Heather O'Reilly, Kate Markgraf and new coach Pia Sundhage (left to right) lead a team with plenty of experience. Michael O'Neill/SI

SOCCER

Heather O'Reilly, Kate Markgraf and new coach Pia Sundhage lead a team with plenty of experience; eight members won gold in 2004. Team USA also has a huge hole to fill -- top scorer Abby Wambach will miss the Games after breaking her left leg last week -- and something to prove. The last time they visited China, the U.S. women, who are ranked No. 1 in the world, finished third in the 2007 World Cup.

TAEKWONDO

In 1983 Julio Lopez, a suburban Houston architect and a Chuck Norris fanatic, enrolled his eight-year-old son, Jean, in what he thought was a karate class. It was taekwondo, as it turned out, and the rest is history. Jean now coaches younger siblings Mark, Diana and Steven Lopez, the first U.S. Olympic sibling trio since 1904. Steven is a two-time gold medalist; Mark and Diana will make their Games debuts.

MODERN PENTATHLON

In June, Sheila Taormina blogged about her desire to torpedo the idea that "a person is too old at age 39 to learn new sports and . . . that it takes 10 years or more to learn a sport." Mission accomplished. In the last four years the 1996 swimming relay gold medalist and 2000 and '04 triathlete picked up shooting, fencing and riding; she'll be the first U.S. woman to compete in three Olympics in three different sports.

More interesting facts about Team USA

YOUNGEST

Mary Beth Dunnichay, diving, 15. Dunnichay (pronounced DUN-ih-kay), born Feb. 25, 1993, is five months younger than runner-up Haley Ishimatsu, with whom she'll dive in synchronized platform. Together the two are as old as gold-medalist teammate Laura Wilkinson, 30.

OLDEST

John Dane III, sailing, 58. A first-time Olympian after 40 years of trying, Dane will race in the Star class with his 30-year-old son-in-law, Austin Sperry. Dane, the CEO of New Orleans-based Trinity Yachts, had his house and much of his shipbuilding business destroyed in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina but rebuilt both. The oldest woman is pistol shooter Libby Callahan, 56, a former Washington, D.C., police sergeant. Callahan, who'll be in her fourth Games, is the oldest woman in any sport ever to make a U.S. Olympic team.

SHORTEST

Shawn Johnson, gymnastics, 4' 8" -- an inch and a half shorter than Mary Lou Retton was in 1984.

TALLEST

Dwight Howard, basketball, 6' 11", an inch taller than teammate Chris Bosh. Fellow hoopster Sylvia Fowles tops the women at 6' 6", edging four-time Olympian Lisa Leslie by an inch.

MOST POPULAR

Michael Phelps has 4,594 friends on Facebook.

ODDS BEATERS

Charlotte Craig, taekwondo. Doctors removed Craig's dysfunctional left kidney when she was a year old and told her family she should avoid contact sports. Softball shortstop Natasha Watley grew up with severe asthma and spent the first two weeks of her life on a respirator.

MOST PRESIDENTIAL I

Brittany Hayes, water polo. The Santa Ana, Calif., native is a descendant of the 19th U.S. president, Rutherford B. Hayes.

MOST PRESIDENTIAL II

Jessica Mendoza, softball. After Beijing the 27-year-old Stanford-educated leftfielder will take over as president of the Women's Sports Foundation.

SPORTS ROOTS

• Taylor Phinney, track cycling, son of riders Davis Phinney and Connie Carpenter-Phinney. At the 1984 Games, Davis won bronze in the team time trial and Connie brought home gold in the road race.

• Michelle Carter, shot put, daughter of Michael Carter, 1984 silver medalist in the shot and former Pro Bowl nosetackle for the San Francisco 49ers. The elder Carter is the only athlete to have won an Olympic medal and a Super Bowl ring in the same year.

• Marvell Wynne, soccer defender, son of former San Diego Padres outfielder Marvell Sr.

• Mariel Zagunis, defending gold medalist in sabre fencing and daughter of Cathy and Robert Zagunis, who rowed in the '76 Montreal Games.

• Ariel Rittenhouse, diving, daughter of 1964 swimming silver medalist Sharon Finneran and niece of 1972 Olympic diver Mike Finneran.

• JW Krumpholz, water polo, son of Kurt Krumpholz, who set a world record in the 400-meter freestyle in the preliminaries of the '72 Olympic trials, then failed to make the team.

• Shalane Flanagan, 10,000 meters, daughter of ex-marathon world-record holder Cheryl Treworgy, now a track and field photographer who often shoots Shalane in action.

BEST NAMES

Lovieanne Jung, softball. The second baseman was named for Gilligan's Island characters Lovey Howell (the millionaire's wife) and Mary Anne Summers. Sadam Ali, a 132-pounder, will be not only the first Arab-American Olympic fighter but also the first Ali to box in the Games for the U.S. -- the 1960 gold medalist was still Cassius Clay.

THE SUPER SIX

Of the half-dozen members of the soon-to-be-famous women's gymnastics team, four are from the Midwest -- Shawn Johnson (West Des Moines, Iowa), Chellsie Memmel (West Allis, Wis.), Samantha Peszek (Indianapolis) and Bridget Sloan (Pittsboro, Ind.) -- and two are coached by their fathers. Nastia Liukin (opposite) trains in Plano, Texas, under dad Valeri, a four-time Olympic medalist for the Soviet Union, and Memmel is coached by dad Andy, who runs a gymnastics gym.

BRAINIEST TEAM

Fencing. Jason Rogers was a finalist for a Rhodes Scholarship. Emily Cross won the world junior title in foil in '05 and then passed up senior worlds to finish her sophomore year at Harvard. Sada Jacobson has a history degree from Yale. Tim Morehouse is a Brandeis grad and former teacher. It's no wonder the siblings on the team, who work in finance in New York City, are named Keeth and Erinn Smart.