For Olympic track and field fans, the stretch between Aug. 12 and Aug. 21 represents the best 10 days of the quadrennium. And this year there are particularly compelling stories to follow among the American women competing in Rio. From sprinters to distance runners, from hurdlers to high jumpers, from Olympic newbies to four-time Olympians, from athletes who barely made the team to performers who expect nothing less than gold, here are 10 phenomenal tracksters to keep an eye on. (Listed in order of their competition timing.)
1. Molly Huddle, 10,000 meters
Friday, Aug. 12 (final)
The best female distance runner in the country, Huddle is looking to avenge her heartbreak from last year's world championships in Beijing, where she celebrated her should-have-been bronze medal too early and was nipped at the finish line by her countrywoman, Emily Infeld, by nine-hundredths of a second. Though Huddle says she'll never quite get over making that mental error, an Olympic medal would go a long way toward easing her regret.
In addition to the 10,000 meters, Huddle, 31, also won the 5,000 meters -- an event in which she is the American record holder -- at the Olympic trials, but has opted to run only the longer event in Rio so she can then turn her focus to preparing for her marathon debut in New York City in November. Infeld, who following a stress fracture this spring was forced to cross-train her way to her first Olympic berth, is also competing in the 10,000.
2. English Gardner, 100 meters
Friday, Aug. 12 (first round); Saturday, Aug. 13 (semifinals and final)
At July's U.S. Olympic trials, Gardner scorched the 100 meters in 10.74, a time that tied her for seventh on the all-time global list and established her as a favorite to win gold in one of the marquee events of the Games. The New Jersey native and former University of Oregon star, now 24, could collect a second gold medal as part of the U.S. women's 4x100-meter relay. Her mother, Monica, who was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer a decade ago, will be in Rio to watch Gardner compete.
3. Tori Bowie, 100 meters and 200 meters
100m: Friday, Aug. 12 (first round); Saturday, Aug. 13 (semifinals and final)
200m: Monday, Aug. 15 (first round); Tuesday, Aug. 16 (semifinals); Wednesday, Aug. 17 (final)
The versatile Bowie won two NCAA long jump titles while at Southern Mississippi, but has emerged as one of the world's best sprinters since her 2012 graduation. Last summer she claimed bronze in the 100 meters at the world championships in Beijing, and in July she won the 200 meters at the Olympic trials after placing third in the 100. Raised by her grandmother in stoplight-less Sandhill, Mississippi (population 82), she'll compete for three medals (100, 200, 4x100-meter relay) in an Olympic Stadium that seats 58,000.
4. Shalane Flanagan, marathon
Sunday, Aug. 14 (final)
The four-time Olympian won a bronze medal in the 10,000 meters at the 2008 Beijing Games before moving up to the 26.2-mile distance. She placed ninth at the 2012 London Olympic marathon and intends to go several spots better in Rio -- but almost missed her chance to get there. The Massachusetts native and Oregon resident struggled through the final miles of February's Olympic marathon trials in Los Angeles, fading to third place before collapsing at the finish line. To prevent a similar meltdown in Rio, Flanagan has been doing long runs on the treadmill in a special environmental chamber that simulates the brutal heat and humidity she may encounter on marathon morning.
5. Emma Coburn, steeplechase
Saturday, Aug. 13 (first round); Monday, Aug. 15 (final)
The Colorado native, 25, makes her second Olympic appearance in this grueling event, which requires athletes to run 3,000 meters (just less than two miles) while negotiating four barriers plus a water jump on each lap. Coburn, who is the third-fastest woman in the world this year, set the American record of 9:10.76 in May, and enters the Rio Games with a chance to claim the U.S.'s first Olympic steeplechase medal since 1984 -- and the first ever by an American woman. A medal-winning performance would only expand Coburn's immense popularity in track circles.
6. Allyson Felix, 400 meters
Saturday, Aug. 13 (first round); Sunday, Aug. 14 (semifinals); Monday, Aug. 15 (final)
Hoping to become just the third woman in history to win gold in the 200 meters and 400 meters at the same Olympics, Felix (via USA Track & Field) successfully petitioned the IAAF to change the Olympic schedule to make the double doable. But after an injury hampered her training in the lead-up to July's Olympic trials, Felix failed to qualify for the Games in her signature event, the 200 meters (by one-hundredth of a second -- an excruciatingly narrow margin).
The near miss meant a quick change of plans for Felix: She will focus on just one individual race, the 400 meters -- an event in which she is the reigning world champion. Still just 30 years old, Felix is competing in her fourth Olympics, and could come home with her fifth and sixth career Olympic gold medals (she will also run the 4x400-meter relay).
7. Brenda Martinez, 1500 meters
Friday, Aug. 12 (first round); Sunday, Aug. 14 (semifinals); Tuesday, Aug. 16 (final)
Martinez, the 2013 world bronze medalist at 800 meters, was poised to make the Olympic team in that event until she was tripped 150 meters from the finish at the Olympic trials and finished a distant seventh. Instead of wallowing in the agony of that disappointment, Martinez put the dust-up behind her and instead set her sights on making the team in the 1500 meters.
A week later, in the 1500-meter final, she out-leaned Amanda Eccleston -- who dived across the finish line -- to qualify for her first Olympics. The two other American entrants in the field, 2011 world champion Jenny Simpson and American record holder Shannon Rowbury, have brighter medal prospects than Martinez, but no runner showed more grit in qualifying for Rio.
8. Sydney McLaughlin, 400-meter hurdles
Monday, Aug. 15 (first round); Tuesday, Aug. 16 (semifinals); Thursday, Aug. 18 (final)
The 400-meter hurdles is one of the most punishing events in track and field, but track prodigy McLaughlin runs like she's impervious to pain -- and to pressure. McLaughlin, who turned 17 on Aug. 7, placed third at the Olympic trials to become the youngest American to make the Olympic track and field team since 1972. In the trials final, she executed a perfectly paced race, exhibiting the maturity and competitive savvy of an athlete twice her age. The performance earned her a world junior record -- and a trip to Rio, where she says she is just "going to get the experience" before she heads home to New Jersey for her senior year of high school.
9. Sandi Morris, pole vault
Tuesday, Aug. 16 (qualifying round); Friday, Aug. 19 (final)
Morris doesn't have the extensive international experience of her teammate Jenn Suhr, a two-time Olympic medalist and the defending champion, but as of July 23, she does have the American record. Morris, a 24-year-old South Carolina native, cleared 16 feet, 2 inches in a meet in Houston last month, breaking a record Suhr had held for nine years.
Morris made the Olympic team less than seven weeks after breaking her wrist when she snapped a pole during a competition in May. Now healed, the newly crowned "highest vaulter in U.S. history" is aiming even higher for Rio. She recently retweeted a pic of a fan wearing a T-shirt that said, "Team Sandi -- blondes look good in gold."
10. Vashti Cunningham, high jump
Thursday, Aug. 18 (qualifying round); Saturday, Aug. 20 (final)
The 6-foot-1 Cunningham is, like McLaughlin, a teen track and field sensation whose best Olympics might come four, eight or 12 years from now. The daughter of former Pro Bowl quarterback Randall Cunningham, who coaches her, and Felicity De Jager Cunningham, a former professional ballerina, Vashti set the world junior record in March by clearing 6 feet, 6¼ inches. A week later, she won the world indoor title.
Although odds in Vegas -- where Cunningham lives -- may favor her American teammate Chaunté Lowe for gold, the 18-year-old Cunningham has sky-high potential for this Games and many more.