We did this one in 2006, but a lot can change in 2 years. 

1) Nadia Comaneci - How could you not love the first perfect 10?

2) Dorothy Hamill - I had her haircut for the longest time, though it wasn’t my choice

3) Carl Lewis - 9 gold medals in 4 Olympics in two different events - running and long jump

4) Florence Griffith Joyner - I got caught up in Flo-Jo madness when I was a kid…even now, I still admire her.  She died way too young at 38 years old.

5) Michael Phelps - At first, I wasn’t really into the Michael Phelps hype…I was very impressed with him as an athlete, but didn’t really see much of him as a person.  But then they did an interview with him and his mom, and as his mom talked about how she was going back to her job as a school principal, Michael looked at her with pride in his eyes.  He won me over!

6) Greg Louganis - I had the biggest crush on his as a kid - he was the king of diving

7) Apolo Anton Ohno - I can’t wait to see him in the 2010 games…every Olympics I see him in, he gets more and more mature.  Also, he’s a great samba dancer!

8) Mary Lou Retton - America’s sweetheart when I was growing up - I didn’t know anyone my age who didn’t like her

9) Masahiko “Happy” Harada - Always smiling, even with the pressure of his country on his back…

10) Rulon Gardner - His win was amazing, and I loved seeing him celebrate by doing a cartwheel

Honorable Mention: Shawn Johnson - after all of the controversy, being the World Champion and having to settle for silver, watching her teammate win gold, she smiled the whole time.  You could see the flurry of emotion in her eyes, but she always had the big chipmunk smile and was first in line a hug for all her competitors.

Next week: 10 Things You Didn’t Like About School (or don’t, if you’re still a student)

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 at 10:16 am and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.