Australia’s medal tally stands to benefit from the Olympic push for gender parity, which includes the two biggest sports - track and field and swimming - adding mixed team medals in Tokyo. There are double the number of mixed events at the Games in 2020, with 18 gold medals over 11 sports now on offer.

Australian swimming is already a force but could add another gold medal to the tally with the introduction of the 4x100m mixed medley, which features two athletes of each gender. Australia will start favourites after wining the event at the 2019 world championships in Korea, with anchor Cate Campbell flying home to edge American Simone Manuel. It will be tougher going in the athletics, with the USA expected to clinch the first 4x400m mixed relay Olympic gold medal on offer.

Team Chef de Mission Ian Chesterman is reluctant to predict any impact on medal tallies but says the mixed events, as well as the addition of extra women’s events, is welcomed by the Australian team. “The additional mixed gender events will create an exciting added dimension to these Games,” he told AAP.

“We won’t get into medal predictions but it does show what a unique showcase the Olympic Games presents and obviously a further opportunity for our Australian athletes to do their best against the world’s best athletes.”

A mixed team relay has also been added in triathlon, with two men and two women completing a short-course triathlon (300m swim, 8km bike, 2km run). While the representatives are still to be finalised, Australia are ranked No.2 in the world mixed relay rankings behind France.

Six-person teams, featuring a male and female from each weight class, will contest a new mixed team event in judo while table tennis has added mixed doubles. Archery will also offer mixed team medals, with one man and one woman per country facing off in match play format.

Shooting has axed three men’s events, with male and female duos instead competing in the 10m air pistol and 10m air rifle as well as trap, where Australia are a strong medal chance. World No.3 James Willett and Laetisha Scanlon are current world champions, while Rio Olympic trap champion Catherine Skinner is also pushing for selection.

The AOC expects to send a team of more than 460 athletes to Tokyo, slightly over 50 per cent of them female.

“We will be competing in a total of 33 different sports and with the mixed gender events, the new sport variations like 3 x3 basketball plus surfing, sport climbing and skateboarding making their Olympic debuts, it really adds up to an Olympic campaign that will really engage Australians across the board,” Chesterman said.