Carl Lewis

Carl Lewis is one of the most famous American athletes also in the world. He is known for his world records in running as well as his records in the long jump. Carl Lewis was born in Birmingham though he was actually brought up in Willingboro, New Jersey.
When he was 13 years old, Carl Lewis started participating in long jump events. Lewis also started to perform in sprinting events at a young age as he had the capability of high sprinting speeds. Lewis received the James E. Sullivan Award for the best athlete in 1981 and in the World Championships in 1983; he made his mark by winning in the 100m, long jump and the 4 x 100m relay events. Carl Lewis then went on to become the undisputable champion in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. He won 4 titles in all including the 200m race and he also tied Jesse Owens’ record which was set back in 1936. He repeated the spectacular performance of 1983 in Rome in 1987, and then in the 1988 Seoul Olympics he went on to win 4 more golds.
In 1987, Carl Lewis joined music and was part of the band called “Break it Up.” However his career in the music field did not take up very well. Lewis retired after the Atlanta Olympics and is now an actor. Today he lives in Los Angeles, California.

Marion Lois Jones

Marion Lois Jones (born October 12, 1975 in Los Angeles, California), is a famous world champion American track and field athlete of Belizean descent. She won five medals at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia but has since been stripped of every medal dating back to September 2000 after admitting that she took performance-enhancing drugs.
In October 2007, Jones admitted to having taken steroids before the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics and acknowledged that she had, in fact, lied when she previously denied steroid use in statements to the press, to various sports agencies, and--most significantly--to two grand juries, one impaneled to investigate the BALCO "designer steroid" ring, and the other impaneled to investigate a check fraud ring involving many of the same parties from the BALCO case. As a result of these admissions, Jones accepted a two-year suspension from track and field competition, and announced her retirement from track and field on October 5, 2007. The United States Anti-Doping Agency stated that the sanction “also requires disqualification of all her competitive results obtained after September 1, 2000, and forfeiture of all medals, results, points and prizes”. On October 5, 2007, Jones formally pled guilty to lying to federal agents in the BALCO steroid investigation in the U.S. District Court. On January 11, 2008, Jones was sentenced to 6 months in jail. She began her sentence on March 7, 2008.

Michael Phelps

Michael Phelps (born June 30, 1985 in Baltimore, Maryland) is an American swimmer and World Record Holder in several events. Phelps' achievements include a record of eight medals at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, six of which were gold, tying the Olympic record for medals at single Olympics, held by Alexander Dityatin since 1980. Phelps's international titles, along with his various world records, have resulted in his being named World Swimmer of the Year four times — in 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2007. Career.
At the age of 15, Phelps competed at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney as the youngest American male swimmer at an Olympic Games in 68 years.
Five months after the Sydney Olympics, Phelps broke the world record in the 200 m butterfly to become, at 15 years and 9 months, the youngest man ever to set a swimming world record.
He will attend the 28th Olympic Games in Beijing 2008.

Bernard Lagat

Lagat was among several Kenyan athletes, along with Richard Limo and Reuben Kosgei, who were heavily criticized for not representing their country in the 2002 Commonwealth Games, which were held in Manchester, England. Instead, the runners chose to chase the prize money offered in the IAAF Golden League.
Lagat pulled out of the 2003 World Championships in Athletics in Paris, France, after being told he had tested positive for erythropoietin, (EPO), on August 8 whilst competing in Germany.[1] He was suspended from competition, but this was later lifted when a B sample tested negative. On hearing this good news he issued a statement saying "I hope this outcome will also remove any suggestion that I have ever taken drugs."

In March, 2005, Lagat announced that he had become a naturalized citizen of the United States since May 7, 2004, despite competing for Kenya in the 2004 Summer Olympics. Since Kenya does not allow dual citizenship his silver medal in the 1500m is at stake, depending on how Kenya interprets its own laws (as of May, 2005, no additional news has arisen on this issue). Due to this switch of nationality, Lagat served a ban from international championship events. For this reason he missed the IAAF World Championships in Helsinki. A similar switch of nationality, in this case Kenyan to Danish, caused Wilson   Kipketer to miss the 1996 Olympic Games.

James Blake

    James Blake (born December 28, 1979 in Yonkers, New York, United States) is an American professional tennis player . He is  the second-ranked American player behind Andy Roddick. Blake is known for his speed and powerful forehands.In January     2006, Blake lost in the second round of the Adelaide International. However, Blake bounced back and won the Sydney   International winning his fourth ATP tour title defeating Russian Igor Andreev in the final. At the 2006 Australian Open, he was     seeded #20, where he lost in the third round to Spanish player Tommy Robredo. Despite the loss, he cracked into the Top 20  for the first time in his career. In March 2006, he beat Lleyton Hewitt in the finals of the Las Vegas Open for his fifth ATP tour        title.By reaching the finals of that event, Blake became the first man with African-American heritage since Arthur Ashe to reach     the Top 10.On July 3, 2007, Blake's book, "Breaking Back: How I Lost Everything and Won Back My Life",

The U.S tennis for the Beijing Olympics Games

（NEW YORK, June 26 ）Former gold medal winners Serena and Venus Williams and Lindsay Davenport will front the U.S. women's tennis team for the Beijing Olympics Games.U.S. women's tennis coach Zina Garrison announced that the trio would make up the three singles entries -- the two nominated women's doubles pairings consist of Liezel Huber with Davenport and the Williams sisters.

Men's tennis coach Rodney Harmon announced a five-player men's team with James Blake, Sam Querrey and Robby Ginepri named to the team in singles.
Bob and Mike Bryan, the top ranked doubles team in the world, make up one doubles pairing along with Blake and Querrey.