Michael Phelps, Dara Torres and Other Olympians to Watch

Many of the greatest athletes in the world will gather in one place in August for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China. Some of these athletes are well known around the world because of professional sports while others toil in obscurity.

The United States will have well-known and little-known athletes battling for gold medals. One of best known athletes competing, Michael Phelps, dominated sports headlines this week by winning five event, two of them (the 100-meter butterfly and 200-meter butterfly) at world record time, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Phelps, 23, will be such a favorite, that he now holds world records in four of the five events he will be competing in. His other events are the 200-meter freestyle and 200-meter and 400-meter individual medley.

The Baltimore native's ultimate goal, though, is to finally beat Mark Spitz's 1972 record of seven gold medals in one Olympics. To achieve that, Phelps will have to win all five of his races and then help lead teams to victory in the three relay races he will likely anchor.

But Phelps wasn't the only person in the pool to make national headlines. Dara Torres, the 41-year-old super mom whose Olympic career started before Phelps was born, won the 50-meter freestyle and 100-meter freestyle, according to the Associated Press. She won the 50-meter race in an American record time and seems to becoming a sure gold medal bet in that race.

As for American teams, the U.S. basketball team should be a strong favorite to win the gold medal. USA Basketball, the governing body of the sport here in the United States, finally figured out that it could no longer throw together an NBA All-Star team and expect to win the Olympics.

Everyone on the team, from Kobe Bryant, Jason Kidd and LeBron James, have international basketball experience now and played together impressively in the 2006 World Championships and FIBA Americas Championships.

From this version of the dream team now comes the most unheralded United States team favorite to win the gold medal - women fencing. The U.S. women saber team is ranked No. 1 in the world and whipped France for the gold medal last month in the Las Vegas Grand Prix, a warm-up for the Olympics. The team is made up of Rebecca Ward, Sada Jacobsen, Mariel Zagunis and Dagmara Wozniak.

Ward is the one of the top athletes in the world in saber, winning the individual gold medal in this event in June and she was the 2006 world saber champion.