Medal Picks

Long jump
• Irving Saladino, Panama
• Loúis Tsátoumas, Greece
• Ibrahim Camejo, Cuba
Saladino lives in São Paolo with Brazilian jumper Keila Costa.

Triple jump
• Phillips Idowu, Great Britain
• Arnie David Girat, Cuba
• Jadel Gregório, Brazil
Idowu read the Dennis Rodman book on changing hair colors.

Pole vault
• Evgeniy Lukyanenko, Russia
• Brad Walker, U.S.
• Steven Hooker, Australia
Hooker's mom long-jumped in '72 Games; his dad was national 400 champ.

Shot put
• Reese Hoffa, U.S.
• Adam Nelson, U.S.
• Andrei Mikhnevich, Belarus
Nelson worked at Olympic Village coffee shop in '96.

Discus
• Gerd Kanter, Estonia
• Virgilijus Alekna, Lithuania
• Ehsan Hadadi, Iran
Alekna awarded gold in '04 when winner failed doping test.

Hammer throw
• Ivan Tsikhan, Belarus
• Krisztián Pars, Hungary
• Primoz Kozmus, Slovenia
Tsikhan's coach is Soviet Olympic champ Sergei Litvinov.

Javelin
• Tero Pitkämäki, Finland
• Andreas Thorkildsen, Norway
• Tero Järvenpää, Finland
Pitkämäki speared a long jumper at a meet in Rome last year.

Decathlon
• Bryan Clay, U.S.
• Maurice Smith, Jamaica
• Roman Seberle, Czech Republic
Injuries and low blood sugar have knocked Clay out of a couple of big meets.

Women

100 meters
• Kerron Stewart, Jamaica
• Muna Lee, U.S.
• Torri Edwards, U.S.
World champ Veronica Campbell-Brown didn't qualify.