAM JAPAN SURFING

“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

TEAM FRANCE FENCING