The 2022 Commonwealth Games are upon us and Australian athletes are fine-tuning their preparations for Birmingham.

Plenty of gold is expected to find its way into Aussie hands, with hopes this team can break the Australian record of 87 gold medals, set in Victoria, Canada, in 1994.

While they will face tough competition from a strong English side, backed by a passionate home crowd, the Australians are some of the world’s top athletes.

These are the athletes, set to don the green and gold as they chase their dreams on the world stage, who are appointment viewing.

Ariarne Titmus (swimming)

All hail the new queen of Australian swimming.

Having won 10 gold medals at major meets, the 21 year-old is poised to further cement her status as one of the world’s best swimmers.

Her Tokyo Olympics performances catapulted her into the realm of Australia’s biggest sports stars as she won the 200m and 400m freestyle, while coach Dean Boxall became a household name for his post-race celebrations. Titmus backed it up with a silver in the 800m freestyle and a bronze in the 4x200m freestyle and just to show off, put the rest of the field on notice at the national trials this year by breaking the world record in the 400m. There will be no showdown with American powerhouse Katie Ledecky in Birmingham, and the games are a big chance for Titmus to add even more medals to an already bulging trophy cabinet.

Peter Bol (athletics)

Thornlie’s finest export won the hearts of every Australian with his fantastic run to the 800m final in Tokyo.

Cheered on by a fervent family, packed into a tiny lounge room in Perth’s south-east, Bol ran his heart out in the final and raced out to the front of the pack but while he was unable to sustain the pace and eventually finished fifth, he returned home with a significantly raised profile.

The Diamond League regular has come a long way from athletics carnivals at St Norbert College, and enters this month ranked as the world’s third best 800m runner. Bol will enter Birmingham as the proud new owner of the Oceania record, having run a personal best of 1:44.00 in France just last month, and off the back of the World Athletics Championships in Oregon. While he will be under pressure to perform, the ever-smiling Bol has all the tools to take the expectations in his stride.

Emma McKeon (swimming)

Very few Australian swimmers will ever reach the heights Emma McKeon has. Only Ian Thorpe has won as many Olympic gold medals as McKeon (five). Four of those golds came in Tokyo last year, when the sprinter walked away with wins in the 50m freestyle, 100m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle and the 4x100m medley.

She added three bronze medals to her haul in Tokyo in the 100m butterfly, the 4x200m freestyle and the 4x100m mixed medley, which resulted in her surpassing Thorpe and Leisel Jones to become Australia’s most decorated Olympian of all time with a total of 11. Susie O’Neil currently holds the Australian Commonwealth gold medal record with 10, but with eight to McKeon’s name already, you would not bet against her notching up a new record in Birmingham. A potential showdown with Titmus in the 200m freestyle would be blockbuster entertainment.

Kyle Chalmers (swimming)

It seems weird Kyle Chalmers has been on our minds for so long, yet the man himself is still relatively young. The 24-year-old burst on to the scene when he was still a teenager in Rio, winning the 100m freestyle crown out of nowhere with an incredible performance in the Olympic final. Far from a flash in the pan, Chalmers has spent the next half-decade proving why he is the best short-distance male swimming prospect since Eamon Sullivan, slowly but surely building an impressive resume.

He won four golds and a silver at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, before last year snatching the 100m freestyle world record in the run-up to the Olympics. While he had to settle for silver in Tokyo, Chalmers remains one of the world’s premier freestylers and Birmingham looms as another chance for him to flex his muscles.

Madison de Rozario (athletics)

The reigning WA Sports Star of the Year, Madison de Rozario’s 2021 was one to behold. She entered Tokyo as one of the best T53/54 racers in the world, having won gold medals at the Commonwealth Games and the World Para Athletics Championships, but had never won an Olympic title.

With a score to settle, de Rozario showed her mettle in the 800m T53, producing a dominant performance to leave the rest of the field trailing in her wake. She set a Paralympic record of 1:45.99, just 0.46 seconds short of the world record she had set in 2019, before backing it up with a bronze medal in the 1500m T54. De Rozario then finished her breakthrough Paralympics by winning the marathon T54 event, and to prove it was not a fluke, went and won the New York Marathon, too. There are not many Australian athletes as dominant as she is right now.

Nicola Olyslagers (athletics)

The artist formerly known as McDermott was one of a number of a green and gold track and field team who properly announced themselves to the wider public in Tokyo. The high-jumper with a passion for mid-event journaling may have won a bronze medal at the last Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, but Olyslagers’ 2021 was a career-defining season.

Before the Olympics even began, she turned heads with an Australian and Oceania record of 2m in April, and raised that mark an extra centimetre soon afterwards. Alongside compatriot Eleanor Patterson, Olyslagers reached the Olympic final and at one of the last events on the schedule, left a lasting impression on the fans watching back home as she took home the silver medal with a personal best jump of 2.02m. The clear favourite for the high jump in Birmingham has another chance to endear herself to Australia.

Beth Mooney (cricket)

She may not have the profile some of her teammates have, but make no mistake about it, Mooney has a significant role to play at these Commonwealth Games. Cricket is back on the menu for the first time since Kuala Lumpur in 1998, but these games mark the debut of the women’s format. With a Twenty20 format chosen for Birmingham, it will suit Mooney down to a tee; she is the world’s top-ranked T20 batter, ahead of teammates Meg Lanning and Alyssa Healy.

The WBBL’s leading run-scorer in consecutive seasons, Mooney was integral in the Perth Scorchers’ title run last year as she formed an imposing partnership with Sophie Devine at the top of the order. With Australia the favourites for gold, Mooney’s big-hitting and ability to turn games on their heads will be crucial to their chances of a historical win.

Courtney Bruce (netball)

Courtney Bruce is probably sick of second place. She was part of the Diamonds squad who had home ground advantage at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and were the favourites going into the final - only to go down by a solitary point against England. A year later, she helped Australia reach the final of the Netball World Cup against New Zealand - only for them to again lose by one lone point. Heartbreak has marked her time in the green and gold, but with Australia again boasting a strong squad, there is reason to believe this time can be different, and Bruce will once again hold a pivotal role in Australia’s chances. She was a rock for the West Coast Fever as they clinched the Super Netball title and remains one of the best defenders in Australia. Now a team leader and respected veteran, Bruce has the chance to exorcise some demons in Birmingham.

Matt Richardson (cycling)

A rising star in the world of cycling who is returning to his country of birth to make a statement. While his hometown of Maidstone is much closer to London than Birmingham, Richardson will have local family cheering him on in the stands. But do not let that fool you; green and gold courses through Richardson’s blood. Having moved to Perth’s northern suburbs as a kid, he initially found his niche as a gymnast, only for a series of injuries to thwart him as a teenager.

He soon moved into track racing at the Midland Cycling Club where his explosivity caught the eye of the WA Institute of Sport, who snapped him up on a scholarship. Fast forward to the present day and Richardson has enjoyed an excellent start to 2022, with a string of medals falling into his hands at UCI Track Nations Cup events, highlighted by a gold medal after a sizzling individual sprint performance. The 23 year-old could become a household name if he continues his hot run of form in Birmingham.

Ash Moloney (athletics)

Never before had an Australian won an Olympic medal in the decathlon, the gruelling, 10-event tack and field spectacle which takes place over back-to-back days. That was until Moloney came along last year and won the bronze medal at his debut Olympics. The 22 year-old was also involved in one of the most heartwarming moments of Tokyo, when training partner Cedric Dubler helped set the pace for him in the 1500m, the final event of the decathlon.

Dubler sportingly allowed Moloney to overtake him, sacrificing his own race in the process, and yelled words of encouragement to help his countryman lock down third spot and claim an Olympic medal. Moloney has decided to do double duty for the national team, and will head to the Commonwealth Games from the World Championships in Oregon. This will be Moloney’s debut Commonwealth Games and he will be keen to make up for lost time.

Caitlin Parker (boxing)

It is funny to consider the middleweight boxer may never have stepped into the ring, had it not been for her father wanting her to learn self-defence. Parker swapped dancing classes for boxing at age 11 and never looked back.

The former Thornlie Senior High School head girl experienced her first taste of international silverware at the 2014 Youth Olympics, when she walked away with a bronze medal. After narrowly missing out on selection for the Rio Olympics, Parker was the first athlete named in the Australian team for the Gold Coast in 2018, where she won the silver medal. Parker made her Olympic debut in Tokyo and has her sights set firmly on upgrading the silver she won on the Gold Coast to a gold in Birmingham.