Thursday, Jul. 24, 2008
57. Ryan Lochte
Swimming
United States
Age:24
Count on Lochte to make the Water Cube THE place to be during the first week of the Games. Michael Phelps may be going for the record in golds, but only if Floridian Lochte doesn't play spoiler. He's hundredths of a second behind the King of the Pool in the 200m and 400m individual medley races, and he hasn't been happy playing dauphin for four years. Lochte, a fan of rapper Li'l Wayne, managed to claim the 200m backstroke gold at this year's world championships, but what he really wants is to best Phelps. It won't be easy; Lochte's Olympic qualifying time beat Phelps' world record — only problem was, Phelps broke it too, by a bigger margin.