Track and field events begin today in Beijing, and for the first time in recent memory, America enters the Olympic Games without a household-name superstar guaranteed of capturing multiple medals. Drug usage, whether it’s steroids or blood doping, has shone an unwelcome spotlight on the athletes. Yet it’s a worldwide problem that the International Olympic Committee — an organization rife with political infighting and closed-door, unilateral rulings — has tried to combat by implementing a new wave of blood and urine testing that should keep the events as clean as humanly (and politically) possible.

The highlight of this weekend’s action, and perhaps all of the games, will be the showdown in the men’s 100-meter sprint. For the first time ever, sprinters with the three fastest times in history will square off in heats that will conclude with Saturday morning’s final. American Tyson Gay (9.77 seconds, set in June at the U.S. Olympic trials in Eugene, Ore.), nursing a hamstring sprain that caused him to miss the lucrative pre-Olympic European circuit of meets, will do battle with the former world record holder, Asafa Powell (9.74) of Jamaica and the current “wunderkind” of the sport, 21-year-old world record holder, Usain Bolt (9.72), also of Jamaica.

Bolt’s emergence this year has been startling, given the fact he broke the world record in only his fifth 100, and he’s 6-feet-5-inches, a height normally considered a detriment in an event where the start is so crucial, as it usually takes a taller man more time to get moving out of the blocks. Gay, who ran a 9.85 while finishing second to Bolt in the record-setting sprint at Icahn Stadium, did rip a wind-aided 9.68 at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials (not officially recognized), but he hasn’t raced in six weeks. Powell, overshadowed by his countryman, has kept a low profile until a few days ago when he complained that all the prerace blood tests would “weaken” him for the finals. This may be a psych job, de rigueur for sprinters, but the Jamaicans have been targeted (32 tests in the previous five days). Under the radar screen but a medal candidate is Walter Dix, the eight-time NCAA champion from Florida State who won the 200-meter sprint at the U.S. Olympic trials.

The women’s 100 final is on Sunday morning and might be another America vs. Jamaica showdown. Muna Lee (10.85), the surprise winner of the U.S. trials (and second place in the 200), maintained her excellent form while running in Europe, but it’s presumptive to call her the favorite. 31-year-old Torri Edwards holds the fastest time among the entrants (10.78), but an American to watch is Lauryn Williams (10.90), the silver medalist in Athens who shows championship form on the biggest stages. Remarkably, the defending world champion, Veronica Campbell-Brown of Jamaica, finished fourth at the trials in Kingston and is listed as a “reserve.” I wouldn’t go so far as to write that USA Track and Field is more ethical than other track federations, but the “reserve” badge has been used by European countries in the past to put a favorite on the track at race time.

Yet, the Jamaicans who did qualify are a powerful triumvirate, led by Kerron Stewart, who ran a blistering 10.80 to win Jamaica’s trials and followed that up in Monaco, the final pre-Olympic meet with a victory. Bolt’s female equivalent might be 21-year-old Shelly-Ann Frazier, who dropped a half-second off her personal best in the Kingston trials to take second, and there’s also Sherone Simpson, who won a gold medal in the 200 at the 2006 Commonwealth games. 2004 gold medalist Yuliya Nesterenko of Belarus has run sporadically this season, although she did win the European Cup in a pedestrian 11.17.

The first final on Friday morning, the men’s shot put, looks on paper as a possible sweep for the Americans. As it was in the trials, it’s the old-guard, two-time Olympic silver medalist, Adam Nelson, against the winner at the trials, Reese Hoffa, and 2008 indoor champion Christian Cantwell. Rarely, though, has a silver medalist returned to capture gold in the following Olympics. More troubling for the Americans were their mediocre performances in European pre-Olympic meets. Belarus’s 2003 world champion, Andrey Mikhnevich, has been extremely consistent this summer, as has Poland’s Tomasz Majewski and Holland’s Rutger Smith. Defending Olympic champion Yury Bialou, another Belarussian, has been way off form this season.

For pure charisma in an event littered mostly with grunts, scowls, and wisps of hand-grip chalk powder, Hoffa’s hard not to like. He competed in a 2004 meet wearing a mask, and he has made known his dream is to compete in a bear suit while being brought onto the track in a cage. Nelson’s a bit of a character too: In 2005, without a corporate sponsor, he advertised on eBay and became the spokesman for Rex the Talking Bottle, an audio aid for the blind. The pick here is Hoffa, followed by Cantwell.

For the last 40 years, Africans have dominated most races above the 1500-meter mark. This year should be no exception, as these magnificent runners, unknown in this country except to track aficionados, have consistently lowered times. Two countries in particular, Ethiopia and Kenya, always walk away with medals. It’s quite staggering, considering that Kenya’s been in the midst of a civil war this year, while Ethiopia has been plagued by border wars, corruption, and famine for more than a quarter-century. Nevertheless, when the men line up for the 10,000-meter race on Sunday morning, the Africans will rule. Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele, the defending gold medalist and world record holder, and his countryman, Sileshi Sihine, the silver medalist in Athens, will spar in a race that is at times precise, bumpy, and finishes with a dramatic flourish. The precision lies in the Ethiopians’ (and the Kenyans’) approach to running races as a team sport. Only in the last 400 meters do the runners separate and sprint for the gold. Adding to the drama is the late entry of the legendary Haile Gebrselassie, who won gold in 1996 and 2000. Gebrselassie announced his retirement after Athens, then returned to compete as a marathoner. Surprisingly, he returned with a blast to the 10,000 this year by posting the world’s third-fastest time. Sentiment alone should put him on the medal podium, but a pair of 22-year-old Kenyans, Moses Masai and Martin Mathathi, will probably prevent this.

The women’s 10,000 on Friday morning does feature two possible American medalists: Shalane Flanagan, who set an American record of 30:34.49 in May, and Queens-born Kara Goucher, who made her international mark last summer by winning the bronze at the 2007 outdoor championships in Osaka. However, on Tuesday, Flanagan came down with a severe case of food poisoning, and her race status is questionable. The favorite here is Tirunesh Dibaba, Ethiopia’s three-time world champion, who has a sibling rivalry with older sister, Ejegayehu, who captured silver at Athens.

Preliminary heats begin this weekend for other events, including the men’s 1,500, in which Bernard Lagat, running in his first Olympics as an American (after winning two silver medals for Kenya), is expected to set the pace. The men’s 400-meter hurdles features Americans Bershawn Jackson and Kerron Clement dueling it out against the defending gold medalist from 2004, injury-plagued Felix Sanchez from the Dominican Republic (although he was born in Manhattan). The duel in the women’s pole vault will play out between the seemingly unbeatable world record holder with the cover girl looks, Russian Yelena Isinbayeva, and the American champion, Jenn Stuczynski. Finally, one young lady will have her star unveiled in Beijing: 18-year-old Kenyan Pamela Jelimo, the 800-meter sensation who is undefeated in eight races in 2008.

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