The summer’s sporting highlight is upon us and athletic inspiration is just one channel-click away. Olympic coverage has provided a plethora of pictures and stories on the top athletes in the world. Their diets, training, successes and failures are being broadcasted daily, and it is such a great way to get people (me included!) excited about being active and treating their body like an athlete.

We all know gymnasts have killer strength to pull off their stunts, but in an NBC clip of the Fab 5 in training, their core and ab strength was really unbelievable. And they are so young! They make me want to sculpt noticeable abs.

Another amazing story and inspiring athlete is Missy Franklin, the 17-year old swimmer. Not only is she so talented and hard-working, but her gold-medal victory came just 15 minutes after a separate race. She had an excuse not to succeed – everyone would understand if she was fatigued or tapped out. Her ability to block that out shows more mental strength than we can imagine and she is the type of athlete I want to be: always smiling!

Soon the track and field events will start; finally something I can relate to! I think it’s awesome to see the best athletes in our country getting the recognition they work so hard for. Seeing their perfectly toned muscles, flat abs, and healthy bodies is more inspiring to work out than a Victoria’s Secret catalog!