A Bolt to light up Rio: Usain Bolt, Country: Jamaica, Sport: Athletics, Age: 29
If athletics is still standing tall and smiling despite its world lying in shambles with a heavy dose of dope, Usain Bolt is a very good reason.
100m champions at the Olympics have always fascinated the world, but none has come out as a complete package like the Jamaican, the planet’s fastest man ever.
A wonderful showman with a once-in-a-lifetime mix of speed and smiles, Bolt takes the world on a magical journey every time he fires off the blocks. And a party begins with the finish.
Rio will be his last Olympics and Bolt, who will be going for a ‘triple triple’ after winning the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay at the last two Games, has virtually made sure that his historic feat and world records in the 100m (9.58s) and 200m (19.19s) will stand for a decade or more.
Victory in the short sprint will make Bolt, who turns 30 this month, the first three-time 100m champion in history.
The champion sister: Bronte Campbell, Country: Australia, Sport: Swimming, Age: 22
Swimmer Bronte Campbell need not look anywhere for a competition. The 22-year-old Australian, the reigning World Champion in the 100m freestyle, has it at home, in her elder sister Cate who set the world record of 52.06s last month.
They will carry the fight to Rio but Bronte makes it clear that it will not be anything like the emotionally-charged matches in tennis between the Williams sisters, Serena and Venus because there will be six others to look out for in swimming.
When she got the news about her sister’s world record from her dad, Bronte thought he was joking. That has just made Bronte, who won the 50 and 100m freestyle golds at last year’s World Championships in Kazan and also the 4x100 relay gold with her sister, focus on the sport more.
Fore sure, this sisters’ act will be exciting
Shooting king: Jin Jong-Oh, Country: South Korea, Sport: Shooting, Age: 36
As a little kid, Jing Jong-Oh impressed his parents with his shooting skills with a toy gun. As he grew up, he began playing with the real thing and has been heavily rewarded for that.
The captain of the South Korean men’s contingent at the Olympics, will be looking to make history at Rio. The world record holder in the 10m and 50m pistol events, Jong-Oh will become the first shooter ever to own four Olympic golds if he wins any of his events. He will also be looking to win a hat-trick of golds in the 50m pistol, an event where he surprisingly lost at home to India’s Jitu Rai at the last Asian Games in Incheon.
He is also the World No. 1 in the 50m while in the 10m, he is in the fourth rung just behind Jitu.
Pocket powerhouse: Simone Biles, Country: USA, Sport: Gymnastics, Age: 19
For all those who thought gymnastics at the Olympics was just about Olga Korbut and Nadia Comaneci, Simone Biles could come as a big shock.
The 19-year-old Afro-American could emerge as the big star in her Olympic debut and is a strong favourite to take five of the six ‘artistic’ gymnastics golds at stake there.
Gymnastics has changed a lot since the days of Comaneci, the ‘Perfect 10’ has been abandoned, the scoring system now rewards execution and difficulty and Biles is a perfect example of the new physique.
The 4ft 8in powerhouse, who was raised by her grandfather and his second wife as her mother was an alcoholic and drug addict, is clearly the best of her generation and probably the best ever. She has won the all-around title at the last three Worlds, the first woman to do so, and has 10 World golds.
Loves hitting people: Claressa Shields, Country: USA, Sport: Boxing, Age: 21
When she was young, she had nobody to look up to. Her mother struggled with addiction and her father was frequently in prison. But despite the difficult childhood at Flint in Michigan, Claressa Shields fought her way through the tough life.
When somebody asked her why she took up boxing, Shields’s brutally honest reply was, “I love hittin’ people.”
At 17, she was the youngest boxer at the London Olympics but she came back with a gold in the middleweight category, the only American boxing gold in 2012. She has not lost a fight since London, winning two World Championships and a Pan-Am Games title and a big favourite to hit gold in Rio.
Her struggle, relationships and remarkable rise have been made into a documentary and will soon be a Hollywood movie with Universal Pictures acquiring the rights.
Inspiring presence: Jamie Dwyer, Country: Australia, Sport: Hockey, Age: 37
Jamie Dwyer was a good cricketer and hockey player but he quit cricket at 15 as he dreamed of going to the Olympics.
He had a dream debut at the Olympics, scoring the gold-winning goal in the 2004 Games in Athens. That was Australia’s maiden Olympic hockey gold and it brought Dwyer the FIH World Player-of-the-Year award, a honour which he has won five times, the last in 2011.
At Rio, which will be his fourth Olympics, Dwyer will be World Champion Australia’s oldest ever hockey Olympian but for him age is just a number.
Australia, the Champions Trophy winner, could win only bronze at the last two Olympics and Dwyer feels his team has the potential to pocket gold if it plays to its full potential.
Lucky Li: Li Xuerui, Country: China, Sport: Badminton, Age: 25
As a little girl, Li Xuerui wanted to play the piano and learn dancing. But since her parents were both employed, they could not find time for such things.
Instead, they put her in a sports school. But Li felt very homesick and often spent the nights crying. She hated the badminton sessions too for she felt that they kept her away from her parents.
The tough life made her a strong player. And in 2012, she turned out to be very lucky as she found her way into the strong Chinese team for the Olympics while the 2010 Asian Games champion Wang Shixian was ignored.
Li, then 21, grabbed the chance with both hands and went on to win the women’s singles gold at the Olympics. Two Worlds silver came after this, in 2013 and 2014, and later she won the Asian Games gold in Incheon. She is now the World No. 3.
