She is just 28 years old, but Veronica Yoko Plebani has already squeezed more into her young world than most do in a lifetime. Contracting bacterial meningitis at 15 could have been the end, too, but instead the appalling illness signalled a new beginning, one that has taken her on to representing Italy at three Paralympic Games in snowboarding, canoeing and triathlon, grace the cover of Italian Vogue and write a celebrated novel telling the story of a young woman whose life is altered but refuses to lie down. Now she heads to Paris 2024 with a second triathlon medal in her sights.

Two stars of the Para Triathlon visually impaired class, Italy's 2023 World Champion Francesca Tarantello and Australia's Continental Champion Sam Harding are ready to hit their first Paralympic Triathlon start lines on 2 September, and reveal their rapid rises through the ranks to the sport's biggest stage: Paris 2024.

PARK RUN TO OLYMPIC PODIUM VIA DUATHLON WORLDS

As the Multisport World Championships hit Townsville, we rewind to Ibiza last year with Great Britain's Georgia Bell, when she became Age Group Duathlon World Champion before embarking on an Olympic odyssey that saw her win 1500m bronze in one of the most nail-biting Paris 2024 finishes since... well, Yee vs Wilde. Hear why she credits cycling and duathlon racing with her staying power on the track, and how she was able to turn the tables on broken dreams and return to the biggest stage of them all, having thought world-class racing was behind her.

Sunday sees the first day of familiarisation on the Paris 2024 Olympic Triathlon course and a chance to catch up with some of the men ready to do battle on 30 July at 8am in the heart of the French capital.

0m50s - KENJI NENER (JAPAN)

5m35 - JAMIE RIDDLE (SOUTH AFRICA)

14m06 - MARTEN VAN RIEL (BELGIUM)

19m37 - SAM DICKINSON (GREAT BRITAIN)

26m05 - ELOI ADJOVAN (TOGO)

33m30 - JEAN GAEL LAURENT L'ENTETE (MAURITIUS)

Saturday is Day One of Paris 2024, and we take a trip to Poissy, 30 minutes west of the French capital, to catch up with defending Olympic Triathlon Champion Flora Duffy and one of the favourites for the men's gold, Hayden Wilde. Then we head across the city to a cafe in La VIllette and get the full men's and women's race previews with TriathlonLive.tv commentary team Trevor Harris and Helen Jenkins.

1m10s - Hayden Wilde

10m10s - Flora Duffy

20m20s - Trevor and Helen men's preview

30m45s - Trevor and Helen women's preview

With just hours to go to the Opening Ceremony, we look ahead to the Paris 2024 Olympic triathlon events with the expert analysis and insight from Norway's Casper Stornes, revealing the complexities of the Paris Olympic course from swim to bike to run, and why you should never write off Kristian Blummenfelt... or the French.

Australia's Matt Hauser joins us for a rewind across the comings and goings of an almighty WTCS Yokohama that finally got the 2024 Series underway in dramatic style, and a look ahead to WTCS Cagliari, the final race of the Paris 2024 Qualification Period. The 55 men and 55 women are soon to be finalised, and the races to become Olympic Champions in the French capital are heating up already!

Reunited full-time with his coach Joel Filiol, back on extended training camps with nothing more to think about than form and focus, the enormous carrot of a home Olympics now just five months away, the two-time World Champion Vincent Luis is ready to pounce on every opportunity 2024 sends his way.

Dialling in at the end of four weeks in Lanzarote and ready for the season opener in Abu Dhabi, Luis is open about the likelihood of this being his last full season of short course racing. The blue carpet will undoubtedly miss one of the greats but, as the 34-year-old reflects on his career on the latest episode of the World Triathlon Podcast, the feeling will be mutual.

Before any discussion of retirement can begin, there is a season for the ages ahead of him. Injury may have seen him a mere spectator as teammates Dorian Coninx, Leo Bergere and Pierre Le Corre hoovered up the prizes in 2023, but the experience has also left him hungry. Three spots available, four world-class athletes competing for them, one huge decision ahead for the selectors. All Luis wants to do is produce the results that mean, purely based on form, he can still be one of them.

Standing at #32 in the Olympic Rankings at the start of 2024, Kiwi Dylan McCullough looks set to join Hayden Wilde on the New Zealand team for Paris 2024 if he can continue the form he produced in 2023. He talks team tactics for the big races, becoming Youth Olympic Champion and going face to face with Justin Bieber.

We continue our look back at some of the names breaking out in 2023 and with ambitions set fully on Paris in the company of Hungary’s exciting talent Marta Kropko.

Still only 20 years old, this season saw Marta cement her place in the Hungarian Mixed Relay squad after what was a tough debut in Leeds in 2022, this time helping the team to 5th place at the World Championships in Hamburg, 3rd at the European Games Krakow and now suddenly eyeing an Olympic qualification spot that would guarantee two men and two women on the Paris start lines.

The U23 Aquathlon World Champion after winning in Ibiza, Marta scored a first World Cup top 10 in Weihai in August and is now hunting a first WTCS start in 2024, all fitting around an Economics degree in which she is in her third year at Budapest University.