Olympic tracker: The Raider-inspired rowers gunning for gold in Paris

Remember when four rowers won gold on the waters of Tokyo because they wanted to do it for the Raiders?

Now they're heading to Paris - and some of them are chasing Olympic Games success in a new event.

Ten Canberra-based rowers will bolster the 37-strong Australian team in pursuit of gold medals at the Paris Olympics.

Alex Purnell, Spencer Turrin, Jack Hargreaves and Alex Hill are chasing another gold medal after ending a 25-year wait in Tokyo, where Purnell could be heard yelling "Raiders" as they held off the fast-finishing Romanians on their way to the line.

Now Purnell, Hargreaves and Turrin move into the men's coxless eight, joining a group including Canberra's Joseph O'Brien and Joshua Hicks.

Hill will chase another gold in the coxless four alongside Canberra's Fergus Hamilton and Jack Robertson, while Simon Keenan and Patrick Holt combine in the men's coxless pair.

"It's a new challenge, being in the eight, but I'm relishing it," Turrin said.

"I like having a lot of different personalities around me and being part of this group that's doing some really incredible stuff."

Purnell, who visited the Raiders for a training session last year, grew up a North Sydney Bears fan but developed a soft spot for the Raiders having spent so much time training on Lake Burley Griffin.

"I really jumped on the bandwagon," Purnell said last year.

"In the Olympics, it got pretty close, I got emotional and yelled out, 'Do it for the Raiders' at the end, and we managed to just hold on and win the gold medal."

The Australian team is training in Italy and looks poised to enter the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium in Paris following recent international success.

If Andrew Charter needed another reason to help the Kookaburras end a 20-year wait for a gold medal in Paris, this might be it: it could be his final roll of the dice with Eddie Ockenden.

At 37, Charter is on the verge of his 250th appearance for the Kookaburras as the Australian goalkeeper closes in on his third Olympic Games appearance.

Ockenden is set to become the first Australian hockey player to compete at five Olympic Games, while also bringing up 450 caps for the Kookaburras.

The 37-year-old - who won't rule out a sixth Olympic appearance in Los Angeles - has won two bronze medals and a silver since Australia last won gold in 2004.

"Eddie is an incredible athlete, an incredible person, he's like a good bottle of red wine isn't he, he just keeps getting better and better," Kookaburras coach Colin Batch said.

"Heading towards his fifth Olympics is a marvellous achievement and I know he wants a bigger goal and that's not just being in the team, he wants success in Paris."

So too does Charter, who is desperate to atone for a heartbreaking loss in the gold medal game in Tokyo.

Australia's ruthless pursuit of Olympic gold has been laid bare by the high-profile omissions of Hockeyroos striker Rosie Malone from coach Katrina Powell's women's squad.

The Hockeyroos won gold in 1988, 1996 and 2000 but have missed the podium since.

"This is our best 16 players who we believe will give us the best chance of being successful in Paris," Canberra product Powell said.

"There's good versatility in there, they provide flexibility and the versatility that's required for the structure of an Olympic Games."

Kelsey-Lee Barber has suffered a major setback in her quest to win a second Olympic Games medal, revealing her injury struggles just over a month before the opening ceremony.

Barber was expected to be one of Australia's greatest medal hopes in Paris next month after winning two world championships and Olympic bronze in Tokyo.

But the Canberra javelin star said an injury had changed her "journey" as she races the clock to be at her best in France.

Barber did not reveal the specifics of the injury, but said it forced her to reset her goals.

"My journey to Paris continues but looks a little different. I have been managing an injury that has kept me at home a little longer than normal and has meant I haven't been competing recently," Barber said on Instagram.

"It also changes the purpose of the season, focusing solely on competing at the Olympic Games. It's been a strange period of time and my priority was on healing my body.

"Now getting back into the swing of things I have plans in place to get me to Paris ready to compete and a fabulous team of people around me to support this goal.

"The 2024 story is certainly unfolding in an unexpected way and I'm doing my best to embrace this chapter while still keeping the Olympic dream alive."

If Barber is there in round six of an Olympic final, gold medal winner Steve Hooker says you would start to think "anything is possible" and only the bravest of punters would write her off.

Athletics Australia and the Australian Olympic Committee are yet to confirm the track and field team for the Games, but an announcement is expected soon.

Some athletes, including Canberra young gun Cameron Myers, have already gone overseas to start their preparation while Jye Edwards has ruled out a Paris crack as he battles an ongoing Achilles problem.

Myers won the 3000 metres national title earlier this year and has been making a case for his Paris selection, despite still being a school student in the capital.

Boxer Monique Suraci is also getting ready to head abroad to finish her preparations. The Queanbeyan fighter is considered a strong medal chance.

Canberra-based gymnast Jesse Moore will be headed to Paris with the biggest Australian team ever to compete at the Games.

Moore was named as one of 13 athletes in a gymnastics team that is set to make history in France next month.

Not only is it the largest team Australia's sent to the Games, but the squad also included the youngest ever male trampoline Olympian - from any nation - in Victorian 17-year-old Brock Batty, and a record 11 women.

Along with more in the artistic gymnastics discipline will be debutants Kate McDonald, Emma Nedov, Ruby Pass and Breanna Scott, with Emily Whitehead to become a two-time Olympian.

In rhythmic gymnastics Lidiia Iakoleva will compete in her second Games in the individual and team events, and become the first Australian ever to do so, while debuts await Phoebe Learmont, Emmanouela Frroku, Saskia Broedelet, Jessica Weintraub, and Alexandra Kiroi-Bogatyreva.

Moore secured his place in the Paris team with a win at the Oceania Continental Championships in New Zealand last month, backing up his Australian All-Around title on the Gold Coast.

Training partner of Moore, Canberra's own 2022 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist James Bacueti, did not make the Olympic team.

"Assembling our biggest ever squad for an Olympic Games is an incredible achievement that everyone in the gymnastics community is immensely proud of," Gymnastics Australia interim chief executive and high-performance director Chris O'Brien said.

The rhythmic gymnastics events will be held at the Porte de La Chapelle Arena in Paris between August 8 - 10, while the Bercy Arena will host the artistic discipline July 27 - August 1 - 5 and trampoline is on August 2.

Canberra Capitals star Jade Melbourne is making a massive push for inclusion in Australia's Olympic campaign, lighting up the WNBA and announcing herself as an international superstar.

Melbourne is on the fringes of the Australian Opals squad and is using the best league in the world to impress national coach Sandy Brondello.

Melbourne is the youngest player in the WNBA but stunned opponents and teammates when she put up a career-high 21 points earlier this week. It was a perfectly timed purple patch for the 21-year-old given Brondello was coaching the opposition - the New York Liberty.

"I think she was trying to impress the coach [to] try to make the Olympic team," Brondello said after the game. "She did that, two games in a row."

Melbourne has been left out of the Opals squad to tour Japan next week, with game time in the WNBA viewed as a crucial step in her development.

Former Capitals skipper Marianna Tolo, however, has returned from Europe and will join the Opals for the two-game trip. Veteran superstar Lauren Jackson continues to firm in her bid for an Olympic comeback, but she will also miss the games in Japan.

Jackson, 43, did play on a recent trip to China and her experience will be a massive addition to the Opals' bid to get back in the Olympic medals.

"The recent China series was fantastic preparation for our team and to come away with two wins is a confidence boost," Brondello said.

"We always stress the importance of international game time and Japan will give the players and coaches an opportunity to continue to build for Paris."

Patty Mills is set to lead the Boomers again, despite his limited game time in the NBA this season. Mills started the year at the Atlanta Hawks but finished at the Miami Heat, but he's the inspirational leader of the Australian side and guided them to a bronze medal in Tokyo.

Alex Toohey is training with Mills in the United States at the moment. The young gun has put his NBA draft hopes on the back burner for another year, and he didn't make the Boomers' final cut for Paris.

There are plenty of other Canberrans in contention. Sevens star Sharni Smale (nee Williams) is chasing another gold, Kookaburras goalkeeper Andrew Charter has every chance to win the tournament and Rebecca Henderson will be pushing for the mountain bike podium.

Two-time world champion and Tokyo bronze medallist Kelsey-Lee Barber (javelin) will be aiming high again, Michael Matthews and Jay Vine (road cycling), while James Bacueti (gymnastics) is a Commonwealth Games medal-winner.

ACT Brumbies stars are on the rugby sevens men's radar. Corey Toole looks set for a call-up while Tom Wright and Ben O'Donnell had been earmarked as potential late inclusions. Wright, however, has returned to the Wallabies squad after the Super Rugby season.

Henry Palmer is also in contention for a sevens call-up. The young speedster burst into the sevens set up at the end of last year, and has returned to the John I Dent Cup before the Olympic team gets named.

In athletics, Jye Edwards has succumbed to injury and won't be able to be fit in time to compete, opening the door for training partner - teenage sensation Cameron Myers - to get a ticket to Paris.