Australian Team Profile
Athletics is Australia's second-most lucrative sport when it comes to Olympic medals and the 41-strong Beijing team will be out to add new chapters to the nation's proud track and field history.
The team is the smallest since the Games of Barcelona in 1992 with 35-year-old marathon runner Lee Troop the oldest competitor selected. At the other end of the scale, Dani Samuels, 20, is the youngest of 24 new faces in the team.
There are three Olympic silver medallists - Clinton Hill, Mark Ormrod and John Steffensen - all from Australia's 4x400m relay outfit that was second in Athens.
Jane Saville, a bronze medal winner in 2004, will join elite company when she becomes just the sixth track and field athlete to compete in four Olympics.
Only fellow walker Simon Baker, sprint star Raelene Boyle and marathoners Rob de Castella, Steve Moneghetti and Lisa Ondieki have achieved the feat.
Saville is in with a medal chance, while Nathan Deakes, the men's 20km walk world champion, has had his hopes dashed by a severe hamstring injury, robbing him of the chance to add Olympic gold to his victory in Osaka last year.
Supermum Jana Rawlinson, a two-time 400m world champion, won't be competing either, the 25-year-old's toe injury forcing her to pull out.
Tamsyn Lewis stormed to a shock 800m triumph in Valencia at the World Indoors earlier this year and is another to keep a close eye on.
Those who witnessed distance runner Craig Mottram's brave effort at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne will be desperate to see him go one better on the Olympic stage.
Mottram ran an inspired race over 5000m at MCG in 2006 but had to settle for the silver medal behind young Kenyan prodigy Augustine Choge.
The lanky 27-year-old is a popular figure in the world of athletics and looms as one of few dangers to the African dominance in the distance events.
The athletics competition will be held from August 15 to 24, at Beijing's National Stadium, affectionately known as the Bird's Nest.
Australian medallists from the 2004 Olympics, Athens
Gold: Nil
Silver: Men's 4x400m relay (John Steffensen, Mark Ormrod, Patrick Dwyer and Clinton Hill)
Bronze: Nathan Deakes (Men's 20km walk), Jane Saville (Women's 20km walk), Bronwyn Thompson (long jump)
Australian medallists from the 2000 Olympics, Sydney
Gold: Cathy Freeman (Women's 400m)
Silver: Jai Taurima (Men's long jump), Tatiana Grigorieva (Women's pole vault)
Bronze: Nil
Australian Olympic Athletics Team
Men
400m: Joel Milburn (22, NSW), John Steffensen (25, WA), Sean Wroe (23,VIC)
800m: Lachlan Renshaw (21, NSW)
1500m: Mitchell Kealey (24, QLD), Jeff Riseley (21 ,VIC)
5000m: Collis Birmingham (23, VIC), Craig Mottram (28, VIC),
3000m Steeplechase: Youcef Abdi (30, NSW)
4x400m: Dylan Grant (20, QLD), Clinton Hill (28, ACT), Milburn (NSW), Mark Ormrod (25, SA), Steffensen (WA), Wroe (VIC)
20km walk: Luke Adams (31, NSW), Chris Erickson (26, VIC), Jared Tallent (23,VIC)
50km walk: Adam Rutter (21, NSW), Tallent (VIC)
Marathon: Lee Troop (35, VIC)
Pole vault: Paul Burgess (28, WA), Steven Hooker (26, WA)
Shot put: Justin Anlezark (30, QLD), Scott Martin (25, VIC)
Javelin: Jarrod Bannister (23, QLD)
Discus: Benn Harradine (25, VIC)
Women
400m: Tamsyn Lewis (30, VIC)
800m: Tamsyn Lewis (VIC), Madeleine Pape (24, VIC)
1500m: Lisa Corrigan (23, ACT), Sarah Jamieson (33, VIC)
100m hurdles: Sally McLellan (21, QLD)
3000m steeplechase: Donna MacFarlane (31, TAS), Victoria Mitchell (26, VIC)
20km walk: Jane Saville (33, NSW), Kellie Wapshott (26, VIC), Claire Woods (27,SA)
Marathon: Benita Johnson (29, VIC), Kate Smyth (35, VIC), Lisa-Jane Weightman (29, VIC)
Pole vault: Alana Boyd (24, QLD)
Long jump: Bronwyn Thompson (30, QLD)
Discus: Dani Samuels (20, NSW)
Heptathlon: Kylie Wheeler (28, WA)