Sustained excellence makes a small number of Olympic athletes a special group.
Take swimmer Kosuke Kitajima, for example.
In the biggest spotlight any swimmer can have, Kitajima has been sensational, picking up a pair of golds (100- and 200-meter breaststroke triumphs) in the 2004 Athens Olympics and the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The quest for a three-peat — the same opportunity that awaits freestyle wrestler Saori Yoshida at 55 kg — will be one of Japan's most compelling story lines at the London Summer Olympics.