There were hundreds of incredible athletes lined up and ready to qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, right up until sports were shut down. Now we're talking about the Tokyo 2021 Olympics [1], and athletes are adapting and adjusting their plans as we speak. It's a long way off and the majority of sports have yet to hold their qualifying competitions, which means we don't know exactly who we'll see at the Opening Ceremony next year — but it also means there are even more athletes to keep your eye on as they look to fulfil their Olympic dreams. Ahead, check out just a small sampling (in no particular order) of the female athletes we're hoping to see in Tokyo next year, from familiar gold medal favourites to new faces looking to take the sports world by storm.
Dalilah Muhammad
Sport: Track and field
Country: USA
Muhammad makes breaking the 400m hurdles world record look way too easy. It's a feat she's pulled twice: once at the 2019 USATF National Championships [2] and then again, later that year, at the world championships [3]. Muhammad will also be going into Tokyo as the defending Olympic champion, setting up for a showdown with Sydney McLaughlin [4], the 21-year-old who placed behind her in the world championships and has beaten her in Diamond League races [5] in the past. Their showdown and Muhammad's unflappable dominance on the world stage is set to create a riveting race.
Simone Biles
Sport: Gymnastics
Country: USA
Biles hardly needs an introduction at this point. The 23-year-old gymnast is making one last run at the Olympics and looking to cement her status as the greatest gymnast of all time [6], with five Olympic and 25 World Championship medals [7] already under her belt. Her tricks get more stunning every year (she has three named after her [8], which means she was the first to pull them in competition), and their level of difficulty and the ease with which she executes them put her miles above the rest of the competition; she can fall during routines and still earn the highest score [9]. One of the most recognisable and decorated athletes at the Games, we'll be tuning in every time she's in the arena.
Carissa Moore
Sport: Surfing
Country: USA
Moore has captured four world titles in her decorated career, the most recent coming in December 2019 after a heated three-way race with fellow Americans Caroline Marks and Lakey Peterson. She's heading to the Olympics as the top seed (accompanied by Marks, who's ranked just below her at No. 2 in the world) and coming off of a stellar season [10]; out of 10 competitions, Moore was off the podium just twice and was never below the top five. She'd planned to take 2020 off from the pro tour to prepare for the Olympics, so the season's cancellation didn't affect her plans to a huge degree, and she's using the time to surf and train in her native Honolulu. Surfing is expected to make a big splash at the Olympics and Moore is a favourite with momentum on her side.
Simone Manuel
Sport: Swimming
Country: USA
Simone Manuel won a groundbreaking gold medal in 2016 and became a voice for Black representation and excellence in swimming [11]. Heading into Tokyo, she'll look to defend her golds in the 100m free and the 4x100 medley [12], plus improve on silvers in the 50m free and 4x100m free. Having grabbed four golds at the 2019 World Championships, Manuel is in a great position to do so, and she has said upfront that she's looking to take home multiple medals in 2021 [13]. She's currently training in California with Katie Ledecky [14].
Aliphine Tuliamuk
Sport: Marathon
Country: USA
Tuliamuk surprised the running world when she won the US Olympic Marathon Trials [15] in February, beating a strong field that included 2018 Boston Marathon champion and two-time Olympian Des Linden and half-marathon American record holder Molly Huddle. Tuliamuk, who was born in Kenya [16] and became a US citizen in 2016, is a 10-time national track and field champion [17] in events including the 25K, 20K, and 5K. Her Olympic Trials victory represented an inspiring comeback from injuries that left her driving an Uber and crocheting hats that she'd sell online. With a powerful story and undeniable speed, Tuliamuk will be a formidable force to watch in Tokyo.
Nevin Harrison
Sport: Canoe
Country: USA
At 17, Nevin Harrison became the first American to bring home a world championship medal [18] in a sprint canoe event, nabbing gold in the 200m in 2019. Canoe and kayak are the two "paddling" sports, and at the Tokyo Olympics, women's canoe will be making its debut. Since no American woman has ever won a kayak medal, Harrison has a good chance of being the first female US paddler to earn a place on the Olympic podium. She also has four national titles and a gold from the Pan-American Games [19] — not bad for a former sprinter who only started paddling after an injury ended her running career.
Katie Ledecky
Sport: Swimming
Country: USA
Ledecky is known for smashing records by jaw-dropping intervals and leaving her competitors far in her wake, and we're expecting more of the same at next year's Olympics. An illness at the 2019 World Championships [20] left Ledecky with fewer medals than usual, but she pushed through and still came out of the competition with one world title and two silvers. In competitions since, she's looked as dominant as ever [21], and the fact that she has a whole extra year to train and is making good use of it [22] should strike some fear into the hearts of her competitors.
Deja Young
Sport: Track and field
Country: USA
Paralympic athlete Young has a world title in the 200m T47 [23] and a silver in the 100m T47, a feat she accomplished three years after attempting suicide. A two-time Paralympic medalist from 2016, Young has told teamusa.org that "if I can make an impact, save a life with my story of suicide . . . that will make me happy." The 2021 Paralympics will provide another platform for Young to do just that — and defend her medals while she's at it.
Lindsey Horan
Sport: Football
Country: USA
The entire USWNT could be on this list after their inspiring World Cup win [24] in 2019, but Horan in particular will be coming into the Olympics with something to prove [25]. Considered one of the best midfielders in the world, Horan was nonetheless left off the starting lineup for most of the World Cup thanks to the US's deep pool of talent at midfield. She's already been playing more under new USWNT head coach Vlatko Andonovski and netted her first pro hat trick [26] during the Olympic qualifying tournament [27], so we're expecting her combination of ambition and talent to lead to big results in Tokyo. (FYI: the USWNT has already secured their Olympic spot.)
Stephanie Gilmore
Sport: Surfing
Country: Australia
It'll be surfing's first year in the Olympics and expectations are high, especially for living legends like Gilmore. A seven-time world champion [28] (tied with Layne Beachley for the most women's titles of all time), Gilmore was the first surfer to win a world title in her rookie season, back in 2007. Now 32, she continues to dominate pro surfing and finished the 2020 season ranked No. 4 in the world, the top-ranked Australian going into Tokyo. Watching the 2000 Olympics in Sydney as a 12-year-old caused Gilmore to fall in love with the idea of going to the Olympics [29], she told POPSUGAR in February. "I never thought I'd get the chance as a surfer, but here we are, and it's like a dream come true." Gilmore beat the current world champion, Carissa Moore, at the last competition of 2019, and she's a fierce competitor who could make a major play for gold.
Allyson Felix
Sport: Track and field
Country: USA
The most decorated track and field athlete of all time is looking to return for her fifth Olympics, and to say we're excited is an understatement. Felix, who runs the 400m and 4x400m relay, has had a rollercoaster four years since Rio. In 2018, she gave birth to her daughter, Camryn, after undergoing an emergency C-section [30]; going through a protracted sponsorship battle with Nike [31]; and returning for an inspiring show at the 2019 world championships that saw her breaking a medal record [32] she once held with Usain Bolt. Another year of preparation will likely make Felix an even more fearsome competitor as she looks to add to her collection of Olympic medals (she already has nine [33]).
Rachel Garcia
Sport: Softball
Country: USA
Softball is returning to the Olympics for the first time since 2008 [34], and Rachel Garcia, a pitcher and first baseman fresh off a dominant junior year at UCLA, is one of the new faces to watch. In 2019, the 23-year-old batted .343 [35] and pitched her way to a 29-1 record and a 1.14 ERA, the seventh-best in the country. Garcia's talents lead UCLA to a national title and earned her the title of USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year. USA Softball has already qualified for the Olympics [36], and Garcia's debut (alongside veteran pitchers Monica Abbott and Cat Osterman) is on our must-watch list.
Chloe Dygert
Sport: Cycling (track and road race)
Country: USA
Dygert is doing some incredible things on the bike. She broke an individual pursuit world record [37] twice at last year's World Championships and has already punched her ticket to Tokyo in road racing after winning the world title in road time trial. A six-time world champion [38], Dygert is at the top of the field in her events, and she's known for giving her all-out effort in every race, sometimes to the point of collapsing at the finish line [39]. We're predicting this dominant cyclist will take Tokyo by storm.
Oksana Masters
Sport: Rowing (trunk and arms mixed double skulls) and cycling (road race and time trial)
Country: USA
Masters has been to the Paralympics no less than eight times. A veteran of both the Summer and Winter Games (where she's won medals in cross-country skiing, biathlon, and Nordic skiing), Masters will be looking to compete in para-cycling in 2021, fresh off of two silver medals at the UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships [40]. She placed fourth in Rio, a memory that fuels her to this day. "I literally have replayed that feeling of getting fourth place [41] in Rio so many times and of everything that I did wrong, or 'should have, could have, would have' scenarios," Masters told POPSUGAR in December. She's more motivated than ever to make the podium in Tokyo.
Naomi Osaka
Sport: Tennis
Country: Japan
Naomi Osaka made headlines last year when she renounced her American citizenship [42], allowing her to compete for Japan in the Olympics. (A dual US-Japanese citizen, Osaka was required under Japan's Nationality Law to choose one before she turned 22 last October.) It'll be her first Olympic Games and she'll be playing in her home country, looking to become the first Japanese woman to take home an Olympic medal in tennis, so expect exciting, sell-out matches and major attention from fans. With fierce competition, including Serena Williams (currently ranked ninth in the world [43] to Osaka's 10th), it'll be a tournament to watch.
Danusia Francis
Sport: Gymnastics
Country: Jamaica
At UCLA, Francis was a NCAA cochampion on the balance beam [44] and a six-time All-American. After training for and then missing out on two Olympic berths, first in 2012 and again in 2016, Francis has officially qualified for an individual spot and will be the second gymnast to represent Jamaica [45] at the Olympics. Francis has faced setbacks throughout her career — of which the pandemic is the latest — but she's committed to putting in another year of work to compete in Tokyo. With an inspirational story and graceful, perfect-10 worthy routines (she earned two 10s at UCLA), Francis will be one to keep your eye on.
Sky Brown
Sport: Skateboarding (park)
Country: Great Britain
After winning UK skate nationals, this 12-year-old phenom [46] has just about qualified for Tokyo — it's just a matter of racking up the required points by competing in Olympic qualifiers, once they're back on. Had the Tokyo Olympics kicked off this year with Brown qualifying, she would have been the youngest Olympian to represent Great Britain in the Summer Games. While she'll be a year older in 2021, we're still expecting her to be a sparkplug in the bowl (the sunken concrete course in which park skaters compete) and an exciting story to watch at the Games. FYI: Brown was the first female skater to land a 720 [47] (two full circles), so get ready for some big tricks!
Georganne Moline
Sport: Track and field
Country: USA
Moline finished fifth in the 400m hurdles in London in 2012, but was unable to compete in Rio due to a back injury suffered just weeks before the Olympic Trials [48]. She's also battled mental roadblocks and a foot injury, for which she got surgery in 2019 [49], but Moline hasn't given up. Though the competition for the 400m hurdles on Team USA is intense — featuring world record holder and world champion Dalilah Muhammad and world silver medalist Sydney McLaughlin — Moline's mental fortitude and comeback attitude can only play in her favour. In July, she ran in her first race in 18 months, the socially distanced Inspiration Games, and won [50].
Morgan Hurd
Sport: Gymnastics
Country: USA
A strong pool of US gymnasts are looking to fill just four Olympic spots, making it hard to predict who we'll see in the arena in Tokyo (beyond Simone Biles, who's a pretty sure bet). Nineteen-year-old Morgan Hurd is a strong contender. Though she was left off the World Championships team in 2019, Hurd has earned 24 world championship medals [51] throughout her career, including a gold in the all-around in 2017. She's known for combining grace with difficult and dynamic skills [52] across apparatuses, and her fourth-place finish at the US Gymnastics Championships in 2019 has kept her in the conversation for the Tokyo Olympics.