The 2024 Olympic Games get under way on Friday with Paris staging an audacious opening ceremony on the River Seine to kick off what promises to be a fortnight to remember.
For many, all that matters is converting years of sacrifice and hard work into a gold medal, but there will also be the chance to make history when it comes to breaking world records along the way.
For Great Britain, it marks another Games where the nations only world record is put on the line, with Jonathan Edwardss triple-jump landmark having stood for 29 years.
Here, Telegraph Sport looks at the 10 athletics world records most likely at threat from this years crop of athletes and which ones could finally be broken.
Most of the womens sprint records have remained out of reach since the 1980s and, while anyone toppling Flo-Jos benchmark at the US Trials in Indianapolis remains a long shot, ShaCarri Richardson is one of the serious threats. Aged only 22, Richardsons best is 10.65sec and she will be looking to improve that in Paris and start to threaten the record.
The best two womens one-lap hurdlers in history just so happen to be going up against each other in what should be one of the highlights of the track and field programme. Sydney McLaughlin-Levreon was the first woman under both 52 and 51 seconds but the Netherlands Femke Bol has now also dipped under 51 seconds. Such quality competition should make another world record highly likely.
Three of the five fastest times in history have already been set this year, with Kenyas Faith Kipyegon a clear favourite to defend her title even under pressure from Gudaf Tsegay, of Ethiopia, and Australias Jessica Hull. Laura Muir set a British record to go 13th on the all-time list this month but, such is the wider quality, the Scot will still do well to get a medal.
Another womens record from the 1980s that has long felt unbeatable but, after going under 1min 55sec for the first time in her career at the London Diamond League, Great Britains Keely Hodgkinson has demonstrated that modern runners might finally be capable of bridging the gap. Hodgkinson herself thinks so: Now, I would say yes. It would take a very special race.
Usain Bolts two world records have been completely out of reach for well over a decade but, in Noah Lyles, athletics does at least have a sprinter now who thinks he can topple them. Lyles best chance is the 200m the event he calls his wife where he is clear favourite for gold. He has run 19.31sec previously and looks to be in the shape of his life.
A distance where, just conceivably, a runner from Great Britain could threaten the world record. Matthew Hudson-Smith has been in sensational form so far this year without ever quite going full throttle. He slowed at the London Diamond League even in running 43.74sec. That put him 12th on the all-time list and, while the world record probably remains a long shot, he is now within sight of it.
The Kenyan seemed to have put the record out of reach for a generation when he dipped under 1min 41sec after running from the front so spectacularly at the London Olympics. There have since been significant advances in shoe technology and there is also an outstanding group this year, with seven runners including Team GBs Ben Pattison running times among the 15 quickest of all time.
One of the longstanding track records in the books and just about the only endurance time to survive the era of super shoes, with their bouncy foam and plated soles. Yet that could finally change this year in what should be one of the best races of the entire Games, with Jakob Ingebrigtsen who is now fourth on the all-time list taking on Britains world champion Josh Kerr.
Like Sergei Bubka during the 1980s and 1990s, Mondo Duplantis has made this record his own in recent years and increased the height incrementally way, which suggests he knows that no one else can seriously threaten his dominance. He has already set yet another world record this year and dont be surprised if he goes even higher in Paris.
Whisper it quietly but Great Britain could lose its only current track and field world record this year. Edwards took the event into a new era during the 1990s but Spains Jordan Alejandro Díaz Fortún took the European title earlier this year with a leap of 18.18m just 11 centimetres short of Edwardss historic benchmark.
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