Lovieanne Jung

Lovieanne Jung was a member of the silver-medal winning American softball team at the Beijing Games. She plays second base. June is a two-time World Cup Champion, two-time Pan American Games gold medalist, two-time World Champion, and won gold with the Americans at the 2004 Olympics.

Tara Kirk

Tara Kirk is a swimmer who holds the American records in the 100-meter and 200-meter breaststrokes. She also holds the U.S. record in the 50-meter short course breaststroke.

Xue Chen and Zhang Xi

China's medal-winning beach volleyballers, Xue Chen (left) and Zhang Xi.

Playboy Model Wins Gold

Nicole Reinhardt is the cover model (and is featured inside) the August issue of the German Playboy. She is also a gold-medal winner for Germany in ... ahem ... paddling. Reinhardt was part of the 4-person gold-medal winning German team in the women's 500-meter kayak four in Beijing.

If you want to see more of Reinhardt, much more, visit the German Playboy site (NSFW!).

Volleyball Cheerleaders

I suppose if you're going to put together a cheerleading squad for the Beach Volleyball competition - as the organizers of the Beijing Games did - you have to put them in bikinis, just like the competitors. But then how are you going to tell them apart? Maybe them particularly skimpy bikinis. And ask the cheerleaders to gyrate. Gold-medal winners Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh rarely, if ever, strike this particular pose.

Allyson Felix

American sprinter Allyson Felix won silver in the 200 meters in Beijing. She also won silver in the 200 at the Athens Games. While Felix has been the runner-up in the Olympics, she has been golden at the World Championships, winning gold in the 200 in 2005, and winning three golds in 2007: 200, 4x100 relay, 4x400 relay. That performance made her only the second woman ever to win three track golds at a single World Championships.

Tasha Danvers

You don't see world-class track athletes running in skirts very often. But, then, Tasha Danvers isn't your ordinary track star. She's also a painter. As in artist. Check her site Danvers By Design for a gallery of her work (and prices, if you're interested in buying). She writes in her artist's statement:

"Art is such a wonderful thing. Each person sees it and feels it differently. There's no right or wrong, there's no true or false. What one person may see as a mess is an intricate beauty to another. Art is freedom of expression, art is an unleashing of the soul. That's the beauty of art."

Off the canvas and back on the track, Danvers, running for Great Britain, earned a bronze medal in the 400-meter hurdles in Beijing.

Leryn Franco

Leryn Franco has gotten quite a bit of exposure during the Beijing Games, for example, the Yahoo! Sports Olympics blog talks about her "heartthrob" status.

Franco is from Paraguay and competed in javelin in the Beijing Games and in the 2004 Athens Games. She is perhaps better-known for her wall calendars, for competing in the Miss Bikini Universe Pageant, and for being runner-up in the Miss Paraguay Pageant.

Yelena Isinbayeva

Russia's Yelena Isinbayeva (alternate spelling: Elena Isinbaeva) easily won the women's pole vault at the Beijing Games, clearing 16 feet, 6.75 inches. It is Isinbayeva's second Olympic gold; she also won the vault in 2004 at Athens. She also has gold from the last two World Championships and the last three World Indoor Championships.

Sanya Richards

Sanya Richards won bronze in the 400 meters on Tuesday at the Beijing Games. Richards will have a good shot at gold the 4x400 relay.

Victoria Pendleton

Victoria Pendleton won gold in the women's sprint cycling event at the Beijing Games today. The Brit cyclist is very well-known - for her athletic skills as well as her beauty - in her native England. She has six gold medals in world championships, all of them in sprint and team sprint.

Priscilla Lopes-Schliep

Priscilla Lopes-Schliep is a Canadian hurdler currently competing in the Beijing Games in the 100 hurdles. Lopes rank for the Nebraska Cornhuskers in college, winning the 2004 NCAA Indoor Championships 60-meter hurdles, and finishing second in the 100 hurdles at the '04 NCAA Outdoor Championships. Lopes won the Canadian Olympic Trials in the 100 hurdles, and also made the team with a third-place finish in the flat 100.

Guo Jingjing

Guo Jingjing is one of the most famous athletes in China. She's famous because of her athletic accomplishments as a diver, and famous because she's one of the country's top models.

Guo won two more Olympic golds in Beijing, in the 3M springboard, and in the synchronized diving. Those are added to the two golds she won in Athens, and the two silvers she won in Sydney. She's also won eight golds and one silver in the World Championships.

Xue Chen and Zhang Xi

The Chinese beach volleyball duo of Xue Chen (left) and Zhang Xi are into the semifinals after a victory over the veteran American team of Nicole Branagh and Elaine Youngs.

Dara Torres

Participating in her fifth Summer Olympics at the age of 41, Dara Torres wasn't able to finally achieve her first individual gold medal in Beijing. But she did show, she told an interview, that "there's no age limit on dreams." Torres won silver in the 50-meter freestyle, and won two more silvers as part of American relay teams.

Ana Paula Connelly

Ana Paula Connelly is a Brazilian beach volleyball player in the Beijing Olympics. With her partner Larissa Franca, Conelly has advanced into the Round of 16 as of this writing. As a member of the Brazil national volleyball team, Connelly won a bronze medal at the 1996 Atlanta Games.

Nastia Liukin

Here's a shot from a photoshoot by American gymnast Nastia Liukin for Avolante. Liukin overcome some questionable judging in the all-around competition to win the gold medal in Beijing.

Serena Williams

Serena Williams from the 2003 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. (You probably could have guessed that, eh?) Serena and her sister Venus both were knocked out of the Olympic singles draw in the quarterfinals. But the sisters are still alive in the doubles draw, where they are the No. 2 seeds.

Bronte Barratt

Another Australian swimmer, Bronte Barratt is a freestyler who swam the second leg of the Aussie's world-record-setting 4x200 free relay team in Beijing. In 2006 she won a gold and a silver in the World Short Course Championships, and in 2007 broke a 29-year-old Australian record in the 400 freestyle.

Liesel Jones

Aussie swimmer Liesel Jones - do they call her "Liesel the Diesel"? well, they should! - dominated the 100-meter breaststroke at Beijing to win gold. She previously won gold at the 2004 Athens Games as part of the Australian 4x100 free relay team.

Federica Pellegrini

Federica Pellegrini is an Italian swimmer who specializes in freestyle, swimming the 50, 100, 200 and 400 meter distances, as well as being a member of Italy's 4x100 relay. At Athens in 2004, Pellegrini won silver in the 200 free. So far in Beijing 2008, she has a gold in the 200 free.

More Gold for Natalie Coughlin

Natalie Coughlin already had two gold medals from the 2004 Athens Games. On Monday in Beijing, she added gold No. 3, winning the women's 100-meter backstroke. She is the first woman ever win back-to-back golds in this event. Earlier, Coughlin took silver in the women's 4x100 free relay. She has more events to come.

Her two medals so far in Beijing give Coughlin seven medals total in her Olympic career. She also won two silvers and a bronze in 2004.

Jennie Finch

Team USA softball opened defense of its gold medal with an 11-0 rout of Venezuela in Beijing, setting an Olympic record for most runs scored. Jennie Finch was the starting pitcher for the Americans, and hurled four no-hit innings.

Yili Wei

Another badminton babe from the 2008 Summer Games. This is Yili Wei of China. She plays women's doubles with partner Yawen Zhang.

Laure Manaudou

Laure Manaudou is a French swimmer who won three medals at the 2004 Summer Games, including gold in the 400 freestyle. She became a celebrity in France after that triumph, started hobnobbing with movie and music stars, became the object of paparazzi herself, and got involved in a high-profile romance with an Italian swimmer.

Her 2008 Summer Games didn't get off to a great start. She went out fast in the 800 freestyle, an event in which she took silver in 2004, but faded and wound up finishing eighth.

Kumiko Ogura and Reiko Shiota

Our very first post on badminton babes ...



That's the Japanese doubles team of Kumiko Ogura (left) and Reiko Shiota. The pair are among the medal favorites in Beijing. They won bronze at the 2007 BWF World Championships.

Stephanie Rice

Australia swimmer Stephanie Rice started fast at the 2008 Summer Games - world-record fast. Rice shattered Katie Hoff's world record to win gold in the women's 400-meter individual medley.

Mariel Zagunis

America's first gold medal winner of the 2008 Summer Games was Mariel Zagunis in individual sabre, a fencing discipline. She also won gold in sabre in 2004, where she became the first female American gold medal winner in fencing in more than 100 years.

Amanda Beard

You can never have too many Amanda Beard pics. So here you go.

Heather Mitts

We're getting tons of searches for soccer siren Heather Mitts. So, hey, gotta give the people what they want. Mitts missed the 2007 World Cup season with a torn ACL, but she is back at the Olympics as the veteran leader of the American team.

Cat Osterman

Cat Osterman teams with Jennie Finch to form the world's hottest pitching rotation for Team USA softball. Cat (short for Catherine) set the NCAA career strikeout record (since surpassed) while at the University of Texas from 2002-2006, and still holds the NCAA record for most strikeouts per seven innings (14.34). She was the Big 12 Pitcher of the Year all four years with the Longhorns, threw 20 no-hitters and 10 perfect games. She also earned a gold medal in the 2004 Olympics.

Kate Ziegler

Kate Ziegler is the world-record holder in the 1,500-meter freestyle swimming event, winner of gold medales at the 2007 World Aquatics Games in the 800 and 1,500 freestyles. A student at George Mason University, Kate will be swimming soon in the Beijing Olympics.

www.kateziegler.com

Liu Xuan

The Beijing Olympics are nigh, so let's feature a Chinese Olympian. This is gymnast Liu Xuan. Liu competed for China at the 1996 and 2000 Summer Games, winning three medals at the 2000 Games. She earned bronze in the team competition and all around categories at Sydney, and won gold in the balance beam.