Becca Ward, Sada Jacobson and Mariel Zagunis are hardly household names -- only recently did the world get to know them when they swept the women's saber fencing in the Olympics, winning bronze, silver and gold medals respectively.

But to 17-year-old Durham fencer Jackson Bryant-Comstock they aren't strangers. He's met Zagunis and Ward, an incoming Duke University freshman, at fencing camps, and has seen Jacobson compete. He watched the fencing competition live on his computer last weekend, talking and texting with his fellow fencers at Mid-South Fencers' Club all the while.

In a country where NASCAR and football take the headlines, fencing was getting a little respect.

"It's definitely not on the front page of the sports section," Bryant-Comstock, a senior at Middle College High School said of his sport. "It was great. I was rooting for people that I knew."

While many Olympics junkies struggle every four years to master the arcane rules of dressage or the elements of a great pommel horse routine, young athletes across the Triangle get to see their sports played on the world stage -- a rarity for sports that are more often overlooked, even ridiculed.

Athletes' first-hand knowledge of the games and the stars adds excitement to watching the Olympics, even if it means staying up late at night or waking up early during summer break. And for those who were mere tykes four years ago, Beijing is their first real taste of the five-ringed madness.

Lily Herbert, a rising sophomore at Enloe High School in Raleigh and member of the softball team, said she saw some of the Athens games four years ago. She had just started playing softball then, but now she has more experience -- and more interest in the world competition.

She started out watching the games alone; no one in her family cared enough to tune in. She has since made a reluctant fan of her father.

"He realized that with the smaller field, softball is actually much faster than baseball," Herbert said.

She kept a close eye on the third base and shortstop positions -- the ones she plays -- as the U.S. team trounced Venezuela in Tuesday night preliminaries. She also relishes the rare chance to see star players, such as pitcher Cat Osterman.

"She has such presence, such power and confidence," Herbert said of Osterman. "You want to be like her."

Coaches also hope to see young athletes learning from Olympians.

Stacy Rowe organized a mini-Olympics among her gymnastics and competitive cheer students at Premier Sports in Clayton, offering gold, silver and bronze medals to students who do the most push-ups or jump the farthest. She encourages them to watch the Olympics -- and to learn about sportsmanship as they do.

"Everybody practices hard and wants to do their best, but sometimes somebody else is a little bit better," Rowe said. "So you go back and practice harder and make yourself better the next time around."

Faith in Phelps

Master Jungho Lee, owner and head instructor of Lee Brothers Taekwando in North Raleigh, said his students will get to see "a spectacular fight sequence" during the taekwando competition next week. They'll also see an impressive show of skill and discipline.

"The contenders will be sparring at a level they're not used to seeing," Lee said of his students. "It's going to get them really motivated."

Lee said the addition of taekwando to the Olympics in 2000 has brought prestige to a sport that often suffers the indignity of being confused with karate, even though it is a different discipline that has come to dominate martial arts.

Even Olympic favorites such as gymnastics and swimming see a prestige deficit in non-Olympic years, when ACC basketball is more likely to draw crowds and television eyeballs.

Longtime swimmer Emily Sprouse can barely hide her contempt for fans who only recently learned the name "Michael Phelps," holder of the world record for the most Olympic gold medals. Sprouse, a member of the Athens Drive High School swim team, has been a fan of Phelps since his first Olympics, when he was 15 and she was 8.

Her breathless account of the former N.C. State swimmer's career sounds more like rock-star adoration than the usual Olympic banter.

She's been staying up until midnight watching the games, and even feels a little burned by skeptics of Phelps' quest to win eight gold medals this year: "Nobody has faith in him," she says.

Lured in

For some viewers, poking fun at the games is part of the lure. At Blalock's Barber and Beauty Salon in downtown Raleigh, barber Joe Smith and some friends riffed on themes from age limits for gymnasts to why table tennis is considered a sport as they watched this week.

But as the men took in the beach volleyball or weightlifting, the joking often ended long enough to take in the slow-motion footage of rippled muscles stretching out for a win or shuddering under the massive weight.

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