With Michael Phelps' stealing the show in the 2008 games, it's time to turn our attention to 10 other athletes.
Go For The Gold
Ten Olympians to watch at the 2012 Summer Games in London.
Web2Carz Contributing Writer
Published: July 10th, 2012
A
t the last summer Olympics, a lot of Americans had their eyes glued to the half-man/half-fish phenomenon that was Michael Phelps. Now, with another summer games upon us, we're getting ready to grace our couches with our near-interminable presence, but this time around, let's pay attention to some other athletes.
 10) Ryan Lochte - USA - Swimming.Lochte won four medals in 2008, and is one year older than Phelps, but since the last games also nailed down six gold medals at the 2010 Short Course World Championships and beat Phelps at the World Championships. It'll be interesting to see if he can pull ahead of Phelps in the big-time races. |
 9) Kenenisa Bekele - Ethiopia - Track and Field. Bekele is a long distance runner and at just 29 years old, he's already got world records in the 5,000-meter run and the 10,000-meter run. He's been recovering from a calf injury that happened in 2010, so with any luck, he'll be good to go by this summer. |
 8) Yelena Isinbayeva - Russia - Pole Vault. Anytime we see pole vaulters, we are nearly sure that there's no way they'll ever get over the marker. But, Isinbayeva has won two gold medals and is a World Champion five times over. Keep it up! |
 7) Caster Semenya - South Africa - Track and Field. If you've heard of her, it's probably because of all the controversy surrounding her participation—critics claimed that Semenya had a physical condition that made her a better runner than other women, but after being given some extremely questionable (morally, that is) gender tests, she was cleared to race in any future events. We're excited to see this. |
 6) Matthew Mitcham - Australia - DivingAt the last games, Mitcham became the first Australian male to win a diving gold medal since 1924. Aside from that, he finished with the highest single-dive score in Olympic history. Nailed it! |
 5) Paula Radcliffe - Great Britain - Track and Field She's won 12 gold medals in a variety of international championships but has yet to take home any medal at the Olympics. In 2003, she finished a marathon in two hours, 15 minutes, and 25 seconds—a world record that still stands. You can do this! This is your year! |
 4) Maya Moore - USA - Women's Basketball. Moore is joining a team that's dominated the competition in previous years' games, and was the number one pick in the 2011 WNBA Draft. She was also a four-time All-America at the University of Connecticut. Basically she's good. Real good. Watch her. |
 3) Pau Gasol - Spain - Men's Basketball. In 2008, Gasol was part of Spain's Olympic team and led their basketball team to a silver medal—the country's second in basketball. Maybe this year he'll be able to push them to the gold, likely when Spain faces the U.S. |
 2) Missy Franklin - USA - Swimming.At just 16 years old, Franklin holds the American record for the 200-meter backstroke. Her young age makes her especially interesting to keep an eye on this year—she's one of the youngest there. |
 1) Hope Solo - USA - Soccer. At the 2008 games, Solo was a part of the team that shut out Brazil for the gold medal, as the U.S. won 1-0. Here's hoping the team can keep that momentum going. |
