But should athletes be our heroes? The Summer Olympics will thrust young sportspeople into the limelight. But some think we should look elsewhere for our role models.
The teenagers going for gold in Paris
Young stars: The average age of an Olympic athlete is 26, but many, including Team GB's Martin and Tambling, are much younger. Glossary
Slalom - A race down a winding path, with obstacles. You can have canoe slaloms or ski slaloms, for example.
GCSE - The national exams taken by 15 and 16-year-olds in parts of the UK.
Tom Daley - A professional diver who first represented Britain at the Olympics aged 14 in 2008.
LGBT - Stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. The initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
Michael Phelps - An American swimmer and the most successful Olympian of all time.
ADHD - Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is a mental health condition that can cause above-normal levels of energetic and impulsive behaviours.
Genetic - Relating to genes. Each of us has around 20,000 to 25,000 genes. We inherit them from our parents. Although most of our genes are the same as everyone else’s, the small differences make us unique.
Wingspan - The distance between the ends of the wings of a bird or aircraft.
Lactic acid - A chemical produced by the body when cells break down carbohydrates for energy.