Last night’s spectacular opening ceremony along the banks of the Seine in Paris marked the official start of the greatest sporting event on the planet. The 33rd Olympic Games will see around 10,000 athletes from the territories of 206 National Olympic Committees plus the IOC Refugee Olympic Team compete in 329 events in 32 sports.

The British contingent, most of whom arrived in the French capital on Thursday, consists of 327 members, who will compete in 26 sports.

Among them are a handful of names to take special notice of. They’re the competitors from the Harrogate district. Here you can find out who they are, what they’ll be doing, and who they’ll be up against.

Scroll to the bottom to see when each of them will be in action.

Georgie Brayshaw, rower

First up is 30-year-old Georgie Brayshaw, a former pupil of St John Fisher Catholic High School in Harrogate. At the age of 15, a fall from a horse left her paralysed down the left side of her body for a year, but she retrained her body and took up rowing while at university.

Georgie and her three teammates (Lauren Henry, Hannah Scott and Lola Anderson) will be taking to the water at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium, 20km east of Paris, early on the first full day of the Games (Saturday, July 27) for the women’s quadruple sculls – in other words: four rowers per boat, two oars (or ‘sculls’) per rower, racing over 2000m. 

This is the same team that won Gold just 10 months ago at the 2023 World Rowing Championships in Serbia and also in the 2024 European Rowing Championships in Hungary in April, so they’ll be looking to fend off strong challenges from the Netherlands, Ukraine and Germany, to attain Olympic glory.

Harry Hepworth, gymnast

Later the same morning, gymnast Harry Hepworth will be in action at the Bercy Arena in the qualification rounds of the men’s gymnastics, alongside teammates Joe Fraser, Jake Jarman, Luke Whitehouse and Max Whitlock.

Harry, who was born in Harrogate but grew up in Leeds and attended Prince Henry’s Grammar School in Otley, was just five years old when he was diagnosed with Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease, a disorder that prevents the growth of the hip bone. Nevertheless, he took up gymnastics three years later because he wanted to learn to do a backflip.

He progressed quickly, coming first in the rings as a 13-year-old at the British Under-14 Gymnastics Championships – prompting his local paper to dub him “Lord of the Rings”.

Now 20, he’s collected an armful of gold and silver medals at World Cup competitions across Europe in recent years, and played his part in a team silver at the 2024 European Championships in Rimini in April. The rings are still his forté – he finished first on them at the British Championships in March.

All being well, Harry and his fellow gymnasts will take part in the men’s team final on Monday, July 29. The individual disciplines will follow over the first five days of August, including Harry’s speciality, the rings, on August 4. 

Jack Laugher, diver

Undoubtedly the district’s most high-profile Olympian, Jack Laugher (pronounced ‘Law’) will be competing in his fourth Games. In Rio in 2016, he struck gold with diving partner Chris Mears in the 3m springboard synchro – making them Britain’s first ever Olympic diving champions – and silver in the individual 3m springboard; he took a bronze in the individual event in Tokyo in 2021. 

In recognition of his achievements, Harrogate Borough Council renamed Ripon’s leisure centre the Jack Laugher Leisure and Wellness Centre in 2022.

Ex-Ripon Grammar School pupil Jack, 29, now dives with Anthony Harding, and the pair won silver at the World Aquatics Championships in Budapest in 2022, and gold at the British Diving Championships in Birmingham in May.

But they’ll be up against some fearsome opposition when they start competing on Friday (August 2) at the Aquatics Centre in Paris, not least from the Chinese. China’s divers have won 27 of the 32 possible Olympic gold medals since Beijing 2008, and at the World Championships in Doha earlier this year, China made a clean sweep of all eight of the events that will feature in Paris. 

George Mills, runner

Former St Aidan’s C of E High School pupil George Mills will also enter the fray on Friday (August 2), when he runs in the first round of the men’s 1500m in the famous Stade de France. As we reported in last weekend’s feature on George, the Harrogate-born runner last autumn ran the third-fastest mile ever by a UK athlete, and has been training single-mindedly ever since.

Last month, he won a silver in the 5000m at the European Athletics Championships in Rome.

He was aiming to gauge his performance against top opposition by running the Emsley Carr Mile at the London Athletics Meet last weekend, but he and fellow British Olympian Neil Gourley fell within 30m of the start, ending their prospects.

Putting that episode behind him, George, 25, will be competing in the 1500m and 5000m, and will be focusing on getting past Norwegian favourite Jakob Ingebrigtsen, the reigning Olympic champion and record-holder at 1500m, and world champion at 5000m. 

Jacob Fincham-Dukes, long-jumper

Finally, Jacob Fincham-Dukes will be in action, also in the Stade de France, in his first Olympics next Sunday (August 4) when he attempts to add the long-jump Olympic gold to the UK gold he successfully defended in Manchester last year.

Jacob, 27, is a former pupil of St John Fisher Catholic High School in Harrogate, and he went on to take an MBA (Masters in Business Administration) at Oklahoma State University, where he became the college’s indoor long-jump record holder.

He came within a hair’s breadth of winning silver behind Greek phenomenon Miltiadis Tentoglou at the 2022 European Championships in Munich, but dropped to fifth following a review prompted by an appeal from the French team.

Here’s when our Olympians will be performing. For a comprehensive and fully updated schedule of events, see the Paris Olympics website.

W=Women’s  M=Men’s

All times are British Summer Time (GMT+1).

Georgie Brayshaw – Rowing

Sat, Jul 27 – 8am-12.10pm – W quadruple sculls heats

Mon, Jul 29 – 8.30-11.20am – W quadruple sculls repechage

Wed, Jul 31 – 8am-12.10pm – W quadruple sculls final B and medal final

Harry Hepworth – Artistic gymnastics

Sat, Jul 27 – 10am-12.30pm; 2.30-6pm; 7-9.30pm – M qualifications

Mon, Jul 29 – 4.30-7.30pm – M team final

Wed, Jul 31 – 4.30-7.15pm – M individual all-around final

Sat, Aug 3 – 2.30-5pm – M floor, M pommel horse finals

Sun, Aug 4 – 2-4.40pm – M rings, M vault finals

Mon, Aug 5 – 10.45-2.15pm – M parallel bars, M horizontal bar

Jack Laugher – Diving

Fri, Aug 2 – 10-11am – M synchro 3m springboard final

Tues, Aug 6 – 9-11am – M 3m springboard prelim

Wed, Aug 7 – 9-11am – M 3m springboard semis

Thurs, Aug 8 – 2-4pm – M 3m springboard final

George Mills – Athletics

Fri, Aug 2 – 10.05am – M 1500m round 1

Sun, Aug 4 – 8.10pm – M 1500m semis

Tues, Aug 6 – 7.50pm – M 1500m final

Wed, Aug 7 – 10am – M 5000m round 1

Sat, Aug 10 – 7pm – M 5000m final

Jacob Fincham-Dukes – Athletics

Sun, Aug 4 – 10am – M long-jump qualification

Tues, Aug 6 – 7.15pm – M long-jump final