Olympics 2024: The male stars from the West Midlands and Shropshire that are going for gold

EVENT: Road cycling

HOPES: Medal hope

For Ben Healy, Paris 2024 promises to be a step into the unknown in more sense than one.

The 23-year-old from Wordsley will compete in his first Olympics for Ireland less than a fortnight after completing his first Tour de France.

Healy, who has caught the eye with his aggressive style over the past three weeks during what has been one of the most brutal and frenetic Tours in history, accepts it will be difficult to know precisely what condition he will be in when the men’s Olympic road race takes place a week on Saturday, August 3.

“I would love to go to the Olympics in great shape but it is obviously very close to the end of the Tour,” he explained earlier this year.

“That is something I just haven’t had experience with. A lot of guys have done Grand Tours and races after a Grand Tour.

“But for me it is going to be a bit of a guessing game, really. I am going to do my best to try and recover well and take some good legs to the Olympics.”

A medal for Healy would be hailed a victory for Ireland but his career is one very much built in the Black Country.

The former Summerhill School pupil grew up just a few turns of the wheel from Wordsley Glass Cone and got his first taste of cycling on Halesowen’s Manor Abbey track.

A keen mountain biker, he was on the GB development squad until the age of 16 before turning his attention to the road and his allegiances to Ireland, who were willing to offer him more opportunities to compete.

Healy, who claimed his maiden Grand Tour win at last year’s Giro d’Italia, has been among the most aggressive riders at this year’s Tour de France and claimed an impressive fifth-placed finish on stage nine, which took place on gravel roads around Troyes.

The one-day classic nature of the Olympic course should suit his attributes and he said: “It is not a course I have looked at and thought it is all for me.

“But I do think there will be an opportunity for me because I expect it to be an open and aggressive race.”

Dan Bigham

EVENT: Cycling team pursuit

HOPES: Medal chance

Having spent much of the past decade trying to help others go faster, Dan Bigham heads to Paris 2024 aiming to put his own name in lights.

The Staffordshire cycling ace is looking to put GB back on top of the podium in the men’s team pursuit, an event in which they won gold at both London 2012 and Rio 2016.

For Bigham, 32, it is a moment he would never have dreamed possible as recently as three years ago.

Always a strong cyclist, Bigham is a former national champion who briefly held the world hour record in 2022.

But for a long time in British Cycling, he was seen as something of an outsider and was better known for his expertise in engineering than racing.

Three summers ago, Bigham, from Stone, was working as an engineer for the Denmark squad which claimed silver in the team pursuit, knocking GB out of contention along the way. Throw in the fact Bigham, who now works as an aerodynamics expert for the Ineos professional team, assisted Filippo Ganna when the Italian broke his hour record and it becomes easy to see why he has previously been described as the most compromised man in track cycling.

Yet for the next few weeks, it is all about his own targets.

Called up to the GB squad two years ago, he was part of the team which won world championship gold in 2022. Their form this year has been impressive too and includes a win over Denmark at January’s European Championships.

Bigham, who now lives in Andorra, has described going to the Olympics as more of a “pipe” dream than a childhood one.

“During my time in this sport, I’ve spent a lot of time simply going about things my own way, motivated by the pure satisfaction of doing things the way I feel they should be done,” he wrote after his selection was confirmed, alongside team-mates Charlie Tanfield, Ethan Hayter, Ethan Vernon and Ollie Wood.

Bigham continued: “There are many to thank for the time and effort they’ve put into me on this journey. I’ll make sure I give everything I have so I can thank you with the best version of me on the start line and hopefully achieve a result to match.”

Matt Hudson-Smith

EVENT: 400m

HOPES: Gold medal

Matthew Hudson-Smith wants Paris 2024 to be the culmination of a decade-long journey – as he attempts to do what no other British man has accomplished in a century.

Eric Liddell, in 1924, was the last to win gold in the 400 metres, in what was also the last time Paris hosted the Games.

Hudson-Smith will head there among the favourites after another impressive year which saw him smash his own European record when he ran 44.07 at a Diamond League meeting in Oslo less than two months ago.

The 29-year-old is now aiming to go one better than last summer when he narrowly missed out on gold at the world championships.

“That is definitely the goal for me – be the second Brit to get the Olympic gold and create my own history,” said Hudson-Smith, in a recent interview. “Last year was bittersweet. I came away with the world silver but the gold was on the table. This year, we have got a plan and it is just now sticking to it and executing it.

“It’s not about the European record, I’ve got it. It’s about the gold now. You can take away times but a medal is yours forever.

“To become an Olympic champion would mean the world to me. It would be a combination of 10 years of hard work in one moment. The time is now.”

It has been quite the journey for Hudson-Smith, who aged 19 came close to leaving the sport and joining the army.

A surprise invitation to a Diamond League meeting in Glasgow, where he ran the second fastest time in Europe that year, quickly changed those plans, getting him out of his job working on the tills at Brierley Hill Asda and on the path to becoming the continent’s fastest ever athlete over 400m.

There have been highs and serious lows along the way. Hudson-Smith qualified for the final in his first Olympics at Rio 2016 but finished last and then missed out on Tokyo 2020 altogether due to injury.

Isolated from his family living in Florida and struggling with debt, he began to struggle with his mental health. After winning bronze at the world championships in 2022, at that point the greatest performance of his career, Hudson-Smith revealed he had even attempted suicide.

“I didn’t really plan to say anything,” he admits. “I had just won a medal and I was just emotional and it literally slipped out.

“When I said it I looked at my agent because I didn’t want it to be a headline. I didn’t really want to be one of those people who used it as an excuse. But now I think it’s good to be open and honest about mental health because I think more athletes are now talking about it.

“Everyone in track and field has a story and I think it’s good that people are now saying their stories because it makes us more relatable. When we show our personality, it shows we are actually human.”

Hudson-Smith says he is now in a much better place and his results bear that out. After skipping the European Championships in order to focus on the Olympics, he won the 200m title at the recent UK Athletics Championships.

“The whole idea was to get a speed work, to try something new. It fitted in well with my training.

“I have been in a hole since Oslo, just training.

“I grew a beard and looked like I had come out of prison!

“But it is all about the bigger picture. It has been a case of get your head down, get ready to go, you are in a good position.

“Europeans and worlds is one thing but when you get to the Olympics it is a totally different pressure because it comes every four years and everyone is building for that dream.

“If you are not coming for the Olympics, why are you in the sport?

“My whole goal since 2021 has been to get ready for Paris and redeem myself for everything I have gone through.”

Charlie Carvell

EVENT: 4x400m relay

HOPES: Team medal hope

Bridgnorth athletics starlet Charlie Carvell is aiming to continue a rapid rise in the sport when he gets his first taste of an Olympic Games in Paris.

Carvell, who turned 20 last month, will be among the youngest members of the GB track and field squad after being selected for the men’s and mixed 4x400 metre relay squad.

Though he insists Paris was always a long-term target, competing at the Games will still represent a significant achievement for an athlete who only seriously took up the sport four years ago.

The Olympics will represent just Carvell’s second major international competition, after he made his bow at the European Championships earlier this summer, running an impressive anchor leg to help the men’s squad qualify for the relay final.

Prior to that, he was a standout in the junior ranks, captaining the GB team at last year’s under-20s European Championships, where he won individual silver and relay gold.

Carvell, who trains at Loughborough University, is mentored by former Olympic medallist Martyn Rooney, who also coaches the relay teams. Despite his relative inexperience, he is heading to Paris with ambitions of bringing home a medal.

“As a team we want to come home with a medal,” he explains. “That is what Martyn has given us instruction for.

“He is my mentor but also the relay head coach and I have a good relationship with him. He has guided me through being a junior and can now hopefully guide me through being an Olympian.

“Qualifying for the Olympics is credit to me, credit to my coach, credit to my team. There are so many people to credit.”

Carvell was due to compete at the London Diamond League before heading to France for preparation camp later this week.

“It is quite full-on but I am really excited for it,” he said.

Toby Robinson

EVENT: Marathon swim

HOPES: Medal chance

If at first you don’t succeed; try and try again.

That is the attitude which has paid off for Wolverhampton marathon swimmer Toby Robinson, who will finally make his Olympic bow in Paris after two previous agonising near misses.

The 27-year-old came close to qualifying for both Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, missing out on the latter due to the one-per-nation rule despite finishing third and taking bronze in the final qualifying event.

But a 15th-placed finish at February’s world championships was enough to stamp his ticket to Paris, though even that proved a nerve-wracking experience as he waited to find whether he had finished within the qualifying positions on a photo finish.

“There was a big moment of uncertainty when I finished, and I was counting the number of people in front of me – and I knew it was a photo finish,” said Robinson at the time.

“So 10 minutes went by before I actually found out I’d qualified it, and when I found out, I was so overwhelmed and speechless, just so happy that I’d achieved what I’ve been working for.”

Robinson’s story is a lesson in what can be achieved through perseverance. His career has faced a number of setbacks, including being dropped from UK Sport funding, while he has at times juggled several part-time jobs in order to support his swimming.

The former Royal Wolverhampton School pupil, who grew up in Penn, has been a member of several of the city’s sporting clubs including Wolverhampton Swimming Club and Wolverhampton & Bilston Athletics Club.

Robinson also competes in the pool and is the reigning British 800 metre champion, though his time at this year’s championships was not enough to qualify for the Olympics in that event.

The men’s marathon swimming race is due to take place in the River Seine on Friday, August 9.

Hector Pardoe

EVENT: Open water swimming

HOPES: Medal prospect

Hector Pardoe will head to Paris targeting a medal in one of the world’s toughest sports.

Just how brutal marathon swimming can be became clear three summers ago when Pardoe’s tilt at glory in the 10km event was brought to an abrupt, rather gruesome halt.

The former Ellesmere Titan and Whitchurch Wasps swimmer was elbowed by a competitor with such force it snapped his goggles and cut his eye to the extent he had to call for the rescue boat and abandon.

For several minutes, Pardoe feared he might have lost sight in his eye altogether. It later emerged he had suffered oculus concussion, which meant he could not see out of his eye for 10 minutes. He required two stitches.

Yet the experience has not put Pardoe off. On the contrary, it has only made the 23-year-old more determined and he goes to his second Games as a genuine medal prospect, after becoming the first British marathon swimmer to stand on the world championship podium for more than a decade when he won bronze in Doha earlier this year.

“It’s quite unheard of for an injury that severe to happen,” Pardoe reflected on his Tokyo experience. “But open water swimming is a physical sport – people have had their ribs broken before – but to get your eye injured to that extent hasn’t happened to anyone.

“When you think of open water swimming you don’t see it as a contact sport – it opened people’s eyes.

“There’s more going on under the water than 30 guys trying to sprint to the end.”

Born in Wales, Pardoe grew up in Shropshire and took up open water swimming aged 14. He underlined his potential by winning bronze at the 2016 world junior championships before moving to Montpellier in France for two years to train under respected coach Philippe Lucas ahead of Tokyo.

Last September, he broke the world record for the fastest ever swim of Lake Windermere, breaking the previous mark which had stood for 26 years by more than eight minutes, despite not wearing a wetsuit.

The marathon swimming races in Paris 2024 are currently due to be held in the Seine, provided the water is safe enough. Paris has invested more than £1billion in cleaning up the river, in which it has been illegal to swim in for more than a century.

An alternative site outside the city has been arranged, should the water quality drop below acceptable levels. For Pardoe, the sole focus is on “writing a new narrative” after the frustration and pain of three years ago.

“The emotions were quite high, following the path of redemption from Tokyo with the eye injury,” he said after securing his place earlier this year. “I was feeling great throughout the whole race (in Doha), and that last lap I made it happen and followed my strategy perfectly. I went into Tokyo as a 20-year-old without much experience. The experience I’ve gained in the last three years will really set me up nicely to compete with the big boys in Paris.”

Oliver Morgan

EVENT: 100m Backstroke

HOPES: Medal chance

You could never describe competing at the Olympics as having been Oliver Morgan’s childhood dream.

It wasn’t even in his thoughts a couple of years ago.

Of all the athletes representing Great Britain in Paris, few have enjoyed a rise quite so meteoric as Ludlow’s Morgan.

Not even on the radar of GB Aquatics talent spotters at the time of Tokyo 2020, he fairly burst onto the scene by winning three titles at last year’s British Championships.

Just to prove it was no fluke, he duly broke Liam Tancock’s 15-year-old British 100metre backstroke record to seal his place in Paris this spring.

“If you asked me two years ago if I would be in this position I’d have said there’s no way,” explained the 20-year-old back in April. “I can’t put it into words.”

It is not that Morgan, who began swimming competitively for his hometown club at the age of 11, had no interest in swimming. Neither was it his full focus. A keen footballer, he also won medals on the national junior mountain biking circuit prior to the pandemic.

Both of those sports, he believes, helped develop attributes which have now come to the fore in the pool. Morgan’s move to the University of Birmingham, aged 18, saw him compete at elite level for the first time and he has not looked back.

After winning backstroke gold at 50, 100 and 200m at the British championships, he helped Britain win 4x50m relay silver at last December’s European Short Course Championships.

“It proves you don’t have to be there as a youngster,” said Morgan. “I did what I enjoyed when I was young. I played football and mountain biked.

“We didn’t have the facilities (at Ludlow compared to major swimming centres) and the pool time. You have to adapt.”

Those hours spent in the Ludlow pool also instilled in Morgan a pure enjoyment of the sport which persists as he prepares for the biggest stage of all.

“I think as long as you keep enjoying it, have a positive kind of relationship with your team-mates and your coaches, I think that’s what keeps you in the sport,” he said. “As long as you’re enjoying it, you’re going to get better.”

Adam Peaty

EVENT: Breast stroke

HOPES: Gold medal chance

By this time next week, Adam Peaty’s name may be enshrined in Olympic immortality.

Michael Phelps is the only male swimmer to have ever won the same event at three consecutive Games.

Peaty, champion in the 100 metre breaststroke at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, will get his shot to join the legendary American on Sunday night.

It will be no mere sporting success. The road from Rio to Paris has been rocky for Peaty, both in and out of the pool, to the extent only 18 months ago he was giving serious consideration to quitting.

Now, he is back, a different, markedly more relaxed character who has found religion and looks upon his achievements and career through very different eyes.

“I think the ‘why?’ has changed so many times,” explained Peaty in a recent interview with the Daily Telegraph.

“In 2016, it was, I want to be successful, I want to be the fastest. In 2021, it was, I want to prove I can back it up.

“Now I’m showing that you can be at the lowest point, and still come out strong, in a healthy way, with a victory that is not defined by a medal. I wouldn’t change any of it.”

There is no such thing as a sure thing in sport. Yet for many years, Peaty was about as close as you could get, such was the way he dominated his event.

When he could only finish fourth at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, his preparation having been disrupted by a broken foot, it was his first defeat over 100 metres in eight years.

Though Peaty would rebound by winning gold in the 50m breaststroke just 24 hours later, just a little of the former magic was missing. There followed the break-up later that year with Eiri Munro, the mother of his son, before things hit rock bottom in February last year when he told long-time coach Mel Marshall he was “done” with swimming.

The comeback was slow but steady, with Peaty eventually deciding last July he would give the Olympics a shot. In April, he went under 58 seconds for the first time since Tokyo to win the British Championships, an indication his form is right on track.

The big question is whether it will be good enough to beat China’s Qin Haiyang, the reigning world champion who got the better of Peaty in last autumn’s World Cup meetings.

It is highly debatable whether Peaty, who still holds the 14 fastest ever times in the 100m breaststroke, could ever be considered an underdog. Yet if offered, it is a tag he is only too willing to embrace.

“He (Haiyang) has only done it one year in a row,” he said. “The pressure is on him going into the Olympic Games.

“Is there a new kid on the block? Of course. I knew someone would come along if I wasn’t there. I couldn’t be there physically and mentally and I’ve enjoyed watching someone get that (the 100m title)... in a respectable time.

“I’m on the front foot, like I was in Rio, on the full attack but present, calm and relaxed, which is when Mel would say I’m most dangerous. I like being the underdog. I’ve enjoyed being the person with the bow and arrow and not the one being fired at.”

Peaty continued: “I could have called it (retired) back in 2022 or 2023 and been this athlete who has done what I’ve done... or I could put it all on the table.

“I get really excited when I take risks. I get really excited when I’m challenged. And I think to go into these Olympic Games, trying to find the path to peak performance, was the ultimate challenge.

“I still don’t know if I’m going to find it. But that’s the joy of it. Guarantees are boring. I’m not an accountant. I’m a highly energetic athlete who is wanting to risk the ultimate in our sport, which is Olympic gold.”

Joe Clarke

EVENT: K1 Kayak slalom

HOPES: Chance of gold

Joe Clarke will always have his place in British canoeing history.

Now the Staffordshire paddler heads to Paris chasing more glory, having rediscovered his love for the sport.

Eight years after becoming the first British athlete to win gold K1 slalom canoe gold in Rio, Clarke has the chance to be the first man ever to win two Olympic kayak titles.

Neither do the Stafford & Stone Canoe Club star’s ambitions end there. The addition of kayak cross to the Olympic programme means Clarke, who has won the last three world titles in that discipline, is targeting not one but two gold medals in Paris, repeating his feat from last September’s world championships in London.

“A huge motivation for me is the addition of the kayak cross. It is an event that really suits me,” explained Clarke recently.

“Up until the world championships, I was always looking at two medals, one of them hopefully being gold was the Paris plan.

“I proved to myself at the home world championships that two golds is possible. That makes it quite exciting, that is the dream and the ultimate goal.”

Clarke’s excitement heading toward Paris marks a sharp contrast to three summers ago, when he watched the delayed Tokyo Games on TV having missed out on selection in somewhat controversial fashion after finishing only fifth in the 2019 world championships.

Yet that disappointment – coupled with the further frustration of being kept out of the water during the pandemic – only served to fuel his motivation. Now aged 31, Clarke claims to be approaching Paris with an older, wiser head.

“Achieving what I did in Rio at 23 years old, it felt almost like it came slightly too soon,” he said.

“Your first Games is a learning experience, the second is the one you perform at so to go to your first and win gold, you have almost cheated the system a bit.

“My goal when I was younger was always to become Olympic champion. Then to have achieved that so early on, it was like where do I go from here?

“Then you come crashing down to reality four years later when you miss out on Tokyo. It was tough to pick myself up after that. It has been one hell of a journey.

“As weird as it may sound, Covid may have helped me because it put things into perspective.

“I spent all my life chasing gates down a section of white water, that was my life, that was the way I defined myself. Somewhere I got lost in chasing this Olympic dream and gold medal that I lost the enjoyment along the way but it is something I have found again. It was only when that real low of missing Tokyo hits that you realise things are a bit tougher and you are asking yourself those questions of if you want to carry on.

“You answer the questions by the enjoyment. I did so well at those Olympics because I was there to enjoy it and soak in the experience, I have got that enjoyment back.”

David Goodfield

EVENT: Men’s hockey

HOPES: Medal hope

Shropshire hockey star David Goodfield has battled through the pain barrier to make his Olympic dream a reality.

The 31-year-old, from Shrewsbury, is a two-time Commonwealth Games bronze medallist and one of seven debutants in the GB men’s team heading to Paris.

But the path has been far from straightforward for Goodfield due to back problems which through much of the first part of the year left his participation in serious doubt.

“It’s been tough to get back fit and get selected for the squad,” Goodfield recently told Sportsbeat about the disc issues which have driven him to near distraction since first flaring up last year. “The last six or seven months have been the hardest ever.

“The issues came back with a massive vengeance in November. From November until eight weeks ago, I didn’t really play a huge amount of hockey.

“I was able to do everything required rehab-wise, but actual time on the pitch was pretty limited.

“The timing was always going to be really tight. The nature of my back is that you don’t get a warning sign that it’s going to go, it just goes and you can either play or you can’t play.

“I’ve been doing everything I can with the physios and doctors to make sure I do survive. It will be the same in the next few weeks to make sure I can kick on, on the pitch.”

Goodfield started his career at Telford & Wrekin and now plays for Surbiton in the English Premier Division but also coaches at Richmond. He is part of a 16-strong squad aiming to claim British men’s hockey’s first Olympic medal since they famously won gold at Seoul 1988.

After a fifth-placed finish in Tokyo three summers ago, there is optimism about their chances, particularly after reaching the final of last year’s EuroHockey Championships.

Adam Burgess

EVENT: C1 Kayak Slalom

HOPES: Medal chance

Adam Burgess hopes throwing a little caution to the wind can help put him on the podium in Paris and finally leave the agony of Tokyo behind him.

Burgess, who like Joe Clarke is a member of Stafford & Stone Canoe Club, was a whisker away from claiming a medal in the C1 slalom event three summers ago, missing out on third place and bronze by less than two-tenths of a second.

The 32-year-old former European silver medallist believes a change in mindset gives him a strong chance of challenging the reigning champion, Slovenia’s Benjamin Savsek.

“Throughout my career, it’s been the case that I like pressure, almost to a fault,” he said. “I’ve almost needed to have my back up against the wall to pull out a performance.

“Now, I’m performing whether it’s with pressure or without. I do need it, it’s uncomfortable at times, but only because it feels important to me.

“The harsh reality is that I match the world champion and the reigning Olympic champion in main qualifying and in semi-finals but he’s winning a lot more medals and we need to address that.

“We’re calling it ‘Project Send It’ because I just need to send it a little bit more in the final. I need to be willing to go there and take a bit more of a measured risk.”

Burgess, who took up canoeing aged 10, is a five-time world medallist and a four-time European medallist, though the silver he won in 2018 remains his only triumph in the individual events.

He has never been afraid to embrace the unconventional, previously revealing how he developed his racing philosophy through yoga. Burgess is also an advocate of breathwork, a conscious form of breathing practice he first used when recuperating from injury in 2017.

Though he knows such methods attract the cynics, he is ready to prove them wrong in Paris.

“When people hear the breath work, their mind jumps to lying on the ground or sitting quietly in meditation,” he said. “I’m interested in functional breathing.

“There is also a performance element and there are certain things in my warm-up that I don’t see any other athlete doing. The proof is in the pudding, I think.”

Joe Fraser

EVENT: Gymnastics

HOPES: Medal hope

At the turn of the year, Joe Fraser wasn’t even sure he would ever compete again.

In that respect, the former Sandwell Academy student even making it to Paris for his second Olympics feels something of an achievement.

Not that Fraser will want to leave it there. The 25-year-old will head to France as part of a GB men’s gymnastics team aiming to go at least one better than the agonising fourth-placed finishes at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020. Along with Max Whitlock, the six-time medallist who will be competing at his fourth and final Games, Fraser is the only member of the five-strong squad with prior Games experience.

“I hope I can be a shoulder for the new guys to lean on if they feel overwhelmed by anything or need some advice,” he said.

“We’re really grateful to have Max in the team who’s been through every single emotion under the sun with this being his fourth Olympic Games, so I’m sure we can lean on each other when needed. We can produce the best result we can as a team and we’ll stick together through it all.”

Fraser, who won a world title on the parallel bars in 2019, has a track record of delivering under pressure. Two summers ago he was a poster boy for the Birmingham Commonwealth Games and still delivered on the expectation, winning three gold medals, despite competing throughout with a fractured foot and just weeks after having his appendix removed.

A few weeks later saw the biggest achievement of his career so far, when he became the first British male to win the all-around European title.

Yet the highest high was followed by the lowest low. Fraser’s recovery from surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder in February last year took far longer than anticipated, wiping out his entire 2023 season.

“Every time I was going into the gym and I was not quite there, struggling to crawl, it was coming back to me that I was losing days,” he told the Express & Star earlier this year.

“Going into this year, a lot of people probably thought I was not going to get back in time for Paris.”

Fraser persevered and announced his comeback by winning the all-around title at March’s British Championships. His major competition return a month later at the European Championships didn’t quite go to plan on an individual level, though Fraser’s performances in the team event helped GB secure silver.

“The last 18 months have been a challenge to say the least,” he said. “

Twelve months ago I would definitely struggled to believe that I would have made it back in time, so having done enough to be here as part of Team GB is everything I’ve ever wanted.

“Last year’s shoulder surgery was a bigger operation than I first anticipated, so it took a lot longer to get back and I’m still kind of figuring that out now.

“To be able to make it back has been perfect, so anything on top is going to be a dream.”

Delicious Orie

EVENT: Super heavyweight boxing

HOPES: Gold medal chance

Inspired to take up boxing after watching Anthony Joshua win his first world title, Delicious Orie will aim to take another big step in the footsteps of his hero at Paris 2024.

Twelve years after Joshua won gold in London, it is Bilston’s Orie who carries Britain’s hopes in the super heavyweight division. It is not even a decade since the 27-year-old first set foot in a boxing gym and the former Colton Hills student’s rapid rise from novice to Olympian is impressive in its own right.

But there is so much more to his story. Born in Moscow to a Nigerian father and Russian mother, Orie arrived in the UK aged seven when dad Justin decided to move the family in order to escape racism.

A seriously smart cookie, Orie also has a first-class degree in economics and business management, admitting in an interview with the Express & Star last year he would have embarked on a career in banking were it not for boxing.

“It was a tough one, genuinely,” said Orie. “I was quite emotionally attached to studying. Stopping that after my degree was a big decision. But it showed how powerful boxing was to me.”

The decision, so far, has paid dividends. Orie won gold at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games and then booked his ticket to Paris by doing the same at last summer’s European Games.

He will now be aiming to continue GB’s strong super heavyweight pedigree, with the team having claimed medals in each of the last four Games. Emulating Joshua and Audley Harrison, the only British boxers to have ever won super heavyweight gold, is the ultimate dream.

It is one which has been made tougher by the fact professionals are now allowed to box at the Olympics. That means Tokyo 2020 gold medallist Bakhodir Jalolov, unbeaten in 14 pro bouts, will return to defend his title. Orie, seeded second in the tournament, is on course to meet the Uzbekistan star in the semi- finals. After a year which began with three straight competition defeats, Orie heads into the Games on the back of a points win over Norway’s Omar Mohamed Shiha. The losses have prompted some to question his medal prospects, yet Orie believes he is built for the big stage.

“With the game that I’m in, it’s relatively common to lose,” he said. “You get into some bouts and it’s just not your day, or the judging doesn’t go your way, or the opponent is really good at that time.

“For me, it’s all about picking up that experience. It’s something I’m able to learn from.

“Win, lose, it doesn’t really matter, it’s about being able to perform when it really matters and give everything when it matters, and for me, that’s the Olympics.

“These are blessings in disguise. I come out of those losses thinking: ‘huge lesson, what are we going to do differently in the next fight?’

“It’s important I learn from my mistakes behind the scenes before the whole world is watching.”