Being physically prepared is just half the story in the journey of a great athlete. It’s also important that you prepare mentally in order to manage the everyday struggles you may face, such as the pressure of competition, injury and recovery and, of course, learning to come to terms with the failures as well as the successes in your career.

28 sports, 306 events and more than 11,000 athletes vying for the honour of having a medal around their neck. Facts and figures from the Olympic Games Rio 2016 make for impressive reading – and those concerning Youth Olympic Games (YOG) athletes who have made the step up to the grandest stage of all are no exception. Here, we take a look at the pick of the bunch…

After winning taekwondo gold at the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) Nanjing 2014, Iran’s Kimia Alizadeh strengthened her reputation as one of the sport’s rising stars with an historic bronze medal at the Olympic Games Rio 2016, the first time an Iranian woman has ever reached the podium.

US fencer Alex Massialas should be getting used to making history following his exploits at the Olympic Games Rio 2016. By winning silver in the foil, he became the first American men’s fencer to win an individual medal since 1984, while his bronze medal in the team foil was the USA’s first in that event since 1932.

Just two years after winning gold at the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) Nanjing 2014, Bektemir Melikuziev and Shakur Stevenson shone on the biggest stage of all, winning silver medals in their boxing weight divisions at the Olympic Games Rio 2016.

After beating India’s P.V. Sindhu to become the first female athlete outside of Asia to win badminton singles gold, we give 10 fun facts about Spain’s Carolina Marín.

She made history as Great Britain’s first-ever taekwondo gold medallist at the Olympic Games London 2012. And four years later, Jade Jones once again achieved the unprecedented by defeating Spain’s Eva Calvo Gomez in the final of the -57kg division at the Olympic Games Rio 2016, becoming the first Olympian to defend her crown in this class.

A silver medal in the men’s team event at the Olympic Games Rio 2016 has raised hopes that Koki Niwa could bring an end to China’s decades-long dominance of the sport, with glory in Tokyo in four years’ time.

In 2014, Serghei Tarnovschi earned Moldova’s first-ever gold medal in an Olympic competition at the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) Nanjing 2014, and on Tuesday he graduated to the Olympic stage in style, claiming bronze in the men’s canoe sprint C1 1000m event at Rio 2016. We give the lowdown on the 19-year-old YOG athlete.

Rio native Thiago da Silva improved his personal best by 10cm to set a new Olympic record and win Brazil’s first athletics gold since 1984.