The big event is the Men's 100 meter final.  Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell look very good, Tyson Gay may medal but does not look good and it is very likely Walter Dix will outrun Gay in the final and may surprise everyone if he is running to his potential.  Richard Thompson won the NCAA championship and looked very good in the quarter-final he won over Gay with a time of 9.99.  Powell normally does not do well in finals and Bolt is untested at this distance.  If Gay suddenly looks better he can win this. 

Jenn Stuczynski is ranked second all-time in the pole vault but has little experience and little success on the world stage.  Hopefully she, Philomath high school grad Erica Bartolina, and April Steiner will make the final.     It is unlikely US men steeplechasers and women shot putters will make the finals of their events.  In the men's Discus Throw former Washington State thrower Ian Waltz, now living in Ashland, has a good chance to make the final and an outside chance to medal.  Veteran and Colorado State assistant coach Casey Malone and NCAA champion Michael Robertson will also try to qualify.  Americans Trevell Quinley, Miguel Pate, and Brian Johnson will try to continue a tradition of 17 medals in the last nine non-Boycott Olympic Games including eight gold medals. Panama's Irving Saladino is the defending world champion and favorite and in May jumped 28-7 3/4.  Last year Greek Louis Tsatoumas jumped 28-5 but did not jump well at the world championship. American born Andrew Howe of Italy was second at last year's World Championship.      

The women's 100 meters will share center stage with the men's 100 meters.  Americans Torri Edwards, Lauryn Williams, and Muna Lee will challenged by recent Auburn Grad and Jamaican Kerron Stewart, and her teammate Sherone Simpson.  Edwards is the favorite if she is healthy.  She ran well in the final but pulled out of the 200 meters at the Trials.  This race has no definitive favorite. 

Sanya Richards will attempt to get her first international championship Gold Medal.  Unless the injury or rampant stomach virus hits her she is a shoe-in to win.  Dee Dee Trotter will hopefully continue her return to health and get back to her 2007 US championship pr form. Mary Wineberg is likely to repeat her World championship final performance. 

Kenyans Pamela Jelimo and Janeth Kipkosgei will run in the semi-finals and will likely go first and second in the final.  Russians Klyuka, Kostetskaya, and Andrianova will try to break up the likely one-two finish.  Mutola will attempt to make the Olympic Final out of the first of three semi-finals in the weakest semi-final. 

The women's Shot Put final could have the first New Zealand gold medallist.  Valerie Vili won the world championship last year and has been ranked number one in the world the last two years.  Nadezhda Ostapchuk of Belarus was second at the worlds last year and was the 2005 world champion.  Teammate Natalya (wife of men's shot put bronze medallist) Mikhnevich has a good shot at the bronze medal as does 2004 Silver medallist Nadine Kleinert of Germany.