The countdown to Tokyo may have taken a year longer than anticipated but is finally almost over with Tasmanians more than ready to play their part.

And despite four 30-something veterans being among them, the spotlight sits brightest on a 20-year-old Games debutant.

Six years after her family relocated to Brisbane, Ariarne Titmus has repaid their commitment by graduating from a talented teenager to a world and Commonwealth champion who finds herself a gold medal favourite despite being up against a five-time Olympic champion with three world records to her name.

Five years ago in Rio de Janeiro, American Katie Ledecky won the 200, 400 and 800-metre freestyle hat-trick, but the veteran's upcoming duels with the young Tasmanian pretender have captured the imagination of fans and journalists alike.

While the Australian mainstream media have been salivating over the showdowns, Titmus takes them in her stroke, telling a recent Zoom press conference: "I think you guys like to play along with it. It's a nice story for everyone. (But) she's just a person, it's not like this massive rivalry that everyone thinks."

He may be at the opposite end of the experience spectrum, but Eddie Ockenden faces similar golden expectations in Tokyo.

The Hobart 34-year-old is not only Australia's most-capped hockey player, but among its most decorated.

Two World Cups, two World Leagues, an FIH Pro League, three Commonwealth Games and seven Champions Trophy titles is a stunning CV, but the national co-captain has an itch that still needs scratching.

Since taking to the Olympic stage in 2008 when the Kookaburras were defending champions, Ockenden's three campaigns have yielded two bronze medals and a disappointing sixth in 2016.

Only one outcome would provide a fitting finale to such a distinguished career and it would come with a win bonus of fellow Tasmanian Josh Beltz being in the same team.

Launceston-born Chris Goulding also finds himself in a national team desperate for Olympic success.

Goulding was in the Boomers team which cruised through the 2016 tournament, losing only to eventual champion USA in the group stage before thrashing Lithuania in the quarter-finals and appearing certain to win the team's first Olympic medal.

But then the wheels fell off with a semi-final loss to a Serbian team it had beaten in the group stage followed by a one-point loss to Spain in the bronze medal match.

Riverside Olympic product Nathaniel Atkinson, who kicks off Tasmania's Tokyo involvement on Thursday night, is a slightly longer shot with the Olyroos facing the daunting task of soccer powerhouses Argentina and Spain before the marginally less scary prospect of Egypt.

Three other Tasmanians are looking good for potential team success.

In 2019, Georgia Baker savoured world championship gold in the team pursuit and silver in the madison. Having been a part of the team which recovered from a horrific training crash to finish a creditable fifth in Rio, Perth's multiple national champion and her long-time teammates have been quietly plotting their Olympic redemption.

Baker is also likely to have two bites at the cherry with potential involvement in both track team endurance events.

Huon rower Sarah Hawe is also familiar with world championship success but after two golds and a silver from her last three campaigns has swapped from a women's four to an eight for her Olympic debut.

With the opening ceremony coinciding with her 34^th birthday, the adopted Tasmanian could find Tokyo's many enforced changes to her liking.

Like Baker, Launceston's Jake Birtwhistle should compete in two events and, while a strong contender in the individual triathlon, will come into his own in the newly-introduced mixed team relay where his renowned anchor-leg pace has delivered medals at the last four world championships as well as Commonwealth Games gold in 2018.

As Birtwhistle seeks to conquer triathlon's three legs, a trio of Tasmanians will also be testing themselves in the water, on a bike and in running spikes.

Grove's Daniel Watkins takes on the turbulent waters of the Olympic C1 event with a decade of international experience squeezed into his canoe.

Launceston's Richie Porte is Tasmania's known unknown - with unquestioned credentials on a bike but nobody knowing how he can back up from an 11^th Tour de France and round-the-world flight to take on 244 horizontal kilometres and 4.86 horizontal just six days later.

Half a lifetime since he was rubbing shoulders with Birtwhistle at Tasmanian all-school cross-country titles, Stewart McSweyn will compete alongside him on the ultimate stage, albeit after taking contrasting sporting career paths.

Having set multiple national records this year and qualified in three distances, the King Islander will focus on the 1500m where his world ranking has been as high as fifth.

Potentially, Tasmanians could compete on 14 of the Games' 16 days, with seven in action on Sunday alone.

Only time will tell for how much longer Lindisfarne rower Scott Brennan remains the state's last Olympic champion.