WORLD champions Nathan Deakes and Jana Rawlinson will lead Australia's athletics assault in Beijing after being named officially today.

Deakes (50km walk) and Rawlinson, along with Athens bronze medallist Jane Saville (20km walk) will provide the experience in the 41-member  team, while 24 athletes will make their Games debuts.

Dani Samuels (discus) is the youngest at 20.

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• Team and profiles

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Along with Deakes, Rawlinson and Saville, former world No.1 Steve Hooker (pole vault), and Athens finalists Bronwyn Thompson (long jump), Justin Anlezark (shot put), Craig Mottram (5,000m) and Paul Burgess (pole vault) all have high expectations.

National performance manager Max Binnington said he had expectations for the higher profile athletes on his team.

“Those athletes who have been there before or been very successful in world championships we want to see them certainly top eight and being a real chance for a medal,” he said.

“The biggest challenge for them is to make sure that their minds are really focused on the job. We expect them to be going in well prepared so then it’s up to the decision making whether it be race tactics or jumping tactics in the pole vault.”

Three members of the men’s 4x400m relay team that won a surprise silver in Athens - Clinton Hill, Mark Ormrod and John Steffensen - are chasing the podium again.

Binnington also tips walker Jared Tallent, who won IAAF Race Walking Challenge in Beijing in April, to potentially cause an upset.

“Tallent is a bloke who could do anything. he said.

At the world championships before he got scrubbed (disqualified) he was with the top three or four and he’s been working very hard on his technique since then.”

Tallent  is happy with his preparation.

“Winning that race in China was a really big thing for me. Not many people have beaten the Chinese in China before,” Tallent said.

Meanwhile the rest of his walking teammates – Deakes, Saville and Luke Adams – are currently at ‘real’ altitude at St Moritz, about  1800m above sea level.

Also doing gruelling training around the lakes and mountains in St Moritz are Beijing bound distance runners Collis Birmingham, Mitch Kealey, Mottram and Benita Johnson.

Former world cross country champion Johnson is doing in excess of 200 kilometres a week training for the gruelling Beijing marathon.

“I have always loved racing on the roads throughout my career and am thrilled to be competing in my first Olympic marathon,”  said Johnson, who competed over 5000m in Sydney and 10,000m in Athens.

“My training has gone to plan - can't wait to get out there and give it a real shot. The competition and conditions will make a truly fantastic race. These are the sorts of races I love being a part of.”

Athletics is arguably the most competitive sport at the Games and the last time Australia won more than three medals at an Olympics was Mexico City in 1968.

The athletics section of the Australian team for Beijing is the third biggest behind swimming (42) and rowing (48). 

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