Age: 55
Title: China's Sports Minister and President of the Chinese Olympic Committee
Pro: Liu may soon preside over China's dethronement of the U.S. as Olympic medal champ. In Athens, China racked up 32 gold medals, just three short of the U.S. total. Imagine what home-field advantage could do in Beijing next year.
Con: Until a few years ago, Liu was a mid-level provincial bureaucrat who'd never worked in sports. He presides over a network of 3,000 sports schools that often recruit children as young as three years old and treat them as products on an athletic assembly line.