Let’s see what you’ve got, Asia! Who will stake a claim to fame at the Winter Olympics?

LeBron James may not be the greatest basketball player of all time, but he is certainly close. Roger Federer, however, is the greatest tennis player of all time. Both these seminal athletes have it all. Still, do we really need a medal around their neck to properly cement their legacy because their omnipresent greatness now also includes Olympic glory?

It most certainly will not be someone with 30 million Instagram followers. There are a few known commodities, such as veteran US skier Lindsey Vonn. But minus the gaggle of NHL stars, this will be a largely unknown collection of athletes and isn’t that just delightfully disorienting. Indeed, making names out of no-names is what the Olympics was once all about.

The timing could not be any more perfect for that fresh performer to be Asian as well. Maybe precocious snowboard phenom Chloe Kim? Telegenic and bright, the 17-year-old Kim is a hypnotic performer who naturally speaks perfect Korean and even flawless French. But this daughter of Korean parents was born and raised in California.

Mirai Nagasu is also a hot favourite for a figure skating medal. However, Mirai, which means future in Japanese, did not grow up in Tokyo or Osaka. Like Kim, she was born in California to Asian immigrants. Great story, no doubt, and a true perpetuation of the American dream similar in scope to former US ice skating diva Michelle Kwan, whose parents hail from Hong Kong. But any success for these potential breakout stars will still be draped in the Stars and Stripes.

Here in this time zone, heretofore known as the “Olympic Time Zone” for the next four years, prime time will mean just that. As we swing from South Korea to Japan in two years, followed by China two years later, Olympic viewers in Europe and North America will be wiping sleep out of their eyes at some godforsaken hour.