Career makers and breakers: Here are seven Paris Olympic events you can't miss

That's before we even get to the rugby players training in earphones delivering personal sledges, the ones who might as well have jets attached to their shoes and ... breakdancers?

The list of reasons you need to be watching the Paris Olympic Games could be as long as the 777-kilometre Seine, but we've narrowed it down.

What: Women's 100m backstroke final; Women's 200m backstroke final; Women's 200m individual medley final

When: Wednesday, July 31, 4.30am; Saturday, August 3, 4.30am; Sunday, August 4, 4.30am

Kaylee McKeown could walk out of the Olympic village as Australia's greatest of all time.

With three Olympic gold medals already to her name, the backstroker could add another three individual golds in Paris.

McKeown will feature in the 100m and 200m backstroke, and the 200m individual medley - and that's before we even get to 4x100 medley relay chances.

Three more golds in Paris could see McKeown pass the Mark set by both Emma McKeon and Ian Thorpe, who each have five gold medals, to set a new Australian Olympic record.

The scene is set for one of the pool's most tantalising battles between the 23-year-old Australian and America's Regan Smith, who just broke McKeown's 100m backstroke world record at the US Olympic swimming trials in Indianapolis.

McKeown is the reigning 100m and 200m Olympic champion after winning gold in Tokyo less than a year after her father died from brain cancer.

She captured a nation with a memorable "f--- yeah" during a post-race interview at the 2020 Games, and you'd suggest more gold will have plenty of Australians saying the same this time around.

What: Women's 400m freestyle final

When: Sunday, July 28, 4.55am

Korbut v Comneci, Griffith Joyner v Ashford, Williams v Sharapova, Meares v Pendleton.

The Olympic Games have witnessed many captivating head-to-head showdowns between the planet's best female athletes, and Titmus v Ledecky warrants inclusion in such esteemed company.

When the pair line up at La Defense Arena in the Paris suburb of Nanterre on the opening night of the Olympic swimming program, they will bring together unparalleled credentials.

Hailing from Launceston but based in Brisbane, Ariarne Titmus, 23, is the defending Olympic champion, reigning world champion and world record holder with a five-year unbeaten record over the distance.

Katie Ledecky, 27, is the American icon showing no signs of being weighed down by the 28 gold medals she has won at Olympic Games and world championships including over this distance before the young Australian beat her for the first time in 2019.

In Tokyo, Titmus won by 0.67 seconds and increased that margin to 3.35 at the last worlds in Fukuoka when setting the world record of 3:55.38. The freestyle rivals are also reigning Olympic champions over 200m (Titmus) and 800m (Ledecky).

New Zealand's world championship bronze medallist Erika Fairweather, Canada's former world record-holder Summer McIntosh and Titmus's teammate Lani Pallister should ensure plenty of depth to the field, but the media interest will focus on a rivalry which Titmus has said is actually based on mutual respect.

"We chat. She's just a normal person. She's lovely actually," she said of Ledecky, who has held world records at 400, 800 and 1500m. "We get along, like most competitors do."

What: Men's pole vault final

When: Tuesday, August 6, 3am

"If you're going to pencil in a world record at the Games," Steve Hooker says, "that would be the one."

A gold medal and an Olympic record set at the Beijing Games in 2008 suggests when Hooker talks pole vault, the rest of us listen.

Armand Duplantis, the American-born Swede better known as Mondo, has some resume at just 24 years of age.

He is the reigning Olympic gold medallist and holds both the outdoor (6.24 metres) and indoor world records, clearing six metres or higher more than any athlete in history. He has broken the world record seven times and even has a meet named after him.

"He looks like he's in incredible form. He is just a super talent, still young, still got improvement in his trajectory," Nine expert Hooker said.

"He could literally take that event anywhere and I'd love to be watching a world record in pole vault at the Olympic Games. We've never really seen anyone go close to be honest, and this feels like it might be the first opportunity.

"Mondo is just a superstar. He's just building a career that may well be unrivalled by the time he finishes."

What: Rugby sevens

When: Women's rugby sevens: Group stage - Sunday, July 28, from 11.30pm/Monday, July 29, from 10pm; quarter-finals - Tuesday, July 30, from 5am; semi-finals - Tuesday, July 30 from 11.30pm; medal matches - Wednesday, July 31, from 3am

When: Men's rugby sevens: Group stage - Wednesday, July 24, from 11.30pm/Thursday, July 25, from 10pm; quarter-finals - Friday, July 26, from 5am; semi-finals - Saturday, July 27, from 11.30pm; medal matches - Sunday, July 28, from 3am

Charlotte Caslick pretended to be injured before a training session on the advice of her own coach. She wore headgear over earphones playing cheers, boos and sledges recorded by coaching staff.

The Australian women's sevens team has abseiled in Cape Town, skydived in Wollongong and woken at 3am to hike in Orange. And then there have been the games of poker to fit with a theme of "all in".

Australian coach Tim Walsh is thinking outside the box as he looks to take the reigning world champions to another Olympic gold medal following their success in Rio eight years ago.

"Yeah, he's done a lot of weird things, a lot of wild stuff," Caslick said.

Even with Alysia Lefau-Fakaosilea, Madison Ashby, Lily Dick and Demi Hayes all missing through injury, Australia looms as a genuine gold medal chance with New Zealand firming as their biggest rivals.

The addition of ACT Brumbies flyer Corey Toole and NRL-bound Mark Nawaqanitawase boosts the men's team in their hunt for a maiden Olympic gold medal.

What: Men's 100m sprint final

When: Monday, August 5, 5.55am

He is the forgotten man of the Tokyo Olympics.

As everyone wondered who would become the heir to three-time Olympic gold medallist Usain Bolt's throne, perhaps few anticipated former long jumper turned Italian sprinter Marcell Jacobs would become the 100m sprint king.

But as quickly as he rose to fame, he took himself out of the spotlight. Jacobs moved his family from Rome to a gated community in Florida, his name disappeared from start lists and, when he did race, he struggled to reach those same heights.

Now he is preparing to defend his title, determined to be more than a one-hit wonder.

What: Breaking

When: Women's - Saturday, August 10, 12am-5.23am; Men's - Sunday, August 11, 12am-5.23am

Who would have thought block parties in the Bronx would turn into a pursuit of Olympic gold in Paris?

Breaking will make its Olympic debut in Paris, with 16 B-boys and 16 B-girls - that's break-boys and break-girls - compete in solo dance battles.

Olympic officials say "athletes will use a combination of power moves - including windmills, the six-step, and freezes - as they adapt their style and improvise to the beat of the DJ's tracks in a bid to secure the judges' votes".

Most of us might not know what all that actually means, but it might make for interesting viewing. After all, skateboarding certainly turned heads in Tokyo.

What: Men's hockey Pool B

When: Wednesday, July 31, 3.45am

Two of the superpowers of world hockey will clash in an Olympic gold medal final rematch at the Yves-du-Manoir Stadium in the north-western Parisien suburb of Colombes.

Three years after they squared up in the Japanese capital, Australia and Belgium will do so again under vastly different circumstances in the French.

As one of five fixtures each in Pool B, there is far less at stake than under COVID restrictions on August 5, 2021, when they drew a thrilling nail-biter 1-1 before Belgium won 3-2 on penalties to claim their first Olympic title. The standout two teams in the Tokyo tournament had both won four and drawn one of their pool matches before storming through quarter- and semi-finals.

The victory marked a climax to Belgium's rise through the ranks over the last decade. Silver medallists at the 2016 Olympics, they had been on the podium at the last four European championships, in the top two at the last three FIH Pro Leagues and have made the last two World Cup finals, winning in 2018.

Australia, meanwhile, were in the previous four World Cup finals and have been semi-finalists at the last 12.

John-John Dohmen and Eddie Ockenden have more than 900 international appearances between them and will both be gracing their fifth Olympic Games.

Also set to face India, New Zealand, Ireland and Argentina, the two nations will be setting their sights on topping the pool before refocusing on adding to their surprising combined Olympic gold medal tally of just two.