The 800m star looking to end 12 years of hurt, the pole vaulter who trained as a masseuse and the fastest man in the world over 400m right now... strap in for Team GB's five Olympic track heroes!

The track at the Stade de France is purple, but the colour Great Britain are craving is gold.

At the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Team GB failed to win an athletics title — the first time that had happened at a Games since Atlanta 1996 — but Britain have unearthed their best crop of athletes in a generation and now even have a chance of breaking their post-war record of four track and field Olympic golds.

Leading the way is team captain Josh Kerr, who gets his 1500 metres campaign started on Friday morning. ‘There’s a great expectation,’ said the Scot. ‘We’re coming in off one of our best medal counts at a World Championships. We’re going to battle for as many finals as we can and the medals will be there for the taking.

‘I’m very happy that I’m on the earlier side of the schedule to try to set the tone with that medal count.’

Here, Mail Sport looks at Team GB’s five best hopes at the Stade de France over the next 10 days.

Keely Hodgkinson Women’s 800m final — Monday, 8.47pm

No British track and field athlete is a bigger favourite than Hodgkinson.

After silver at the last Olympics and two Worlds, the 22-year-old is fully expected to land her first global gold here.

Her hopes have been boosted by the absence of Athing Mu, the defending champion, who failed to get through the US trials after falling. Yet even if Mu was running, Hodgkinson would still be the one to beat having set a European record of 1min 54.61sec last month in London — the fastest time in the world this year. 

‘Keely’s always going to show up at big meets,’ said Kerr. ‘We’re all excited to see what she can do. The way she ran with a 60,000-strong crowd in London, that’s a proper champion mindset and that’s how you come into the Olympics. It was a baller move.’

Hodgkinson believes she can run even faster here, with the Paris track expected to produce records. But after so many near misses, the only thing that matters is the result, as she looks to become the first British woman to win an Olympic athletics title since her hero Jessica Ennis-Hill in 2012.

Josh Kerr Men’s 1500m final — Tuesday, 7.50pm

After claiming a bronze in Tokyo, there is only one medal Kerr wants in Paris. ‘My goal is very simple,’ said the 26-year-old about his bid to back up his success at last summer’s World Championships in Budapest. 

‘The mission hasn’t changed and I’m ready to go after it. I’m looking to go out and execute — I believe I can do that better than anyone else in the world.’

Intriguingly, Kerr has not raced over 1500m at all this season. But he has broken Steve Cram’s British mile record, Mo Farah’s world indoor two-mile record, as well as winning the World Indoors in Glasgow.

As ever, the biggest threat to Kerr comes from defending champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen. But Kerr takes confidence from the way he beat his arch-rival in Budapest last summer. 

Asked if he felt that race would be playing on Ingebrigtsen’s mind, the Scot replied: ‘It would surprise me if it didn’t. But Jakob won the Olympics in 2021 with an Olympic record and you don’t lose that. And he’s also run faster this year.’ The 1500m final promises to be one of the races of the week.

Molly Caudery Women’s pole vault final — Wednesday, 6pm

The last British female to win an Olympic gold medal in a field event was javelin thrower Tessa Sanderson in 1984. Caudery could end that 40-year wait in the pole vault, having gone higher than any other woman this year.

The 24-year-old announced her arrival by finishing fifth at last summer’s World Championships. Yet she has reached greater heights this year, winning the World Indoors in March, then setting a British record of 4.92m.

Caudery has had a couple of blips of late, only picking up a bronze at the European Championships in June, with another third-place finish at last month’s Diamond League. Yet she insists she has learned lessons from both hiccups.

Caudery had always expected the next Games in Los Angeles would be where she challenged, and started training to be a masseuse before Christmas. Now, though, the only thing she wants to get her hands on is an Olympic medal.

Matthew Hudson-Smith Men’s 400m final — Wednesday, 8.20pm

Bronze in 2022, silver in 2023, now Hudson-Smith wants gold in 2024. He clocked the fastest time in the world this year at last month’s London Diamond League, smashing his own European record with a run of 43.74sec.

But Hudson-Smith thinks he can go even quicker at the Stade de France as he bids to become the first British man since Chariots of Fire hero Eric Liddell to win a global gold in the 400m. The Wolverhampton runner’s glory bid comes 10 years after he was working on the tills at Asda and had applied to join the Army.

Hudson-Smith has also been open about his mental-health struggles, revealing after his world bronze two years ago that he had attempted suicide 12 months earlier. But he comes to Paris in a good place, physically and mentally. ‘This is the first time in a long time that I’ve gone into a championships healthy,’ he said. ‘It’s going to be a very hard race but I am in the hunt for gold.’

Katarina Johnson-Thompson Women’s heptathlon — Thursday-Friday

An Olympic medal is all that is missing from the c.v. of the double world champion. She made her Games debut in London, finishing 14th, before coming sixth in Rio. 

In Tokyo, she pulled up in the 200m with a calf problem and was forced to withdraw. Johnson-Thompson has had her injury challenges ahead of Paris as well. She withdrew midway through the Europeans in June with an achilles issue, something she has had painkilling injections to try to manage.

But the Liverpudlian believes she will be fit on the start line at the Stade de France, where she will be up against the formidable double Olympic champion Nafi Thiam, who begins as favourite.

‘Each Olympics have given me different mental and physical challenges,’ said Johnson-Thompson. ‘But I feel like I’m the most prepared I’ve been, mentally and physically, for an Olympics. I just hope I can get a performance out. I am worth a medal if I’m in one piece.’

P.S. Why the track is purple

Organisers have replaced the blue track to match the official colours of Paris 2024. The company who make the track, Mondo, hope it will be the fastest ever, thanks to surface granules that help the ‘dynamic connection between the track and the new generation of shoes’.