JONATHAN FERREY—GETTY IMAGES

Allyson Felix, 22, Track and Field

With a smile as wide as a hurdle, it's no wonder Allyson Felix is one of track and field's greats. At last year's World Championships, she became the second woman to win three gold medals~in the 200 meter and in the 4 x 100-meter and 4 x 400-meter relays. Now she has set her sights on Olympic gold in Beijing.

Felix has been on the fast track since graduating high school, in 2003. She turned professional that year, and as an 18-year-old, she won her first Olympic medal, a silver, in the women's 200m in Athens, Greece. Felix's coach, Bob Kersee, is confident that te sprinter will race her way to victory at this year's Games, and possibly into the record books. "The last person I saw with pickup like Allyson," says Kersee, "was Wilma Rudolph," an all-time great. It looks like Felix is right on Rudolph's heels.

--By Sean Gregory