Rio 2016: Root for the fastest man and woman in the world

Every day of the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, Fusion is highlighting a handful of the Games’ thousands of athletes. They won’t always be Americans, but they will always be worthy of your cheers.

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce
Jamaica, sprinting
When she’s on TV: Saturday, Aug. 13 starting at 7 p.m.

The 29-year-old Jamaican sprinter is hoping for her third consecutive 100m gold medal — the same unprecedented feat Usain Bolt is also attempting, although she isn’t really the household name he is. “I’m over it,” Fraser-Pryce told CNN in July. But Fraser-Pryce’s road to her third Olympics is not without struggle: She tested positive for a banned painkiller in 2010, and underwent a six-month suspension.

Usain Bolt
Jamaica, sprinting
When he’s on TV: Sunday, Aug. 14 starting at 7:20 p.m.

The Jamaican sprinter, known as the fastest man in the world, is going for an unprecedented “triple-triple,” or gold medals in the 100m, 200m and the 400m relay. Bolt won the gold medals in all three at the 2015 World Championships. His feats are astounding: He set the world record in 2008 in the 100m, and then broke his own record in 2012, and he has said his goal for the 200m is to break his own 19.19 second record. But Bolt will turn 30 on the last day of these Olympic Games, meaning this could be his last chance for the medals.