Kelly-Ann Baptiste is admittedly a shy person. Yet the 100-meter star, representing Trinidad and Tobago, is doing all she can to remain in the spotlight.

Nickel Ashmeade is hungry. He’s hungry for a place on the medal stand and hungry for success. But Ashmeade doesn’t go hungry at home.

World champion hurdler Aries Merritt works hard and plays just as hard. Video games, that is. Merritt says there isn’t much else to do in College Station, Tex., where he trains on the campus of Texas A&M with coach Vince Anderson and Andreas Behm. But that leaves plenty of time to focus on his new seven-step approach to the first hurdle and dominating League of Legends on his computer for hours.

David Rudisha looks at each race as the next rung on a ladder, slowly climbing until the peak. This year, the peak is the Olympic Games in London, where Rudisha will look to win his first Olympic gold medal and the only major title that has eluded him so far.

No matter what happens from now until the end, Jeremy Wariner will finish his career as one of the greatest quarter-milers ever and the closest thing to Michael Johnson since, well, Michael Johnson. He has seen rivals rise and many fall. Wariner has peered down from the perch of success and seeks to reclaim the throne as the best in the world.