By Kang Seung-woo
Staff Reporter
It is no wonder that people root for their own country's athletes at international games, let alone at the Olympics.
However, at the Beijing Olympics, which start on Aug. 8, people are likely to break down nationalistic stereotypes by cheering other nations' participants because of sports celebrities.
Each country will send its star athletes, familiar with sports fans all over the world, to Beijing in an attempt to bring home gold medals.
Among the celebrities are National Basketball Association (NBA) players on the U.S. basketball team, big league footballers, top-ranked tennis players and a lot of star athletes from several other sports.
Forbes magazine made the list of the 10 top-earning athletes who will compete in Beijing, and four of them are from the U.S. men's basketball team ― No. 1 Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers, No. 2 LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers, No. 6 Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat and No. 9 Jason Kidd of the Dallas Mavericks.
Bryant rakes in $39 million annually through commercial deals and his contract with the Lakers, and James made $1 million less than the Lakers' star.
Since the NBA began sending its star players to the Olympics in 1992, the U.S. squad, nicknamed the ``Dream Team,'' thanks to its flamboyant performances and large margins of victory, has been a center of attention at every Olympics.
Because of the star-studded lineup, the team's games have usually featured opposing teams asking for pregame photos with their U.S. opponents.
However, due to its failure to finish first in Athens four years ago and at the World Championships in 2006, U.S basketball officials tried to fix its damaged reputation by building the team with current top-level players, such as Chris Bosh, Chris Paul and Dwight Howard along with Bryant and James.
Men's basketball, especially matches in Group B with the United States, Spain, Germany and host China, which all have NBA players on their rosters, belongs in a must-see category at the Olympics.
European Big Leaguers
The most popular sport in the world, football, will also show off its top-tier players, who can be seen on the World Cup stage.
Brazil, the five-time World Cup champion, added new AC Milan midfielder Ronaldinho and Real Madrid attacker Robinho to its Olympic squad, which is eyeing its first gold medal at the world sports festival.
However, Madrid asked the Brazilian Football Federation to drop its star striker off of the team because of injuries he is recovering from.
Although Ronaldinho will take on most of the leadership duties for a squad made mostly of under-23 players from his football-crazy nation, his pyrotechnic dribbling and shooting are likely to excite crowds in the stadium.
Another football power, Argentina, the defending Olympic champion, added FC Barcelona's Lionel Messi, Juan Roman Riquelme of Boca Juniors and Liverpool midfielder Javier Mascherano to its under-23 Olympic squad.
Cameroon, drawn with South Korea in Group D, is trying to get FC Barcelona forward Samuel Eto'o, who helped the African nation get the gold medal at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
World Nos. 1, 2 and 3 Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic will compete for the men's singles gold medal in tennis.
It is an important chance to achieve the Golden Slam, which is earned by winning the four Grand Slam singles tournaments and the Olympic singles gold medal.
The Swiss star, Federer, who fell in the second round four years ago, needs the French Open title and a gold medal to achieve the feat, while Nadal must win the U.S. Open, Australian Open and Olympics.
Serbia's Djokovic has claimed only the Aussie title.
Only two players in history, Steffi Graf of Germany and her American husband Andre Agassi, have reached the milestone.
On the women's side in Beijing, good-looking stars Maria Sharapova of Russia and Ana Ivanovic of Serbia will show off their beauty as well as skills.
Seventeen players out of the top 20 in the rankings, including sisters Serena and Venus Williams, will join the duo in a gold medal race.
At every Olympics, the men's 100-meter race draws much of the attention and this year's event will be the climax of the athletics competitions, thanks to the Jamaican duo of Asafa Powell and Usain Bolt and American sprinter Tyson Gay, who will be competing to prove who the fastest runner is in the world.
Powell held the world record of 9.74 seconds until two months ago, when compatriot Bolt bettered it by 0.02 seconds.
And world champion Gay ran 9.68 at the U.S. Olympic trials last month, but the wind reading of 4.1 meters per second, which is way over the allowable 2.0, prevented his time from becoming an official record.
Gay, however, set an American record with a 9.77 in the same event.
Another must-see athlete is Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva. The Athens Olympic gold medallist, who has held 21 world records, is on the upswing recently after setting a new world record at 5.03 meters at the Golden Gala in Rome two weeks ago to brighten her prospect of repeating.
Michael Phelps of the United States will swim with hopes of improving Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals in a single Olympics, set at the Munich Olympics in 1972.
The American, who holds 25 world records, will compete in the 200-meter freestyle, 100-meter butterfly, 200-meter butterfly, 200-meter individual medley, 400-meter individual medley, 4x100-meter freestyle relay, 4x200-meter freestyle relay and the 4x100-meter medley relay.
Other notable Olympic athletes include weightlifter Hossein Rezazadeh of Iran (eyes a third straight title in the men's over 105-kilogram division), judoist Ryoko Tani of Japan (won gold medals in the women's 48 kilograms at two previous Olympics) and Liu Xiang of China (defending champion in the men's 110-meter hurdles).