Summer Olympics 2012: Brother and Sister Acts on Team USA

Earning the right to represent your country and compete at the 2012 London Olympics is an incredible honor and achievement.

But for a few athletes, the experience is even more special because they get to share the Olympic experience with a sibling.

On this year's USA Olympic team, there are several siblings set to compete at this year's games. Let's take a closer look at those athletes for whom the Olympics is a family affair.

Jessica and Maggie Steffens, Water Polo

Older sister Jessica won silver at the 2008 Beijing Games in water polo. This year, younger sis Maggie will be joining her on the squad.

Water polo runs deep in the family. Father played collegiate water polo at Cal, as did uncle Peter Schnugg. Oh, and siblings Charlie and Teresa also played for Cal.

I think it's safe to say water polo is in the Steffens' blood.

Katie and Julia Reinprecht, Field Hockey

The video does a good job of telling the Reinprecht story, including making brief mention of the fact that the sisters took a year off from playing for Stanford to focus on Olympic prep.

Gotta love that dedication.

And I'll be sure to root the sisters on, especially because they are from Perkasie, which is a hop, skip and a jump away from my hometown.

U-S-A! PERK-A-SIE!

Yeah, I'm the ultimate homer, I know.

Zach and Paige Railey, Sailing

Zach will be competing in the Finn class—he won a silver medal in that class back in 2008—while Paige will be doing battle in the Laser Radial.

Who knew that sailing had such funky names for its categories?

Mike and Bob Bryan, Tennis

It's easiest to just list the accomplishments of this doubles team powerhouse:

• 11 Doubles Grand Slam titles
• Bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Games
• They've accumulated 291 weeks as the top-rated doubles team in the ATP over the course of their career

Pretty impressive stuff. They'll be gunning for gold at the All England Club.

Ross and Grant James, Rowing

Not only are they on the team together, but they sit in adjoining seats.

They almost didn't get to share the experience together, however. From the Associated Press (via Sports Illustrated):

"

As the final spot came down to Ross and another rower in late April, Grant excused himself when the rest of the athletes gave their nominations for who should make the boat.

"The last couple days it was between myself and another rower for the very last seat in the boat, so that's when it came down to, would both of us go or not?" Ross recalled. "It's not easy. The whole five months wasn't easy. It was pretty stressful. That's part of it. If at that stage you can handle that level of stress, at the Olympics it's going to be an even higher level of stress. The easy part was going out and racing."

"

Glad to see the brothers get to go for gold together.

Venus and Serena Williams, Tennis

I'm pretty sure you're already familiar with this pair. They'll be competing in doubles together fresh off of their Wimbledon title in that competition.

Steven and Diana Lopez, Taekwondo

You don't want to mess with this family. They are fully capable of kicking your butt. And brother Mark can't be forgotten, though he failed to qualify for the U.S. team this year.

Steven already has two gold medals under his belt (pun intended). Diana managed to snag a bronze in 2008.

Seriously, this is not a family you want to mess with.

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