As part of our continuing effort to not hear from Hope Solo’s lawyers again, we’re dedicating the weeks leading up to the 2012 Summer Olympics to introducing you to the most exciting American athletes so that you can watch with pride and basic knowledge. And since the men’s soccer players chose to use their vacation days this time around, you can look forward to getting to know some lesser known athletes from less popular sports. For instance, did you know America has synchronized swimmers?

Hell yeah, we do! For starters, we’ve got Mariya Koroleva, a Russian-born Stanford University student, and Mary Killman, a 21-year old Native American competing on the 100-year anniversary of Jim Thorpe – another Native American Olympic athlete – winning two gold medals at the 1912 Olympics. Look how much you just learned about three awesome American athletes from one sentence! If this were a class, you’d all get an A.

An A for American. Let’s update the official 2012 With Leather Summer Olympics American Athlete To Watch List…

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As the 2012 Summer Olympics near, we fully intend to bring you previews of as many of the American athletes as we can, so that you can be prepared to watch every event with great patriotic fervor. I will admit, though, that by “fully intend” and “bring you previews” I mean that I’m probably going to post a few hundred pictures of Alex Morgan. Not like anyone would mind, I’m sure. But before we get to that moment, I’d like to introduce my new favorite U.S. Olympic athlete – trap shooter Corey Cogdell.

Corey previously won a bronze medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics, but we were clearly preoccupied by something else and did not notice her obvious badassery until now. And because I don’t want my kneecaps shot to pieces, I’d like to offer Corey a heartfelt apology and make her the first entry on the 2012 With Leather Summer Olympics American Athlete To Watch List…

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