What a treat that the fastest athlete on the planet is its most charismatic. The tedium of an Olympian’s life (wake, train, eat broccoli, repeat) can flatten personality, but Bolt has proved immune. The carefree 21-year-old who won triple gold in Beijing, celebrating by making aeroplane shapes, is still a cheerful man-child four years on. Before a race he’ll fidget on the start line like a schoolboy excited to be outdoors on sports day, and after a win anything might happen. In 2009 he posed with a cuddly mascot. Last month, he ran over a young flower-bearer in his post-race excitement Photograph: Gero Breloer/EPA
“I am ready, London … Chinese men are coming!” This was Sun Yang, 21, big-talking in June. China’s best-ever men’s swimming prospect isn’t shy, but he used to be. After being stomped by Michael Phelps at a race in 2007, Yang reportedly wondered aloud if he was fit to drink Phelps’s bathwater. These days, a world championship winner in 2011, Yang frames himself as a sort of water-bound he-man – “a tough warrior with shield in hand”. His coach recently revealed that Yang, in training, likes to run around the pool pushing people in. Ladies and gentlemen: your 2012 villain Photograph: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
“Kinda thought it was going to be gymnastics,” the American weightlifter has said of a childhood dream to go to the Olympics. “My body had a different plan.” Aged 11, Mangold was strong enough to play on an American football team, the only girl in her Ohio town to do so. She switched sports soon after, and Mangold has since distilled the joys of being strong: “There’s nothing cooler than someone saying, ‘Pick that up’, and you know how to do it.’” Intriguingly, the 22-year-old has a pre-competition ritual that includes performing a good-luck cartwheel. She weighs 25 stone
Photograph: Jamie Sabau/Getty Images
The Indian athlete divides his time between playing tennis and doing everything. He has a graphic novel and a Bollywood film on the go. Pictures on his website show the 39-year-old plucking a guitar, looking model-ish in sunglasses (wearing them, biting them) and charming horses. In an interview this year he spoke of climbing volcanoes and outrunning acid rain. Olympic preparations, though, have been troubled. Established players have refused to play doubles with him, so the veteran has been paired with a low-ranker. “I don’t even know if he has grass court shoes,” Paes grumbled Photograph: India Today/Getty Images
In 2009, celebrating her 200m swimming gold at the last Olympics, Pellegrini posed for Vanity Fair – in the nude, painted gold. Yet the 23-year-old Italian is a puzzle, having succumbed to mid-race anxiety attacks in the wake of Beijing, ultimately seeking help from a psychologist. On dry ground, Pellegrini’s life has been the stuff of (great) soap opera. When her big rival, France’s Laure Manaudou, broke up with swimmer Luca Marin, Pellegrini took up with him; they got engaged, broke up, and now Pellegrini is with another swimmer, Filippo Magnini. The whole seething lot of them will compete in the London pool Photograph: Andreas Solaro/AFP/Getty Images
Look out, dressage! This genteel Olympic event (built around princely, obedient horses performing routines, sometimes to music) is about to get all political thanks to Rafalca, a 15-year-old mare who will compete for Team USA. Rafalca is part-owned by Ann Romney, wife of presidential hopeful Mitt, and she’s expensive. After the Romneys wrote off some $77,000 in 2010 to pay for their share of Rafalca’s upkeep, critics have noted that they spend more on their special horse than most Americans earn in a year. Happily, says her rider Jan Ebeling, Rafalca “doesn’t understand what’s going on,” and remains focused Photograph: Jennifer Wenzel/Corbis
The South Korean archer should be easy to spot: he’ll be the one wearing sunnies. Im, 26, suffers from strong myopia (though is not, as often reported, legally blind) and can only faintly make out the bold colours of an archery target. “It looks as if different colour paints have been dropped in water,” he’s said of his view from 70 metres away. And yet, aside from his habitual shades, Im refuses to use special eyewear or other treatment to improve his vision. “I feel no inconvenience,” said the archer, who has learned to trust his gut as much as anything else when loosing off arrows. He set a world record in the sport in May Photograph: Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images
In May, Japanese gymnast Kazuhito Tanaka, 27, made a poetic vow to “bring the most beautiful coloured medal home” from London. To do so he faces a curious fight on two fronts: against dozens of gymnasts from other countries, and against his younger brother and sister, both of whom have made the Japanese squad beside him. “I’d lose my standing as the big brother,” said Kazuhito, considering the prospect of being out-performed by Yusuke, 22, or Rie, 25. There’s history of sibling success at the Games: in 2008, a family of taekwondo fightin’ Americans, Steven, Diana and Mark López, all won medals Photograph: Toru Hanai/Reuters
The American hurdler has been subject to some unusual pre-Olympic fuss. In May, 29-year-old Jones casually revealed on Twitter that she was a virgin, and has been bombarded with questions and comments about it ever since. The subject came up during a national talk-show appearance (“It’s good,” comedian Louis CK told her on air, “you’re gonna like it”) and Jones says she’s even been warned that the abstinence might be hurting her track times. Still, the cheerful hurdler has her own quiet plans to best competitors. “Don’t tell ’em,” she tweeted before this year’s US trials, “but I plan on farting at the start line” Photograph: William West/AFP/Getty Images
The Welshman, a senior figure in the Team GB football side, has long been chaotic on the pitch (punching a fan in 2009) and off (swinging a golf club at a teammate’s knees in a 2007 night out gone wrong). Bellamy is also a great one for squabbling with managers, complaining of boss Graham Souness in 2005 that he had “gone behind my back in front of my face”. Perhaps Bellers has mellowed in his 30s. His Olympics press conferences have been tame so far, Bellamy refusing to be drawn on anything controversial. But given he enjoyed a 3am street fight in Cardiff as recently as spring 2011, you can never quite be sure Photograph: Andy Weekes/Rex Features
