In Chinese mythology a group of deities called “The Eight Immortals” are legendary for having many mysterious powers, and are extremely revered by Chinese Daoists. So in honor of the Olympics being held in Beijing, I present to you the “Eight Immortals” from the first half of the Olympic Games:

1) Zhang Juan Juan, Archery: China

Zhang (not to be confused with former Maverick Wang Zhi-Zhi), who was competing in front of her home fans, defeated three straight South Koreans en route to her first Olympic gold. A South Korean had won the Olympic gold every year since 1984.

2) Usain (Lightning) Bolt, Track and Field: Jamaica

Bolt relaxed his body, held out his arms in celebration, and pumped his chest… with fifteen meters left in the 100m dash. His 9.69 broke the world record, and it could’ve been even faster if he had actually sprinted the entire way. The crazy thing is that this wasn’t even his best event. Bolt had to beg with his coach to let him run the 100m and will probably break records in the 200m and the 400m.

3) Dwayne Wade, Basketball: USA

Wade leads the “Redeem Team” in ppg (16.2) and steals (12), is shooting 72% from the floor, and consistently infuses team USA with the energy and explosiveness that caused Mavericks fans to hang their head like Charlie Brown just two summers ago. With Wade playing the ultimate 6th man role, this team should continue to dominate from here on out.

4) Misti May-Treanor, Kerri Walsh, Beach Volleyball: USA

May-Treanor and Walsh have dominated the competition once again at the Olympics, and have to this point cruised to the gold medal match, already assured of at least a silver. They have now won 107 straight matches. Even more interesting is the fact that May-Treanor still feels the need to carry on the tradition of sprinkling her late mother’s ashes in the sand before each match. Whatever works I guess.

5) Nastia Liukin, Gymnastics: USA

After watching Shawn Johnson out-duel Liukin on beam Monday night, I struggled with who would make the list. They both have an individual gold, as well as a team silver. While I would like to say that I added up all of the scores, and picked the one with the best overall average, my decision was mainly based on the fact that Liukin will be attending SMU in the fall. Oh…and looks.

6) Ara Abrahamian, Wrestling: Sweden

This guy went against everything the Olympics stands for when he reacted to a referee’s decision by throwing his bronze medal to the floor during the medal ceremony…And I loved every minute of it. It can be seen here.

7) Jason Lezak, Swimming: USA

His come from behind leg of the mens 4×100m Men’s freestyle relay didn’t just win his team the gold medal, it did something much more important… It shut up the French. Oh yeah, it also paved the way for our final immortal, the only one that really matters…

8) MICHAEL PHELPS, Swimming: USA

Phelps won every event he swam at the Beijing Olympics, and will return to Baltimore later this month with enough gold to re-build El Dorado. In breaking both records held by Mark Spitz (overall number of gold medals as well as gold medals in one olympic games), Phelps finished 8 for 8 in the games which so conveniently started on 08/08/08 at 8:08 pm. Coincidence? maybe. Greatest Olympic performance ever? Definitely.